August 16, 2019
A crowd of 15,000 attended on Thursday the festivities in Constanta occasioned by Romanian Navy Day; Romanians are invited to vote for the six songs that are supposed to represent the country in the first EU Songnook
Ştefan Stoica, 16.08.2019, 15:04
NAVY – A crowd of 15,000 attended on Thursday the festivities in Constanta occasioned by Romanian Navy Day. The impressive festivites involved Romanian and foreign enlisted men, with dozens of ships and aircraft. The event was attended by President Klaus Iohannis, who said that the Black Sea area is a strategic region for both NATO and the EU, and that the naval dimension represents an essential element. In turn, Defense Minister Gabriel Les warned that the security situation in the Black Sea caused NATO adopt a proportionate defense and deterrence measure.
EU SONGBOOK — As from today, all Romanian nationals are invited to choose the six songs which will represent Romania in the first EU Songbook. So far, 65,000 voters from 26 EU member states have chosen their favourite songs, the organiser of the event, the European Union Songbook organisation, writes on its website. The EU Songbook is a pioneer project initiated by a non-profit organisation, unrelated politically or financially to Brussles. The first ediiton of the EU Songbook will be released on Europe Day, on May 9, 2020.
FOOTBALL – Romanian vice-champions FCSB qualified for the European play-offs. They played on Thursday away from home against FK Mlada Boleslav 1-0, and qualified to to European League play-offs. In the first leg in Bucharest, neither team scored. At the same time, Universitatea Craiova was stopped in the third preliminary round after a one-all draw and losing by two goals against the AEK Athens. In order to make it in the competition, FCSB have to defeat Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes. Romanian champions CFR Cluj have qualified to the play-offs, where they meet Czech champions Slavia Prague.
TENNIS — Romanian tennis star Simona Halep, ranking fourth in the world, was defeated by American player Madison Keys 6-1, 3-6, 7-5, on Thursday, in the eighth finals of the WTA tournament in Cincinnati, with three million dollars in prize money at stake. Halep won the tournament three times, in 2015, 2017, 2018. The Wimbledon winner prepares for the last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open, where she lost in last year in the first round.
EPIDEMIC — The authorities in Galati, in southeastern Romania, announced two more outbreaks of African swine flu. Almost 500 pigs have been culled, and measures were taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Right now, African swine flu has spread in over half of Romanias counties, with almost 750 active outbreaks. 400,000 swine have been culled.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong prepares for a new weekend of protests, set to be peaking on Sunday. The Chinese ambassador in London warned that force would be used if the protesters continue to clash with security forces. A similar warning was issued by a news outlet close to Beijing, which said that there would not be a repeat of Tian An-Men in 1989, when a protest was crushed by armed forces. The protests in Hong Kong started 10 weeks ago, after a bill was introduced to render criminal cases to mainland China. The bill was withdrawn, but protests continued, out of fears that Beijing would impose authoritarian rule on the territory which was returned to China in 1997 by the UK. So far, the territory has functioned under the so-called One Country, Two Systems provision, which allows rights and freedoms that are not commonplace in mainland China.
