January 15, 2026
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 15.01.2026, 13:55
CULTURE Romanians are today celebrating the Day of National Culture, an event that got Parliament approval in 2010. January 15 is also the birthday of Romania’s national poet, Mihai Eminescu, who was also considered the last major representative of the European Romanticism. All the Romanian Cultural Institute branches are today hosting various events dedicated to this special day. In turn, all the channels of the Romanian society have adjusted their programmes to mark the Day of National Culture. “Culture has been the space in which society’s great ideas have been changed into durable reference points”, the Romanian President Nicusor Dan says in his address on the National Culture Day.
BUDGET The government in Bucharest is these days preparing the state budget for 2026 and in this context the country’s Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan is having talks with the ministers of his cabinet. So, the ministers of Development, Culture, European Projects, Education and National Defence, are today attending working sessions on the new budget. They are expected to forward proposals for reducing expenses so that the budget deficit may remain this year under the 6.5% of the GDP. The Prime Minister yesterday held talks with the ministers of Agriculture, Healthcare, the Interior, Justice and the Environment. A responsible use of public money, reforms aimed at increasing the state’s effectiveness and better services for citizens are the objectives of the aforementioned talks.
US The US position on acquiring Greenland remains inflexible after the talks held in Washington yesterday between the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Denmark and Greenland. The Danish Foreign Minister has described the talks as constructive but has also mentioned fundamental disagreements on the future of this arctic island. President Trump says ‘there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it, if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland’. The US had earlier evoked two alternatives for acquiring Greenland, buying the island or taking it by the use of the military. Before the talks in Washington, Denmark announced its intention to beef up its military presence in Greenland, while Germany and Sweden said they would dispatch small military missions to the island, which has now a strategic position mainly because of the opening of Northern maritime routes due to the global warming. The island is also rich in strategic resources, which remain still inaccessible due to the harsh climate and the lack of infrastructure.
TENNIS Lots cast in Melbourne on Thursday have established tough opponents for the Romanian tennis players on the main draw of the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, namely for Jaqueline Cristian, Sorana Carstea and Gabriela Ruse. The 35th WTA Cristian will be up against Karolina Muchova who comes 19th in the WTA ranking. The 41st WTA Sorana Cirstea will be playing the German challenger Eva Lys, whom she outperformed at Transylvania Open in 2023. Ruse will be playing the 26th-seeded Dayana Yastremska. The Romanian boasts a 3-0 in head-to-head advance.
TEHERAN Iran closed its airspace for a few hours last night, amid fears of a possible military US strike in response to the brutal reprisals against anti-government protests. President Trump says he won’t order an attack though and today the UN Security Council is expected to convene in a session for talks on the latest developments in Iran. Iran has threatened that in the event of an attack it will respond by attacking the US bases and ships in the region as well as Israel. According to an Iranian human rights NGO, over 26 hundred people have been killed and more than 18 hundred arrested since the beginning of the latest wave of protests on December 28. The protests, which initially kicked off due to the economic crisis, have rapidly turned into political ones, and protesters chanted, ‘death to the dictator’ as well as slogans for the return of the Pahlavi dynasty of the former shahs.
(bill)
