July 15, 2019 UPDATE

Simona Halep to receive Order of the Star of Romania for winning the Wimbledon

Newsroom, 15.07.2019, 19:28

GOVERNMENT The Social Democratic Party, the main party in the ruling coalition in Romania, will have its own candidate in the presidential election due in November, and a Congress will be convened on August 3rd to validate the candidate, the PM and party president Viorica Dancila announced at the end of a National Executive Committee meeting on Monday. During the same meeting, Senator Nicolae Moga was validated as the new nominee for the interior minister post, after earlier on Monday Carmen Dan had tendered her resignation. According to the Romanian media, Dan was on the list of Cabinet members set to be replaced in the forthcoming Government reshuffle. Viorica Dancila also announced that Mihai Fifor was confirmed as deputy PM for strategic partnerships. Social Democratic leaders also acknowledged the proposal of their ruling coalition partners, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, to replace Teodor Meleşcanu with Ramona Mănescu as foreign minister.

TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has gone up 3 places in the WTA ranking, to number 4 in the world. Halep returned to Romania on Monday after her Wimbledon victory against the American Serena Williams in the final. President Klaus Iohannis decided to award her the highest distinction of the Romanian State, making her a Dame of the Star of Romania National Order, for her Wimbledon win. “With her dedication, devotion and professionalism, proved both on the tennis court and outside it, Simona Halep has promoted Romania throughout the world. Simona Halep is a role model for the young generation, and her involvement in making tennis popular among children is a huge gain for Romanian sports’, reads a news release issued by the Presidency.

PHYSICS Romania won 4 silver and a bronze medal at the 50th International Physics Olympiad, held in Tel Aviv (Israel) between July 7th and 15th, the National Education Ministry announced. This years Olympiad brought together more than 380 participants from 82 countries. The competition consisted in 2 tests, one on theoretical and the other one in experimental physics, each lasting 5 hours. The first International Physics Olympiad was held in 1967, in Warsaw (Poland), with participants from 5 countries, including Romania, which also hosted the event twice, in 1972 and 1983.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)