August 10, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Daniel Bilț, 10.08.2025, 19:55
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 The head of the European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, on Sunday said that any deal between the United States and Russia to end the war in Ukraine must include Ukraine and the EU. She says that she will convene a meeting of European foreign ministers on Monday to discuss the next steps as the US president Donald Trump is going to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on Friday. Kallas says “the international law is clear: all temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine”. The White House leader suggested a possible land swapping between the two sides. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected any ceding of territory and any deal in his absence. 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.
DRAFT A draft law on the private pension system in Romania could again be included in the agenda of the government in Bucharest. The document, which was initiated by the Financial Supervision Authority, has already been submitted to the Executive for a first reading and has been put up for public debates on the web page of the Labour Ministry. Under the draft, contributors to the private pension system will be able to receive at the time of their retirement 25% of the entire sum deposited, and the rest in monthly installments. Under the present regulations, contributors can actually withdraw all the money deposited in a single installment unless they choose spaced-out installments. Romania’s private pension system boasts 9.3 million contributors and the assets are accounting for 10% of the country’s GDP. The authorities, who are invoking an OECD recommendation, are worried that in 2030, when a record number of people are expected to retire, hundreds of thousands might choose to withdraw all their money at once. The intention to amend the payment regulations of the private pension system has triggered heated debates including in the ruling coalition.
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.
GAZA The plan of conquering Gaza City is not aimed at occupying but demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained on Sunday. The high Israeli official describes the plan as the best way of ending the war with the Palestinian group Hamas. According to him, 70-75% of the Strip is now under Israeli control, but there are two main strongholds, Gaza City and the ‘central camps’. Netanyahu says that a security zone will be set up at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and a non-Israeli peaceful civil administration will be instated in Gaza. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has cautioned Israel against a dangerous escalation of the situation in the region with worsening consequences for millions of Palestinians. The incumbent chief of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Ghebreyesus, earlier said that a large part of the population in Gaza risks dying of hunger due to the Israeli military offensive and blockade.
WEATHER The heatwave that has recently struck Romania will continue to wreak havoc on its southern regions in the next 24 hours, with a Discomfort Index above the critical 80 units. In the rest of the territory, temperatures will be close to the period’s average. The highs of the day will be ranging between 25 and 41 degrees Celsius with showers and thunderstorms mainly in the mountainous and hilly areas in the south.
(bill)
