June 5, 2017 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 05.06.2017, 19:39

HOLIDAY Christians, including from Romania, a country with an Orthodox majority, on Monday were celebrating the second day of Pentecost — the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles of Jesus Christ. The New Testament book of Acts describes the moment we celebrated on Monday. The 12 apostles were together in Jerusalim fifty days after Jesus’ Ressurection and ten days after his Ascension. At a certain moment, wind started to blow in the room the apostles were in, a noise was heard after which they began speaking in foreign languages, languages they didn’t know before. Small flames of fire were hovering above their heads. Peter explained that it was the Holy Spirit that enabled them to speak in tongues. Following Peter’s sermon on that day three thousand people came to Christ, making the first Christian community, the nucleus of the future Church.

AWARD Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis is these days paying a formal visit to the United States, during which he will be received by his American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House. According to our correspondent in Washington, Iohannis is the first leader from Central and Eastern Europe to be received by the US president since the latter took office. Talks will be focusing on strengthening the bilateral relations and the Strategic Partnership Romania is having with the USA for the past 20 years. Iohannis’ agenda also includes participation in the Global Forum of the prestigious American Jewish Committee. On this occasion AJC is expected to honour the Romanian president with its highest award, ‘Light Unto the Nations’, given to heads of state and government in recognition of their international impact in fields like peace, security, democracy and promoting human values. The Romanian official’s agenda also includes a meeting with the Romanians living in the USA.

TENNIS The world’s fourth tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep has qualified for the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros tournament, the year’s second Grand Slam, after a two-set win 6-1, 6-1 against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain. In the quarterfinals, Simona, the competition’s third favourite, will be playing Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, WTA no. 6. Svitolina comes after a win against Petra Martici of Croatia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the women’s doubles, Romanian Raluca Olaru and Ukrainian Olga Savchuk have also qualified for the quarters where they will be up against Yung-Jan of Taiwan and Martina Hingis of Switzerland. The pair made up of Romanian Irina Begu and Chinese Saisai Zheng will be playing the winners of the game pitching Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua against Daria Gavrilova of Australia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.

ECONOMY Romania’s economy will register a growth rate of 4.4% as compared to the one of 3.7% envisaged in January, the World Bank announced in its Global Economy Prospects on Monday. The same institution has revised up it prospects for 2018 and 2019 when Romania’s GDP is expected to grow by 3.7% and 3.5% respectively. Although fiscal relaxation has a lower contribution to economic growth it will put pressure on public and external deficits, the document also shows. We recall that in the first quarter of 2017, Romania reported the EU’s highest growth rate 5.7% thanks to rising consumption. A slight budget surplus was also reported in late April.

ATTACK Jihadi group the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday night in London when 7 people were killed and scores wounded. Police have detained several people including women in a sting operation in eastern London. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has extended condolences to the victims’ families, firmly condemning the attack. In turn, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has joined the Western leaders in firmly condemning the London attack. We recall that on Saturday night three assailants drove their van into pedestrians on London Bridge and started stabbing people randomly before being shot dead by the police. The attack took place five days before the early election in the UK and the election campaign has been suspended for the second time for the same reason, terrorism. Britain has seen three terror attacks in the past three months; 34 people have been killed and hundreds wounded.

TIFF The 16th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival is underway in Cluj Napoca, northwestern Romania. On Monday films related to cooking were screened and visitors were also given the occasion to taste dishes prepared by famous chefs invited to attend the festival. 12 movies are vying for the first prize during the festival, which is also to see the screening of 255 films from 53 countries. Over 12 hundred invitees from Romania and abroad are participating in the screening, the concerts, workshops, debates and film-launching ceremonies at Romania’s most important film festival. We recall that Radio Romania is a partner of this prestigious event, which will also be attended by famous French film star Alain Delon, at his first presence in Romania.

CONFERENCE Migration is one of the factors that can have the biggest influence upon the security architecture, against the complex background of the threats it is currently facing, Romanian Minister for European Affairs, Ana Birchall has said. From Monday until Thursday, the Romanian official will be attending the conference ”International Migration and Global Security” staged in Garmisch Partenkirchen jointly by the governments of the United States and Germany and which brings together more than 80 experts and governmental representatives from 45 countries in Europe, Asia, the Pacific area, Middle East and Africa. High on the conference’s agenda are the prospects of global migration, the future of global security and sustainable solutions the international community should come up with to properly meet this challenge.