VISIT The president of Romania
\nKlaus Iohannis is carrying on his visit to Brazil today. He travels to Rio
\nde Janeiro, where he has meetings scheduled with the deputy governor and the deputy
\nmayor of the city, and will pay tribute to the World War II heroes. On Monday, Mr.
\nIohannis met with his counterpart Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva. The two officials
\nsigned a joint statement on the development of bilateral relations. Klaus
\nIohannis assured his counterpart, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, of Romania’s
\nsupport for advancing the EU – Brazil agenda through projects designed to
\nbenefit citizens. This is the first stage of the Romanian president’s
\nsouth-American tour, which also includes Chile and Argentina. The goal is to rekindle
\nthe top-level dialogue with these countries and to present Romania’s position,
\nas an EU and NATO member, with respect to the war launched by Russia in
\nneighbouring Ukraine.<\/p>\n
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AGRICULTURE A
\nsimple motion tabled by the opposition against the agriculture minister Petre
\nDaea has been dismissed in the Chamber of Deputies today. The motion was
\ndiscussed in parliament on Tuesday. The initiators argued that
\nDaea
\nwas directly responsible for the steep rise in the prices of basic foodstuffs, for
\nthe poor handling of the swine fever and avian influenza crises, and also for
\nthe failure to secure EU funding for the Romanian farmers affected by the grain
\nimports from Ukraine. The agriculture minister said none of the allegations
\nwere based on actual figures. On the other hand, he is set to discuss with his
\nUkrainian counterpart Mykola Solskyi today, about the situation created by the duty-free
\nUkrainian grain imports to the EU. Last week, Poland and Hungary, followed by
\nSlovakia, announced a temporary ban on these imports. Poland also suspended
\ngrain transit on its territory, but following talks between the two parties an
\nagreement was reached on Tuesday to resume transit, provided that the grains
\nare not sold in that country. Hungary also announced that Ukrainian grain
\nshipments would be sealed and monitored while on Hungarian territory. In
\nBucharest, the Social Democratic Party intends to persuade the ruling coalition
\nto temporarily suspend these imports, in order to protect Romanian farmers, in
\nthe absence of sufficient compensation from the European Commission. Brussels
\non the other hand finds the measure unacceptable and has called for coordinated
\ndecisions, while promising a new aid package for the affected farmers. <\/p>\n
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ART Since the
\nstart of the Timisoara – 2023 European Capital of Culture programme this
\nFebruary, over 12,000 Romanian and foreign art lovers have visited the National
\nArt Museum in Timi\u015foara, western Romania, to see the first retrospective
\nexhibition devoted to Victor Brauner. Probably no other exhibition in the
\nhistory of the museum has attracted so many visitors as ‘Victor Brauner: Inventions
\nand magic did in only two months, the museum director Filip Petcu said on
\nMonday. Some 100 works, including paintings, drawings, sketches, etchings and
\ndocuments by the Romanian surrealist artist are on display in Timi\u015foara. Of
\nthese, 40 are on loan from the Pompidou Centre in Paris, while others have been
\nmade available by Saint-Etienne Metropole, Musee Cantini Marseilles and other
\nmuseums or private collections in Romania and abroad. <\/p>\n
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FINANCE One of
\nthe indicators taken into account by Fitch Agency when improving Bucharest’s
\nlong-term issuer default rating was the adjustment of expenditure to revenues, the
\nmayor Nicu\u015for Dan announced on Wednesday. In a Facebook post, he says that the
\nmunicipality’s efforts to achieve financial stability are beginning to yield
\nfruit, given that Fitch has improved Bucharest’s standalone credit profile from
\n‘BBB+’ to ‘A’, a class higher than the national rating, which means a good
\ncapacity to meet financial obligations. On April 15, Fitch Ratings reconfirmed
\nBucharest’s ‘BBB-‘ ratings for long-term foreign and local currency debt and
\nupgraded the outlook from negative to stable. Last month Fitch had also
\nreconfirmed Romania’s BBB-\/F3 rating for long and short-term foreign currency
\ndebt and upgraded the outlook from negative to stable. With a population of approx.
\n2.16 million, Bucharest accounts for over 30% of
\nRomania’s economy, and its local wealth level is more than four times the
\nnational average.<\/p>\n
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\n
\nUSA
\nFox News, the TV channel of choice of US Conservatives, has agreed to pay USD
\n787.5 million to the voting technology company Dominion, after a last-minute
\nsettlement to avoid a lawsuit concerning its coverage of the 2020 presidential
\nelections, France Presse reports. Dominion had originally claimed USD 1.6 bln.
\nThe settlement saves the pearl of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire from what the New
\nYork Times described as the defamation trial of the century. The lawsuit was generally
\nviewed in the US as a test for the limits of the freedom of expression
\nguaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and of the fight
\nagainst misinformation. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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