September 9, 2024
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 09.09.2024, 14:00
Drone. A Russian drone entered Romanian air space on Saturday night, before heading for Ukraine, said the Romanian defence ministry. In response, two F-16 warplanes took off from a military base in south-eastern Romania to monitor the aerial situation. The ministry also said that it has deployed ground troops and air support to the Periprava area, in Tulcea county, where parts of the drones used by Russia to strike port targets in Ukraine may have fallen. The Romanian authorities have protested against the new violation of Romania’s airspace and the repeated attacks against Ukraine’s population and civilian infrastructure. Bucharest has condemned the irresponsible escalation of the security situation by the Russian Federation and said attacks against civilian targets are in breach of international law.
Schools. Around 3 million pre-school and school children today began a new school year. The government has promised that the 2024-2025 school year will be the last with the triple-shift system. Currently, there are only 19 schools in Bucharest and the neighbouring Ilfov county where children still attend classes in three shifts. According to the education ministry, classes from 800 schools out of Romania’s over 6,000 are taught in different venues on account of renovation, modernisation and building works. Sanitary facilities in 70 schools are not up to standards, and 50 of them will receive funding for rehabilitation works. The government also approved an additional 7,800 jobs in the pre-university education system and increased the number of carers in crèches and kindergartens.
Film. The New Year That Never Came, directed, written and produced by Bogdan Mureşanu, won awards at the Venice International Film Festival, including the jury award of the International Federation of Film Critics and the award for best script from the independent critics. The film’s cinematographer Boróka Biró won a special mention. This is Bogdan Mureşanu’s first feature film and the story takes place in one day, on the day before the anticommunist Revolution of 1989.
Football. Romania’s national football side on Monday face Lithuania in their second Nations League Group C2 match. Cyprus are playing Kosovo in the same group. On Friday evening, Romania defeated Kosovo 3-nil away, while Lithuania lost to Cyprus at home, nil-1. These are Romania’s first matches with a new manager, Mircea Lucescu, who is again coaching the national side after 38 years. He previously managed Romania between 1981 and 1986, when the team reached the 1984 European Championship hosted by France, which back then only consisted of 8 sides. Later, Lucescu won many local championships and title cups in Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as the UEFA Cup, with Galatasaray Istanbul, in 2000. At 79 years of age, Lucescu is the oldest manager in the world to coach a football side.
Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu won the WTA 125 tournament in Montreux, in Switzerland, worth a total of 115,000 dollars, after defeating Croatia’s Petra Marcinko in three sets, 1-6, 6-3, 6-0. 34-year-old Irina Begu, who is ranked 130 in the world, won in 1 hour and 33 minutes. This is her third WTA 125 title, after Indian Wells in 2020 and Bucharest in 2022. Begu also won 5 WTA titles in the singles and played 4 finals, and won 9 WTA doubles finals and played 7 finals.
