March 23, 2025
A roundup of local and international news
Newsroom, 23.03.2025, 13:55
Election – The first three positions on the ballots for the first round of the presidential election due on May 4 in Romania will be occupied, in order, by the leader of the opposition nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, the former liberal leader Crin Antonescu, supported by the governing coalition (PSD-PNL-UDMR), and the leader of the opposition Save Romania Party (USR) Elena Lasconi. The order of registration was established by the Central Electoral Bureau, by drawing of lots. On positions 4 to 11 will be, in order, Cristian Terheş, Lavinia Şandru, the former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Sebastian Constantin Popescu, Silviu Predoiu, John Ion Banu Muscel, the former minister Daniel Funeriu and the General Mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan. The election campaign will start on April 4.
Protests – Protests continued in several cities in Turkey against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, considered the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The authorities have detained over 340 people, and news agencies showed images of law enforcement firing rubber bullets into the crowd. İmamoğlu rejected accusations of corruption and support for terrorist organizations. In recent days, hundreds of thousands of people have protested in front of Istanbul City Hall to denounce the mayor’s arrest, and the Republican People’s Party, to which Ekrem İmamoğlu belongs, has called for peaceful protests, although the authorities have banned public demonstrations. The Romanian Foreign Ministry recommends that Romanians traveling to Turkey should carefully check their travel itinerary, follow the instructions of local authorities and avoid crowded areas in large cities. They can seek assistance at the Romanian Embassy in Ankara, as well as at the consulates in Istanbul and Izmir.
Handball – CSM Bucharest took a big step towards qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Women’s Handball Champions League, after defeating CS Rapid Bucharest 34-24 on Saturday, at home, in the first round of the competition’s play-offs. The second leg will take place on March 29. The winner of the two will play Team Esbjerg, the Danish champion and bronze medalist in the previous edition of the Champions League, the team of the best handball player of the moment, Henny Reistad. In another match in the European cups, also on Saturday, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea lost, in an away match, 29-35, to Thuringer from Germany, in the EHF European League quarterfinals. Following this result, the Romanians are forced, in a week’s time, to win the return leg in Romania by at least six goals in regulation time (to take the double to extra time) in order to qualify for the EHF European League semifinals.
London – Britain’s energy minister, Ed Milliband, has ordered an investigation into the incident at Heathrow Airport, which was closed on Friday due to a power outage caused by a fire at an electrical substation adjacent to the airport. The fire destroyed three power grids that supply the airport, as well as the backup grid. Ed Milliband has asked regulating authorities to analyze whether not just Heathrow Airport, but the entire country, is capable of operating in the event of a threat to its energy infrastructure. The government wants assurances that the Heathrow incident will not be repeated. The airport was closed for most of Friday, causing disruption to international traffic that affected more than 1,000 flights.
Ukraine – Russian President Vladimir Putin is pressuring Ukrainians in Russia or in the four occupied regions of Ukraine to apply for Russian citizenship or leave elsewhere, according to British intelligence services, cited by DPA. Putin has signed a new decree that obliges Ukrainian citizens living in the respective territories to “regulate their legal status” by September or leave the area, the Ministry of Defense in London said in its latest update on intelligence obtained by its secret services on the developments on the Ukrainian front. According to the cited source, the Kremlin continues to pursue a policy of forced “Russification” of the illegally occupied territories in Ukraine, as part of “long-standing efforts to eradicate Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood.” Moscow illegally considers that the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed more than a decade ago, as well as the partially occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, annexed in 2022, are part of Russia, the British ministry says. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stressed that Ukraine will not recognize the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian, and this will be one of the difficult issues in the future negotiations with Moscow. The so-called referendum in Crimea was not recognized by Kyiv and the international community, just as the alleged referendums in the four regions, organized by Moscow in the midst of the war, under the threat of weapons, were not recognized either. (LS)
