June 11, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 11.06.2020, 13:55
Covid-19 RO. More than 21,100 people have been infected with the new coronavirus in Romania, and the death-toll has reached 1369. Some 15,200 of those infected have recovered. Outside Romanias borders, some 3,300 Romanians have been infected, and 114 have died. Romanias president Klaus Iohannis has called on parliament to vote the extension of the state of alert, which ends on June 15, as theres been no significant drop in the number of new cases of infection. Political groups are negotiating a legislative manner to extend the state of alert, as some parties are not happy with the proposal made by the Liberal Government.
Measures. The Romanian Government is going to analyze today the relaxation measures announced by authorities as of June 15. Also, todays meeting might carry on the analysis of the normative acts that should be adopted to relaunch the economy.
Pandemic. The WHO has warned that the pandemic is not over yet and has voiced worries over the situation in some countries, where the health-care systems are struggling to survive. The Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Programme, Mike Ryan, has warned about the impact of the new virus during winter in the southern hemisphere, stating that the evolution is impossible to predict. In the US, the number of cases of contamination has exceeded two million, according to a new report by Johns Hopkins University. More than 112 thousand Americans have died of Covid-19. The US ranks first in the world in terms of number of infections, and is followed by Brazil, Russia and the UK. In the EU area, where 130 thousand dead have been reported in four countries alone – the UK, Italy, France and Spain – the number of new cases is decreasing and relaxation measures are being extended. In France, the state of emergency will not be extended beyond July 10.
Eurobarometer. According to the latest Eurobarometer, six out of ten Romanians believe that their everyday lives are affected by corruption. The survey was carried out at EU level in December 2019 and was made public on Wednesday. As compared to 2017, the figure is by 4% smaller, but still twice the European average. Eight out of ten Romanians believe that corruption is a wide-spread phenomenon in Romania, and this perception is close to the EU one. According to the survey, corruption is unacceptable to a considerable European majority, 69%. The highest rate of rejection was reported in Portugal (88%) and the lowest in Hungary (36%). Some 48% of the Romanians say corruption is unacceptable.
QS WUR. The University of Bucharest and the Babes Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca are the only higher education institutions in Romania included in the Quacuarelly Symonds World University Rankings 2020. The rankings are made following an analysis of the performance of more than 1000 universities across the globe, taking into consideration certain criteria: academic reputation, reputation as an employer, the number of students, the number of quotations for faculties, international faculties and international students. As regards the classification by fields of study, the University of Bucharest is included in ten fields and subfields of the 53 analyzed. It is the only university in Romania included in the series 201-250 in the linguistics sub-field.
Protests. In the US, two Christopher Columbus statues have been vandalized during protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in Boston and Richmond. According to France Presse, Columbus, the one who discovered America, is seen as the author of the Native American genocide. Dozens of American cities have decided to no longer celebrate Columbus day in October and replace it with an indigenous peoples day. This change was not accepted in Boston and New York, where there are very strong communities of Italian immigrants. The Boston mayor Marty Walsh has stated that the statue will be removed and a final decision is to be made in this regard. (M.Ignatescu)
