January 3, 2020 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 03.01.2020, 19:47
Visit – The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will pay a working visit to the German State of Bavaria on Tuesday. He will meet with the State’s prime minister and president, the presidential administration announced. Also the Romanian president will participate in the meeting of the Bavarian government, will have talks with the Bavarian ministers about bilateral relations and European topical issues and he will also deliver a speech. Klaus Iohannis will participate in the annual meeting of the parliamentary group of this state in the Bundestag, the lower chamber of the German Parliament. On the occasion, Klaus Iohannis will present Romania’s view on the future of Europe.
Tourism — Over 170,000 Romanian tourists spent the New Year’s Eve in the country, by 2.5% more than in the previous year, and they spent almost 44 million Euros, by 10% more as compared to 2019, show the estimates made by the Romanian Tourism Employers Federation. The most sought-after destinations were the mountain resorts on the Prahova Valley (in the south), the traditional areas of Bran Moeciu, Maramures (north), and Bukovina (northeast). According to the Tourism Employers Federation, the Romanians who chose to spend the winter holidays abroad could opt for destinations where they could practice winter sports such as Austria, France, Italy and Bulgaria, for city break packages to European cities as well as to Istanbul and Dubai or to exotic destinations like the Maldives, Singapore, Mauritius and Thailand. These tourists spent almost 6 million Euros for their winter holidays.
Teheran — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Esmail Qaani at the lead of the Quds Force in charge of external operations, after its commander, General Qassem Soleimani was killed in an American drone airstrike in Baghdad on Friday. The general and another pro-Iranian leader from Iraq died in the American airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump 3 days after the attack on the US Embassy in Bagdad. Ayatollah Khamenei and the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani promised to avenge Soleimani’s death. The American Embassy in Baghdad called on the American citizens to immediately leave Iraq and NATO officials announced they were closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East. Israel started to take preventive measures to protect itself from possible Iranian reprisals. The Romanian Foreign Ministry recommends the Romanian citizens to avoid traveling to Iraq given the escalating tensions in the region.
Fire — Australia is getting ready for an intensification of the catastrophic bushfires which have been burning since September. High temperatures and strong winds are forecast for the weekend, creating further fire risk. The local authorities from several areas ordered the evacuation of 100 thousand people. So far at least 20 people have lost their lives and an area twice as large as Belgium has been burnt. A recent study shows that almost half a million animals have died in one Australian state alone, the most affected one. Scientists believe this season of bushfires, which has been more intense, longer and has occurred much earlier, is the consequence of climate change.(update by L. Simion)
