May 19, 2019 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 19.05.2019, 19:12
ENVIRONMENT – Bucharest is playing host on Monday and Tuesday to
the informal meeting of EU Ministers of the Environment, hosted on the
sidelines of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The
event will be co-presided by Romanian Environment Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister, Gratiela Gavrilescu and Minister of Waters and Forests, Ioan Denes.
Attending will also be Environment Ministers from European Free Trade
Association (EFTA) and EU candidate states, European Commissioner for Climate
Policy and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete and the EU Commissioner for Environment,
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. The meeting’s first session will occasion a
debate on climate change – Innovative
solutions and the role of citizens towards a low carbon future: how to reap
better the opportunities related to lifestyle, circularity, spatial planning.
EXTREME WEATHER
ALERT – Meteorologists
on Sunday issued a new code yellow alert against heavy rain and extreme weather
phenomena in place until Monday morning for 9 counties in the southwest.
Thunderstorms, strong wind and hail storms will be reported locally.
Meteorologists have also extended their general weather alert for heavy rain
until Tuesday evening. Saturday’s flash storms flooded people’s households in
northern Moldavia, Botosani, Suceava and Bacau counties being the most
affected. Over 3,000 firefighters have been deployed over the past few days to
support the local authorities and citizens in tens of towns and villages, to
pump out water from households following recent rainfalls and flash floods.
IT&C – The city of Otopeni near
Bucharest is as of Sunday playing host to the biggest IT&C drill at NATO
level, Steadfast Cobalt 2019. The drill will run until June 2. According to a
Defense Ministry release, taking part are over 1,200 Romanian and foreign
military from 35 IT&C NATO structures. Steadfast Cobalt 2019 is aimed at providing
joint training and cross-border support for NATO operations and exercising
standard procedures in order to attain interoperability of human and technical
resources.
FILM – Corneliu Porumboiu’s La Gomera was premiered on Saturday at
the Canne Film Festival. The film competes for the Palme d’Or alongside features by Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken
Loach, Terrence Malick and the Dardenne brothers. Corneliu Porumboiu returns to
Cannes after winning in 2015 Un Certain
Regard for his film The Treasure. In
2009 his film Police, Adjective was
also rewarded with the grand prize of the jury and the FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard section. Also at
Cannes, in 2006, his debut feature 12:08
East of Bucharest won the Camera d’Or prize. Also on Saturday, in the Semaine de la Critique section, Adi
Voicu’s Last Trip to the Seaside was
premiered.
EUROVISION – The Netherlands’
representative Duncan Laurence won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with his
song, Arcade. The winner was elected
following the vote of the jury and fans from the 41 participant countries. This
is the first time the Netherlands win the trophy after 44 years. For the second
consecutive year, Romania failed to qualify to the Eurovision final.
LONG NIGHT OF MUSEUMS- Romania hosted the 15th edition
of the Long Night of Museums, with over 100 cultural venues being open on
Saturday night all across the country, offering exhibitions, screenings,
theatre plays and concerts. Launched by the French Ministry of Culture and held
under the patronage of the Council of Europe, UNESCOand the International
Museum Council, in Romania the event is organized by the National Museum
Network.
TABLE TENNIS – The Romanian men’s table tennis team on Sunday won
Group 1 in the 2019 European Championship preliminaries after defeating Serbia
3-1 in Bucharest. Both teams had previously secured qualification to the final
tournament to be hosted over September 3-8 by Nantes, France, after winning
3-nil against Lithuania on Saturday.
(Translated by V. Palcu)
