October 21, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 21.10.2023, 18:05

Healthcare. The Romanian government on Friday approved three national
health strategies for the next seven years: a general one on public health and
the provision of medical assistance and two dedicated to specific areas, namely
on combating hospital-acquired infections and on vaccination. Health minister
Alexandru Rafila said the vaccination strategy aims to encourage lifelong immunisation
and in particular to prevent the re-emergence of serious diseases such as
polio, measles and rubella. He emphasised the strategy is not about making
vaccination compulsory, but about tasking public institutions and doctors with
the responsibility to correctly inform the population and provide the needed
resources for vaccination. Also on Friday, the government also supplemented the
funds allocated to the households hit by floods, landslides and other weather
disasters.

Food. The VAT cap on basic food
products will be extended for a further 90 days, beyond 1st
November, following an emergency order posted on the website of the agriculture
ministry, and the list will be expanded to include more products, such as
minced meat, garlic, short-grain rice, tomato juice, margarine, yeast and sour
cream. The statement says the government’s measure last summer had a positive
impact and extending it is necessary ahead of winter, when utility expenses
will be growing, as well as consumption during the winter holidays. The initial
list contained 14 basic products, including white bread, eggs, cow’s milk,
white wheat flour, sunflower oil and fresh chicken meat and pork.

Middle East. Middle East. The United States on Saturday called on all the
parties involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war between the
Jewish state and the Hamas group to leave the Rafah border crossing open,
following the crossing of the first convoy carrying humanitarian aid. After
returning from his Middle East tour, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
in a statement that the essential assistance for the population of Gaza must be
able to be delivered continuously. The opening of
this essential supply route was the result of days of exhaustive U.S.
diplomatic engagement in the region and an understanding President Biden
reached with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during his recent historic visit to Israel, his statement
also reads. Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also called on Saturday for
a roadmap enabling aid to cross through the Rafah border checkpoint and end the
humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. The
Israeli government said the pressure exerted on Hamas, which controls the Gaza
Strip, led to the Palestinian group releasing two American women, mother and
daughter, abducted in Israel during the attack two weeks ago. The spokesman for
the foreign ministry of Qatar, which negotiated the release of the two Israeli
women with dual citizenship, said his country would continue talks with Hamas
until the release of all civilian hostages, regardless of their citizenship. Israel
said it would continue to exert diplomatic and military pressure on Hamas to
secure the release of all the around 200 Israeli and foreign hostages. The
Israeli army has continued preparations for entering Gaza and carried out
strikes against Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in Lebanon. Since the
attack in Israel, tensions have been growing on Israel’s northern border, amid
fears of a second front opened by Hezbollah’s pro-Iranian forces.

Theatre. Bucharest is playing host to the 33rd edition of the
National Theatre Festival, whose official opening took place on Friday,
followed by the staging of a Portuguese production entitled Catarina or the
Beauty of Killing Fascists. The festival brings together 30 productions from
Romania and three foreign productions. The selection was made out of over 150
plays staged in the 2022-2023 season by both state and independent companies.
The festival’s line-up also features debates, talks, exhibitions, play
readings, workshops, online events and radio drama, as well as a book fair dedicated
to the launching of the latest publications in the field of the performing arts
published in Romania and abroad.