June 12, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 12.06.2022, 18:50

Humanitarian.
A Romanian Air Force aircraft on Sunday carried out a humanitarian flight to take
three Ukrainian patients to hospitals in Copenhagen. According to a statement
from the defence ministry, the plane took off from Otopeni airport and flew to
Copenhagen via Poland. The flight request was made by the department for
emergency situations following a request from Ukraine based on the European
Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism.

Ukraine.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said after her trip to Kyiv
that EU member states face a historic decision at the summit of June 23-24,
when they decide on Ukraine’s possible bid to join the bloc, according to dpa
news agency. Von der Leyen said the challenge will be to emerge from the summit
with a unified position that reflects the scope of this historic decision. The
Commission is to publish its recommendation by the end of next week. A few days
ago, Ukraine’s minister for regional development Oleksiy Chernyshov said he was expecting the 27 EU member states to grant
Ukraine EU candidate status at the Brussels summit of June 23-24 if the
European Commission makes a recommendation to this effect next week.

Holiday.
Romania’s majority Orthodox Christians, as well as its Greek Catholic community
on Sunday celebrated the Descent of the Holy Spirit or Pentecost. This is the
last holiday of the Easter cycle and half a million people attended the church
services. With Monday a day off for all Romanians, hundreds of thousands of
people are also expected to take part in the many public events, festivals and
sports competitions held over the weekend and on Monday.

Theatre.
The Sibiu International Theatre Festival will be taking place this year between
the 24th of June and the 3rd of July. One of the largest
of its kind in the world, it will bring together over 3,500 participants from
75 different countries, with a line-up of 800 events in 80 different venues.
The theme of this year’s edition is Beauty.

Football.
Romania won their first match at the UEFA Nations League as they defeated
Finland 1-nil on Saturday evening in Bucharest. This is the Romanian side’s
first win with their new manager, Edward Iordănescu. Romania lost their
previous two matches in this competition, nil-2 to Montenegro and nil-1 to
Bosnia and Herzegovina, both away. In their next match, hosted by Bucharest,
the Romanian side will be facing Montenegro on Tuesday, 14th June.
Romania are currently in last place in their group with 3 points, only 2 points
behind group leaders Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tennis.
Romania’s Simona Halep is seeded second at the WTA 250 tournament in
Birmingham, the UK, which gets under way on Monday. She will face a qualifier
in the first round. Two other Romanian tennis players are on the singles main
draw: 6th seed Sorana Cîrstea, who will be playing Shelby Rogers of
the US in the first round, and Gabriela Ruse, who will face Qiang Wang of China
in her opening match. (CM)