CHRISTMAS New Style Orthodox Christians, and Greek and Roman Catholic Christians
\naround the world Sunday celebrated 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 new-born Jesus.At the Vatican, Pope Francis warned that the world is growing so insensitive
\nto crises and suffering that these now go unnoticed. Old Style Orthodox believers in Russia, Ukraine,
\nSerbia, and Georgia celebrate Christmas on 7th January.<\/p>\n
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COVID-19 As many as 349 new SARS-CoV-2 infection cases have been reported
\nfor the past 24 hours, along with 15 related fatalities, the Strategic
\nCommunication Group announced on Sunday. Some 450 patients are in intensive
\ncare, over 90% of them being unvaccinated. 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. <\/p>\n
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EXPENSES The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis travelled abroad 16
\ntimes this year, with expenses totalling over 1.5 million euros, according to
\nthe Presidency’s response to a question sent by AGERPRES news agency. The
\nPresident’s office also announced that by 14 December, 971 decorations were
\nawarded by the President, and 2 of them were returned by their recipients. <\/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 the
\nworld. 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. <\/p>\n
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UKRAINE Germany and Russia have agreed on a
\nmeeting in early January, between the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s foreign
\nand security policy adviser Jens Ploetner, and Kremlin’s negotiator for Ukraine,
\nDmitry Kozak, as part of the efforts to settle the Russian-Western crisis over
\nthe Ukrainian border, AFP reports. For over a month now, Western countries have
\nbeen accusing Russia of deploying more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian
\nborder for a possible military intervention, and have 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.<\/p>\n
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\nSPORTS Romania’s men’s handball
\nteam is taking part as of Monday in a new edition of the traditional Carpa\u021bi
\nTrophy, hosted by the city of Cluj-Napoca (north-west). In the opening match,
\nRomania plays against Turkey. On Tuesday Turkey take on Iran, and on Wednesday
\nIran plays against Romania. Originally chosen as the 4th participant,
\nSwitzerland eventually declined the invitation over several COVID-19 cases
\nfound amid its players. After this training tournament, Romanian handballers
\nare playing in Cluj on 7-9 January in the World Championship qualifiers,
\nagainst the national teams of Israel, Cyprus and
\nthe Republic of Moldova. (tr. A.M. Popescu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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