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LAW – The
\nRomanian Government on Wednesday passed a bill on curbing the impact of
\nplastics on the environment. The initiative transposes into national law a
\nEuropean directive. Single-use plastic products, such as dishes, cotton buds,
\nplastic straws and other products made from expanded polystyrene will be
\nbanned. Economic operators trading the said products will need to provide
\nconsumers with the possibility of opting for alternative, plastic-free
\nrecyclable products. The authorities will be performing inspections for both
\nproducers and importers, Environment Minister Barna Tanczos told a press
\nconference. In the last 50 years, the production and consumption of plastics
\nhas increased 20 times, and is bound to exceed 600 million tons in the next 20
\nyears at global level. 30% of plastics in the EU, which totals 25 million tons
\nannually, is collected and recycled separately. <\/p>\n
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DEFENSE – The Country’s Supreme
\nDefense Council on Wednesday decided that the Romanian Army will deploy 200
\nmilitary in the evacuation and relocation of Afghan citizens who worked for
\nNATO missions in Afghanistan. The Romanian military will take part in the
\noperations for a maximum of six months. The operation will mainly consist in
\npicking up Afghan citizens from temporary military bases in Kuwait and Qatar
\nand relocating them to stationary bases on the territory of allied states, with
\nthe provision of key services. Council members also concluded that dealing with
\nthe fallout of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan in the short, medium
\nand long term will be one of the major elements for improving cooperation
\nbetween NATO and the EU, and Romania will be contributing to this effort. Additionally, Council members highlighted the
\nneed for an enhanced coordination in terms of strategic communication and combating
\ndisinformation. A petition with more than 22 thousand signatures calling on the
\nRomanian authorities to grant visas to the Afghan citizens who cooperated with
\nRomania and NATO has been forwarded to the Council and the Ministry of Foreign
\nAffairs. The signatories say that Romania must grant visas to the Afghan
\ncitizens exposed to Taliban violence, such as human rights activists,
\njournalists, magistrates, teachers and students. <\/p>\n
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COVID-19 The physician in charge
\nof Romania’s vaccine rollout, Valeriu Gheorghi\u0163\u0103 has confirmed that
\nRomania is facing the fourth wave of the pandemic and the Delta variant is to
\nbecome dominant. According to Health Minister Ioana Mih\u0103ila, the intensity of
\nthis fourth wave depends on the number of those vaccinated. Mih\u0103ila says her
\nMinistry has increased the number of beds in ICUs and the personnel trained to
\nintervene in difficult cases. The Health Ministry has announced that textile
\nmasks will be banned in schools and universities where only medical masks will
\nbe allowed. 849 new infections were reported in Romania on Wednesday in
\naddition to 14 fatalities. 212 people are currently in intensive care.
\nAuthorities expect the number of infections to increase to 1,000 every day by
\nthe end of the month. In another development, a TAROM humanitarian flight
\ntransported 200 thousand shots of anti-COVID vaccine to Vietnam. Romania faces
\na vaccine surplus due to high and unforeseen levels of vaccine hesitancy. <\/p>\n
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MOLDOVA – Romanian
\npresident Klaus Iohannis on Friday will travel to neighboring Republic of
\nMoldova to participate in the celebration of 30 years of independence by this
\nex-soviet Romanian-speaking country. The events will involve the participation
\nof the country’s president Maia Sandu and her counterparts from Ukraine, Volodymyr
\nZelensky and Poland, Andrzej Duda. Created on a part of Romania’s eastern
\nterritories, annexed by the Soviet Union through an ultimatum in 1940, the
\nRepublic of Moldova won its independence after the abortive coup in Moscow
\nagainst the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Adopted on August 27th
\n1991 by Parliament in Chisinau, the declaration of independence was recognized
\nby Romania on the same day. The Republic of Moldova got international
\nrecognition on March 2nd 1992 upon its accession to the United Nations
\nOrganization. (DB & VP)<\/p>\n
\n
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\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[36368,36367,35374,36366],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-30-years-of-moldovan-independence","tag-afghan-evacuation-operations","tag-covid-19","tag-law-on-plastics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n