July 15, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 15.07.2023, 13:55

Resignation. The Official Gazette published the decrees signed by
president Klaus Iohannis taking note of the resignation of Gabriela Firea as
minister of family, youth and equal opportunities and appointing the minister
for research, innovation and digitalisation Bogdan-Gruia Ivan as interim. The
Social Democrat Firea on Friday resigned amid an ongoing scandal about the
abuses committed at retirement homes run by people from her entourage. Prime
minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu said he
appreciated what he described as Firea’s voluntary gesture to tender her
resignation. On Thursday, another Social Democrat minister, Marius Budăi,
resigned as labour minister as irregularities were uncovered in the system for
the protection of elderly persons and persons with disabilities. Deputy prime
minister Marian Neacşu took over his post temporarily.

Strike. An airport strike in Italy is today causing disruptions to over a
quarter million travellers, including Romanian. The trade unions of airport ground
staff started the strike action over failure to renew the employment contracts,
which expired six years ago. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in
Rome, the authorities have criticised the trade unions’ strike, which occurs
during the busy summer holiday, while consumers’ associations call for air
strikes to be banned during summer. Out of the 30 flights from Italy to Romania
today, only 12 were scheduled before the strike and were thus not disrupted.
The rest will see delays. A strike was also announced in the UK, at Gatwick
airport, the country’s second largest in terms of number of travellers.

Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky
warned his people that Russia is deploying every possible resource to stop the
Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south of the country. We must all
understand very clearly that the Russian forces are doing everything they can
in order to stop our soldiers, said Zelensky in his midnight address after
meeting the top commanders of the army and the intelligence services. He said
every kilometre re-conquered, every success of every combat brigade deserves
gratitude. The commander of the Ukrainian forces in the south, general Oleksandr
Tarnavsky, said his troops are systematically driving the enemy out of their
positions and that Russia had lost at least 200 soldiers in the previous 24
hours. The Russian defence ministry said in its daily report that the Russian
army repelled 16 Ukrainian attacks on the eastern front.

Smuggling. The Romanian Coast Guard police together with customs workers
found 41,000 bottles of counterfeit perfume in a container in the Black Sea
port of Constanţa that arrived from China. According to a statement from the
Border Police, if sold on the market as genuine products, they would have
brought in almost 2 and a half million euros. The container shipped from China was
on its way to a company registered in Ukraine.

Moldova. Ecaterina Casinge, the head of cabinet for Moldova’s president
Maia Sandu will next month become the spokesperson for the European Council
president Charles Michel, according to politico.eu, quoted by Radio Chişinău. The European
Council said in a statement that Michel’s current spokesperson, Barend Leyts,
will become director of communications for Belgian prim prime minister Alexander
De Croo. Ecaterina Casinge was appointed Maia Sandu’s head of
cabinet in July last year. She has a degree in economics and a masters degree
in international political relations and communication. Earlier, she worked for
the Romanian MEP Siegfried Muresan.

Handball. Romania will play Portugal on Sunday for the bronze medal at
the European Women’s Under-19 Handball Championship hosted by Piteşti and
Mioveni, in southern Romania. Romania on Friday lost to Hungary in the
semifinals, 34-26. The winner of the previous two European under-19 titles,
Hungary dominated most of the match, but Romania did manage to take the lead
twice in the first half. In the final, Hungary will be facing Denmark, who
defeated Portugal in the other semifinal 38-35, after extra time. Romania has
two European Under-19 Championship titles, from 1998 and 2000, while the last
time it won a medal was in 2007, when it came in third. (CM)