CELEBRATION
\nToday Romania celebrates 163 years since the Union of the Romanian
\nPrincipalities, the first major step in the formation of the Romanian nation
\nstate, paving the way for the Great Union of 1918. On January 24, 1859,
\nAlexandru Ioan Cuza was elected ruler of Wallachia, after on January 5 he had
\nbecome sovereign of Moldavia. His rule laid the foundations for modern Romania.
\nJanuary 24 is a banking holiday in Romania. While many people chose to spend
\nthe holiday in mountain resorts, the ones who stayed at home had the option of
\nattending military and religious ceremonies and celebratory concerts organised
\naround the country under COVID-19 restrictions. Bucharest’s Patriarchal
\nCathedral hosted a service devoted to all those who contributed to the 1859 Union.
\nPoliticians posted messages on this occasion. President Klaus Iohannis said the
\nUnion on January 24, 1859 proves the importance of a project able to bring
\ntogether the energy of the Romanian nation, and urged people to work
\npersistently to consolidate the country’s current European and democratic path.
\nThe Liberal PM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 pointed out that the Union was the result of the
\nuntiring efforts of the politicians of the time, driven by the nation’s dream
\nof unity and of administrative, economic and social progress. This desire
\nendured with all the following generations, triggering major changes in the
\nRomanian society, Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 added. In turn, the speaker of the Chamber of
\nDeputies and president of the Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu said that,
\n163 years since the Union of the Romanian Principalities, what Romanians need
\nmore than ever is unity and stability, if they are to handle current economic,
\nhealthcare and security challenges.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
COVID-19 Romanian authorities announced today 12,082 new cases of SARS-CoV-2
\ninfections in 24 hours and 41 related deaths. The incidence rate in the capital
\nBucharest is on the rise, reaching 10.23 cases per thousand people. The city
\nhas been in the red tier since January 12, when the incidence rate went over 3
\nper thousand. The COVID-19 testing capacity is set to increase this week to
\n150,000 tests per day, as over 3,800 family physicians have signed contracts
\nwith public health insurance agencies in this respect. In Bucharest and the
\nnearby county of Ilfov, where the largest number of cases is reported, testing
\ncentres have already been opened in 20 hospitals. On Wednesday at the latest
\nCOVID-19 testing will also be resumed in schools, after more than 10 million
\ntest kits were received by school inspectorates. The health minister Alexandru
\nRafila expects the current (5th) wave of the pandemic to reach its
\npeak in Romania in about 3 weeks’ time. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
UKRAINE The European Union does not intend for the time being to follow in
\nthe footsteps of the US and order the families of its diplomats to leave
\nUkraine, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said today, according to
\nFrance Presse and Reuters. On Sunday night a senior US official justified the
\ndecision saying that a Russian invasion may take place at any time. The US
\nsecretary of state Antony Blinken is to address a meeting of the EU foreign
\nministers in Brussels today, via video link, to update them on his recent talks
\nwith his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Attending
\nthe meeting in Brussels is the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu. Russia has deployed around 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border,
\nwhich the West reads as a preparation for an attack designed to prevent Ukraine
\nfrom joining NATO.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
DOCUMENTARY The French public TV channel France 3 tonight airs for the first
\ntime a documentary on Marie of Romania, the amazing queen of the
\nCarpathians, as part of its highly popular history series Secrets
\nof history. The production of the documentary took one year and a half.
\nArchive photos and footage have been collected, along with testimonies by
\nhistorians and members of the Royal House of Romania. Scenes have been shot at
\nthe Pele\u015f and Bran castles in the southern Carpathians, at the Cotroceni
\nNational Museum in Bucharest and at the Curtea de Arge\u015f Monastery where Royal
\nHouse members have been buried. Queen Marie, the wife of King Ferdinand I, was
\nacknowledged in Europe as an ambassador of the Romanian nation and a supporter
\nof the Romanian nation state.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep lost to Aliz\u00e9 Cornet
\nof France, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in the round of 16 of the Australian Open in
\nMelbourne today. For Halep (15 WTA) this was the first defeat after a string of
\n8 consecutive wins. Also today, Sorana C\u00eerstea of Romania takes on seed no. 7 Iga
\nSwiatek of Poland, in the same competition round. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here for a roundup of local and world news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[32991,31787,35374,35344,29120,30409,36498,35519,36526,30820,13794,34797,36522,30684,31833,29310,28939,30299,28905,31489],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-australian","tag-celebration","tag-covid-19","tag-documentary","tag-eu","tag-holiday","tag-incidence","tag-infections","tag-marie","tag-meeting","tag-nato","tag-open","tag-principalities","tag-queen","tag-romanian","tag-russia","tag-tennis","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-union"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n