April 19, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 19.04.2025, 20:00
EASTER Orthodox Christians, a majority in Romania, along with Catholics on Sunday are celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most important Christian holiday. Easter, which symbolizes the Resurrection of Christ, is being celebrated this year on the same date by all Christian denominations, a rare situation as the Western churches are using the Gregorian calendar whereas the Eastern churches the Julian one. The word comes from the Jewish word Pesach, which means ‘passing’. Originally the word was used to express the world’s creation by God and then it referred to the Exodus of the Jewish people from the Egyptian slavery. Easter is being celebrated three days in Romania and on this occasion the country’s Patriarch, Daniel, has conveyed a message urging to forgiveness and joy. ‘We are wishing all the Romanians in Romania and in the Diaspora, peace, joy and good health together with the traditional Easter saying: Christ has risen! Indeed He has risen!’ the Patriarch went on to say.
MAI More than 24 thousand employees of the Romanian Interior Ministry (MAI) are deployed these days on a daily basis with a view to easing traffic on the country’s roads, ensuring rapid intervention in case of emergency, preventing and fighting illegal deeds and saving lives during this mini Easter holiday. These employees will be supervising 14 thousand churches, where religious services are to be staged on this major Christian holiday, sources with the Ministry have announced. Firefighters have lately stepped up checking activities at churches, religious buildings and accommodation facilities, which usually get crowded on this holiday. 15 hundred suchlike buildings have been checked in the month of April alone in an attempt to prevent any possible blaze that might occur. According to the same sources, over one million Euros in fines has been applied. 16 hundred road policemen are to be deployed to monitor the crowded motorways. They will be using roughly 400 radar speed guns as well as alcohol and drug testing devices.
DRILL Roughly four thousand servicemen and 913 pieces of technical equipment from 10 allied countries, like Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal and Romania will be attending the multinational exercise Dacian Spring 2025, also known as DASP 25, over May 5th and 23rd. The exercise is planned and led by the Headquarters Multinational Division South-East and will be held concurrently in several training grounds. DASP 25 brings together structures belonging to all of Romania’s defence forces – ground, air, naval and cyber warfare as well as troops from the Headquarters Multinational Division South-East and other allied structures. The drill’s main goal is to exercise collective defence operations and consolidate the integration of the participant forces into the command and control architecture of the Headquarters Multinational Division South-East. As a premiere, a Belgian battalion will be deployed on the Romanian soil.
CLIMATE According to Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space Programme, 2024 was the warmest year in recorded history in Europe. Data shows that Europe is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, which justifies the continent’s toughest policies aimed at curbing global warming. 2024 was the first year when the global average temperature exceeded pre-industrial level by 1.5 degrees Celsius. It was also the tenth consecutive year when the rising temperatures are setting record after record. In 2024 Europe was in for a very clear climate division, extremely hot weather and drought in its East being also hot and exceptionally humid in the West, which saw the most widespread flooding since 2013. Roughly 413 thousand people were affected by storms and flooding whereas 42 thousand by wildfires. While temperatures are on the rise, the number of freezing days is becoming shorter and shorter and 2024 boasts the lowest number of days with sub-zero temperatures, namely 90.
HEROES The Romanian troops killed in the line of duty in WWII will be commemorated in four cemeteries in Romania and abroad over April 22nd and April 28th, sources of the Romanian Defence Ministry have announced. The ceremonies will be held at the Cemetery in Honour of the Romanian WWII Heroes in Oarba de Mures, central Romania, the Alley of Honour for the Romanian Heroes in Budapest, Hungary, the Cemeteries of the Romanian Heroes in Zvolen, Slovakia and in Brno, the Czech Republic. The ceremonies will be attended, among others, by members of the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest, the Chief of Staff, the Logistic United Command and four servicemen wounded in operation theatres, as well as military cadets.
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