CHRISTMAS New Style Orthodox Christians, and Greek and Roman Catholic Christians
\naround the world today celebrate the second day of Christmas. In Eastern
\nChristianity, this day is devoted to Mary, mother of God. In his Nativity
\nservice on the 25th December, Daniel, Patriarch of Romania spoke about the
\nmeaning of the gifts presented by the 3 kings to the newborn Jesus: the gold
\nmeans our belief, the incense is a symbol of prayer and the myrrh symbolises a
\nclean life. At the Vatican, Pope Francis warned
\nthat the world is growing so insensitive to crises and suffering that these now
\ngo unnoticed. Pope Francis, who also called for the Covid vaccine to be made
\navailable in poorer countries as well, said the pandemic undermines the
\nefforts to settle international conflicts. Old Style Orthodox believers in Russia, Ukraine,
\nSerbia, and Georgia celebrate Christmas on 7th January.<\/p>\n
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COVID-19 One year since the start of the Covid vaccine roll-out in Romania,
\nnearly 7.8 million Romanians are fully vaccinated, and around 2 million also
\nhave the booster dose. This indicates that interest in vaccination has not been
\nhigh, except for a few brief periods of enthusiasm or fear triggered by the
\npandemic’s successive waves. As many as 349 new SARS-CoV-2 infection cases have
\nbeen reported for the past 24 hours, along with 15 related fatalities, the
\nStrategic Communication Group announced on Sunday. Some 450 patients are in
\nintensive care, over 90% of them being unvaccinated. <\/p>\n
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STRATEGY The EU has a new
\nstrategy in place to compete with China-Global Getaway is a response to China’s
\n2013 New Silk Roads, under which investments of 140 billion euros have been
\nmade so far. With the new instrument, the EU seeks to consolidate the digital
\nsector, transports and the healthcare, education and research systems around
\nthe world. The investments planned until 2027 amount to 300 billion euro. The EU is also
\nconsidering the option of introducing a European export credit mechanism to
\nhelp ensure fairer competition conditions for EU
\ncompanies in 3rd markets. At present, 165 countries have debts of at
\nleast 385 billion US dollars to China for projects under the New Silk Roads
\ninitiative, while 42 small and medium revenue countries have debts to China in
\nexcess of 10% of their GDP.<\/p>\n
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UKRAINE Germany and Russia have agreed to
\nhold a meeting in early January, as part of the efforts to settle the
\nRussian-Western crisis over the Ukrainian border, German governmental sources
\nquoted by AFP said. The meeting will be held by the German Chancellor Olaf
\nScholz’s foreign and security policy adviser Jens Ploetner, and Kremlin’s
\nnegotiator for Ukraine, Dmitry Kozak. For over a month now, Western Europe has
\nbeen accusing Russia of deploying more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian
\nborder for a possible military intervention, and has repeatedly warned Kremlin
\non this topic. Russia claims its military is not a threat to anybody and
\ndemands security guarantees from the West, especially with respect to NATO’s
\neastwards enlargement. (tr. A.M. Popescu)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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