CONFERENCE – Romania’s President Klaus
\nIohannis on Wednesday told a press conference that, if basic regulations are observed,
\nthe risk of infection with the new coronavirus will be reduced to a minimum in
\nvoting stations. The president told voters that Sunday’s election is central to
\nhow local municipalities would change over the next four years. Klaus Iohannis
\nrecalled that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the election process this year. Candidates in the local election are vying for
\none of the 41 positions of presidents of county councils, 3.200 mayor seats,
\n1.300 county councilmen and 40.000 local councilmen positions. Originally
\nslated for June, the local election was postponed due to the coronavirus
\npandemic, while the mandates of local officials were extended by another six
\nmonths.<\/p>\n
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CORONAVIRUS
\nROMANIA
\n– Romania has reported 1,767 new coronavirus infections and 47 new deaths in
\nthe last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,550. 498 people are in intensive
\ncare. A total of 116,415 cases have been recorded in Romania since the start of
\nthe outbreak. Almost 94,000 people have recovered. Because of infections among
\npupils, teachers and auxiliary staff, 300 schools around the country have moved
\nto remote teaching exclusively. According to the education ministry, 4,400
\nschools use a combination of online and conventional teaching. Among the
\nRomanian nationals living abroad, infections reached 6,612, while the death
\ntoll has remained at 126. The highest numbers of cases among Romanians abroad
\nare in Germany, Italy and Spain. <\/p>\n
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CORONAVIRUS
\nWORLD
\n– 31.7 million coronavirus infections and 975,000 deaths have been confirmed
\nglobally, according to worldometers.info. The United States is the worst hit
\ncountry in the world, with more than 7 million infections and over 200,000
\ndeaths. The UK, which has the highest death toll in Europe at 42,000, is seeing
\na second wave of the pandemic, with fresh restrictions being announced on
\nTuesday. In France, infections rose by 10,000 in a single day.<\/p>\n
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BUDGET – The minority
\nLiberal government in Bucharest says it will use every available means to block
\nthe application of an amended budget adjustment law pushed for by the Social
\nDemocratic opposition and which provides for a 40% rise in pensions as of
\nSeptember 1st and an increase in teachers’ salaries beginning this year. The
\nfinance minister Florin C\u00ee\u0163u says this law would cause a deficit of some 5
\nbillion euros. The Social Democratic Party says, however, that the necessary
\nmoney can be found by taking measures such as creating new jobs and recovering
\nstate-owned debts.<\/p>\n
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STATISTICS – In 2018, EU member
\nstates allocated almost 51 billion euros of government spending to leisure and
\nsports. Bulgaria and Romania spend the least amounts of money in this respect,
\nwith only 11 and 30 euros, respectively, per inhabitant, while the European
\naverage is 113 euros. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office,
\nLuxemburg, Sweden, Finland, France, The Netherlands and Denmark spend the
\nhighest amounts in this field.<\/p>\n
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MIGRATION – The European
\nCommission on Wednesday proposed an overhaul of its approach to migration,
\nremoving mandatory quotas for refugees but introducing a new mechanism for
\nconstant solidarity among Member States, to be activated whenever a Member
\nState is facing pressure or emergency situations. Member States will be
\nable to choose between receiving asylum-seekers, contributing to building
\nrefugee camps or funding the repatriation of people who’ve been waivered their
\nasylum rights. The new pact basically replaces the Dublin rule for asylum
\nseekers, whereby the EU country an asylum seeker first enters is responsible
\nfor their claim. The change in policy had been requested by Greece and Italy,
\ncountries taking in a much larger share of migrants. Once the Commission
\nsanctions the new mechanism, it will also have to decide on the number of
\nmigrants Member States will have to take on from the country facing pressure.
\nEach Member State will have to make a contribution, proportionate to their
\neconomic power and population. Member States will receive \u20ac10,000 for each
\nadult migrant taken in. Attempts at relocating asylum-seekers within the EU
\nhave been met with opposition from Visegrad nations – Hungary, Poland, the
\nCzech Republic and Slovakia. <\/p>\n
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TENNIS – Two Romanian
\ntennis players on Wednesday advanced to the second qualifying round at Roland
\nGarros, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Elena Ruse (178 WTA)
\ndefeated Victoria Kan of Russia (221 WTA), 7-5, 6-0, and in the next round she
\nwill be playing Francesca Di Lorenzo (134 WTA) of the United States. Irina Bara
\n(163 WTA) won 6-2, 6-2 against Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia (242 WTA), and in the
\nnext round she will take on Harriet Dart of Great Britain (150 WTA). Also
\ntoday, Gabriela Talab\u0103 (240 WTA) lost 7-6, 1-6, 6-2 to Clara Tauson of Denmark
\n(196 WTA). On Tuesday another three Romanians qualified to the second
\npreliminary round. Monica Niculescu (141 WTA) defeated Chihiro Muramatsu of
\nJapan, 6-2, 7-5. Jaqueline Cristian (166 WTA) knocked out Jana Cepelova of
\nSlovakia, 6-3, 7-6, while Laura Ioana Paar (199 WTA) won 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 against
\nMargot Yerolymos of France. Five Romanian tennis players have made it to the
\nmain draw at Roland Garros so far: Simona Halep, world no. 2 and seeded 1st,
\nPatricia \u0162ig, Irina Begu, Sorana C\u00eerstea and Ana Bogdan.<\/p>\n
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(Translated by
\nC. Mateescu &. V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[35374,35759,28945,35758,35254,35757,29089],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-covid-19","tag-eu-migration-pact","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-law-on-pensions","tag-liberal-government","tag-press-conference","tag-roland-garros"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n