July 7, 2022
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 07.07.2022, 13:55
VISIT – Prime Minister Nicolae
Ciucă is today paying a state visit to Greece, occasioned by the official
launch of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector. The Prime Minister is
expected to meet his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The two Prime Ministers
will make official statements at the end of the meeting of the two official
delegations. Later today, the Prime Minister will return to Bucharest to meet
John L. Hopkins, president and CEO of NuScale. On June 26, the White House
announced that the United States government and the American company NuScale
Power LLC (Tigard, Oregon) will offer 14 million USD to support engineering and
design programmes with a view to implementing a power plant using SMR (Small
Modular Reactor) technologies in Romania.
WAR IN UKRAINE – The
civilian evacuation from Slavyansk continues. This is the new primary objective
of the Russian invasion forces in their plan to conquer Donbas. Mayor Vadim
Lyah announced that of the 110 thousand people who inhabited the city before
the war, only 20,000 are left. 17 people died and 67 were wounded since the
start of hostilities, Vadim Lyah went on to say. The city has been under heavy
artillery fire for a few weeks, but essential infrastructure is still
operational. In the last month, the main water supply line has broken down, and
a third of the city is regularly left without electricity. Much like other
local officials, Mayor Lyah claims Ukrainian forces have repelled the attempts
of the Russian army to get close to Slavyansk and the neighboring town,
Kramatorsk, which serves as the administrative center of the Ukrainian-held
part of Donbas. The Russian Ministry of Defense has accused Ukrainian
nationalists of having prepared a toxic chemical attack in the Donetsk
region, with the use of large quantities of chlorine, brought over from a
water filtering site. On Sunday, the Russian army occupied the town of
Lysychansk and now claims to be controlling the entire region of Luhansk,
something which the Ukrainian authorities continue to deny. There is still
fighting in two villages, says Serhiy Haidai head of the Luhansk Regional
Military-Civil Administration.
REFUGEES – The Border Police
Inspectorate announced that 191,700 people entered Romania on Wednesday, of
whom 10,486 are Ukrainian citizens (up by 10.1% compared to the previous day).
Over February 10 – July 6, 1,477,571 Ukrainian citizens have entered the
country.
WIMBLEDON -
Romanian Simona Halep is today playing Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the
Wimbledon semi-finals, after ousting Amanda Anisimova of the USA in straight
sets, 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday. In turn, Rybakina knocked out Ajla Tomljanovic of
Australia at the end of three sets, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. A former world no. 1, Simona
Halep won the Wimbledon tournament in 2019, after winning Roland Garros the
previous year. Organizers will award record-high prizes in this year’s edition,
standing at a total of 40.3 million pounds. However, WTA and ATP authorities
announced they will not be awarding any points at the end of the tournament
after Wimbledon organizers decided to ban the participation of Russian and
Belarusian players, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
SWIMMING – The European
Junior Swimming Championships continue in Otopeni. On Wednesday, David Popovici
grabbed his second gold medal after winning the 200m freestyle event in 1.45
minutes. Also on Wednesday, Romania’s 4x100m mix relay team, made up of David
Popovici, Patrick Sebastian Dinu, Bianca Costea and Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu,
won silver in the 4x100m freestyle event. On Tuesday, on the first day of the
competition, men’s 4x100m men’s team, made up of David Popovici, Vlad Stancu, Ștefan Cozma and Patrick Sebastian Dinu, won gold in the 4x100m freestyle
event. A total of 500 athletes from 42 countries are taking part in the
competition. Representing Romania are 26 swimmers, 14 boys and 12 girls. Aged
17, David Popovici has recently won the 100m and 200m world titles. (VP)
