August 10, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 10.08.2025, 14:01
BORDERS Early this year Romania made its entry into Europe’s border-free area, Schengen, also with its ground borders and that eliminated the checking at its borders with Hungary and Bulgaria. According to a communiqué released by the Romanian Border Police, in order to offset the absence of physical border checking, the police have conducted a series of unexpected controls, and used drones and vehicles fitted with surveillance equipment, infrared cameras, special boats and radars in the process of monitoring the borders. Over 110 persons under criminal investigation for people smuggling and roughly 800 illegal migrants have been stopped by the police while trying to cross the border. Over 700,000 cigarette packs have been seized most of them at the Bulgarian border. The police have also discovered 18 vehicles announced as stolen in the European Union. Roughly 150 thousand pieces of fake clothing, footwear and toys have also been seized. We recall that on March 31, 2024 Romania entered Schengen with its air and maritime borders, while ground border controls were eliminated on January 1, 2025.
TALKS In a joint communiqué released on Saturday night, leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed the plan of the US president, Donald Trump, to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. They underlined the need for pressure to be maintained on Moscow and for the Ukrainian and European security interests to be protected. The US President has announced he will meet his Russian counterpart in Alaska on August 15. According to a US official, President Trump is open to a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelensky, but for the time being only a bilateral meeting is going to take place as requested by the Kremlin leader. Zelensky has already said that his country will not cede any territory to the invaders. The Russian army already controls roughly 20% of the Ukrainian territory.
MEDALS Rares Cojoc and Andreea Matei won the first medals for Romania at the World Games in Chengdu, China, silver in the Standard Dance Final of the Dancesport event. The two were outperformed by Alexey Glukhov and Anastasia Glazunova of the Republic of Moldova. Dariusz Mycka and Madara Freiberga of Poland became bronze medalists. Another Romanian pair, Georgy Kalashnikov/Daria Grigore came fifth in the ranking. The World Games is the highest level multi-sport competition, which includes non-Olympic disciplines. Held over August 6 and 17 this year, the present edition includes 34 disciplines, 60 sub-disciplines and 256 events, which brought together roughly four thousand athletes from over 100 countries and regions.
TENNIS Romanian tennis player, Sorana Cirstea, has qualified for the third round of the Grand Slam tournament 1000 in Cincinnatti, Ohio, a competition with 5.1 million dollars in prize money. The Romanian clinched a 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 win against Magdalena Frech of Poland. We recall that Cirstea, who managed six aces in that game, was outperformed by Frech in the second round of the Birmingham Classic in 2023. The Romanian will next play against the winner of the match pitching the Russian challenger Diana Shnaider against Yue Yuan of China.
WEATHER Three quarters of Romania’s territory are facing hot temperatures with a discomfort index above the critical 80 units in the country’s north, west, center, south-west, south and south-east. Highs are expected to shoot up to 39 degrees Celsius with a noon reading in Bucharest of 34 degrees. Showers and thunderstorms are expected on isolated areas in Eastern Carpathians, in the north-west and north-east. For Monday and Tuesday meteorologists have issued a code red alert for extreme hot temperatures in Romania’s southern and south-western counties of Dolj and Mehedinti. Orange and yellow alerts for hot weather have been issued for several other counties in the south-west, south and south-east. Gale-force winds are also expected in southern and eastern regions.
(bill)
