ELECTION – Saturday is the
\nlast day before the European Parliament election scheduled for Sunday. A total
\nof 13 political factions and three independent candidates are running for the
\n33 seats in the European Parliament. The European Council will announce the 33rd
\nseat only after Brexit takes effect. Romanians abroad will vote in 441 polling stations,
\nmost of which were set up in Italy, Spain and Moldova. Romanians on Sunday will
\nalso vote in the referendum on the judiciary called by President Klaus
\nIohannis. <\/p>\n
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UK – The British PM Theresa May
\nannounced on Friday that she will step down on June 7th, in response
\nto calls from the Tories to allow a new leader to try and overcome the Brexit
\nstandoff, Reuters reports. The procedures for appointing a new prime minister
\nwill most likely begin on June 10th. Depending on the number of
\ncandidates, the process might take until autumn, but the Conservative Party is
\nhoping to step up the procedure and to be in a position to announce a new
\nleader by the end of July.<\/p>\n
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MILITARY – Five Romanian military were
\nwounded on Friday in Afghanistan while patrolling with US soldiers, the Defense
\nMinistry has announced. The vehicle they were in was attacked with an IED. They
\nwere transported to the hospital of a military base and are now awake and
\nstable. The five are part of Sfantul Andrei 300 battalion from Galati, deployed
\nin Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. Nearly a thousand Romanian soldiers are
\ncurrently involved in external operations under NATO, EU or UN command, while
\nin previous years their number exceeded 2,500. Over the years 29 Romanian
\nmilitary died and another 180 were wounded in military operations abroad. <\/p>\n
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POPE – Dacia Group Renault has
\nannounced Pope Francis will travel on the streets of Bucharest using a Duster
\nmake. Three years ago, during his visit to Armenia, the Pope traveled from the
\nairport to the capital Yerevan in a white Logan model manufactured by Dacia. On
\nthe other hand online registrations continue for the masses the Pope will
\ncelebrate in Romania. Hundreds of thousands of people have already signed up,
\nin addition to Christians from Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Rwanda,
\nSouth Africa, Nigeria, Madagascar, Australia, Israel, Canada, Namibia or
\nReunion. Held under the motto Let’s go together!, the visit will have its
\nfirst stop in the capital city Bucharest, the largest city in the east of
\nthe country, then Pope Francis will travel to Iasi, the spiritual capital of
\nRomanian Roman-Catholics, Blaj, where he will beatify 7 bishops killed in
\ncommunist prisons, and the Marian shrine in \u015eumuleu Ciuc. In 1999, Romania was
\nthe first country with a majority Orthodox population to have been visited by a
\nPope, i.e. John Paul II 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
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BLACKMAIL In Bucharest, the rector and deputy rector of the ”Alexandru Ioan
\nCuza” Police Academy, Adrian Iacob and Mihail Marcoci respectively, resigned
\non Friday after being placed under court supervision by the National
\nAnti-Corruption Directorate. The two are probed into for suspicions
\nof having prompted an officer, in April 2019, to send a death threat to
\njournalist Emilia \u015eercan, in order to force her to halt a journalist
\ninvestigation concerning the Police Academy rector. According to the National
\nAnti-Corruption Directorate, between March and April this year Emilia \u015eercan published
\na series of articles covering the award of Ph.D. titles by the ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police
\nAcademy.<\/p>\n
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TENNIS The Romanian Sorana C\u00eerstea (93 WTA) on
\nFriday lost to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, no 39 in the world, 4-6, 5-7 in the semi-finals of the WTA
\ntournament in Nurnberg (Germany). C\u00eerstea is one of the 4 Romanians taking part
\nin the Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the
\nyear, which starts on Sunday. She begins with a very difficult match, against
\nthe Czech Petra Kvitova (6 WTA). Simona Halep, who won the tournament last year
\nand is currently ranked 3 in the world, plays against the Australian Ajla
\nTomljanovic (47 WTA), Mihaela Buz\u0103rnescu (30 WTA) against Russian Ekaterina
\nAlexandrova (60 WTA), and Irina Begu (118 WTA) against Lin Zhu of China (108
\nWTA). In the men’s competition, the only Romanian in the singles tournament is Marius
\nCopil (81ATP), playing against Benoit Paire of France (51 ATP).<\/p>\n
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FOOTBALL – Astra Giurgiu will play Viitorul Constanta on Saturday
\nin the Romanian Cup final hosted by Ploiesti. We recall CFR Cluj has won the
\nfifth title in its history and its second in a row. Runner up was FCSB,
\nfollowed by Viitorul Constanta. <\/p>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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