May 15, 2025 UPDATE
The latest news from RRI
Newsroom, 15.05.2025, 19:56
Negotiations – The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to send a delegation to Istanbul for negotiations with Russia, although Kyiv is dissatisfied with the rank of the delegation sent there by Russian President Vladimir Putin, international press agencies report. Zelensky announced after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara that the delegation would be led by the Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and would include officials from the army and intelligence services, and its mandate would be to achieve a ceasefire. According to the Ukrainian president, Turkish and American officials will also participate in the negotiations. Zelensky stated that he wouldill not travel to Istanbul for these talks and again called on Ukraine’s Western allies to impose additional sanctions on Russia if it did not accept a ceasefire. The Russian delegation, led by the presidential advisor Vladimir Medinsky, is made up of second-rank officials, without any ministers, but with two deputy ministers, one from Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Galuzin, and the other from Defense, Alexander Fomin, which in Zelensky’s opinion shows a lack of seriousness’ on the part of the Kremlin in approaching these negotiations. The last direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations took place, also in Istanbul, in March-April 2022, a month after the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Invest – According to the Central Bank, direct foreign investment in Romania dropped by more than 30% in the first quarter of the year, as compared to the same period of 2024. Practically, the sum invested stood at roughly 1.7 billion Euros in the first quarter of 2025, whereas in the same period last year it was 2.5 billion. According to the National Trade Registry Office, over 15 hundred companies with foreign capital were set up in the first quarter, a 6.5% drop as compared to the similar period of 2024.
Football – CFR Cluj, a football side from western Romania won the Romanian Football Cup after a 3-2 win against Hermannstadt, a team from central Romania. This has been the fifth trophy for CFR, which will be up against the champions FCSB in Romania’s Football Supercup.
Statistics – The average net salary in Romania increased to 5,691 lei (the equivalent of about 1,100 euros) in March, higher by 340 lei than the previous month, according to data published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics. The highest net salaries were recorded in the manufacture of tobacco products, almost 15,000 lei, and in services, in information technology, over 13,000 lei, and the lowest in hotels and restaurants and in the clothing manufacturing, around 3,200 lei. In the public sector, the average net salary recorded modest increases in March, compared to the previous month.
TikTok – The European Commission has found that the social media platform TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, is in breach of European digital services law regarding electoral advertising. The conclusion communicated on Thursday is directly related to the Commission’s investigation into the events of last year’s electoral campaign for the election of the President of Romania, an investigation that is not yet concluded. Brussels’ finding will be sent to the European Board for Digital Services, and if confirmed, TikTok could be fined up to 6% of its annual global turnover and the platform could be placed under stricter supervision until corrective measures are implemented. TikTok has come to the attention of decision-makers in the European Union and the United States due to its impact on children’s mental health, the use of personal data and its influence on public debates and elections, for the benefit of foreign powers.
HPV – Young people in Romania between the ages of 11 and 26 could benefit from the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer, free of charge. The law was approved by the Health Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and is due to enter the plenary session next week for a decision-making vote. The initiator of the project, deputy Ovidiu Câmpean, drew attention to the fact that Romania has one of the highest rates of morbidity and mortality due to cervical cancer, while in other states, such as the United Kingdom or Australia, where HPV vaccination is going well, the number of cervical cancer cases has decreased significantly. He specified that over 3,500 HPV infections are registered in Romania annually, and half of the patients lose their lives due to this type of cancer. (LS)
