August 21, 2022 UPDATE

WEATHER The weather will be rather cool in Romania's south-western regions, with a cloudy sky and showers. In the rest of the regions it will be hotter than usual with a higher heat and discomfort index mainly in the country's south-east. Heavy rainfalls are expected particularly in the southern Carpathians and their surroundings as well as thunderstorms and hail. The highs of the day are ranging between 23 and 33 degrees centigrade. Yellow and orange alerts for unstable weather have been issued until Monday night for several counties in the center, south, west and north-west of the country.

COVID-19 Over 2,000 new Covid-19 infections have been reported in the past 24 hours in Romania out of 99 hundred tests conducted, sources with the Health Ministry have announced. 7 related fatalities have also been reported while 34 hundred people are presently being treated in hospitals. Face covering is no longer mandatory in schools and no special protection measures are to be taken, the prefect of Bucharest Toni Grebla has announced. Health Minister Alexandru Rafila had earlier recommended the use of masks in schools adding though that the only protection measure is the proper ventilation of the classrooms.

MEDALS Romanian athlete Catalin Chirila won bronze in the 500 meter race at the Canoe Sprint European Championships in Munich. A world vice-champion in Halifax, Canada, Chirila also reaped gold in the 1000 meter single canoe race in Munich. Another two athletes from Romania, Constantin Popovici and Catalin Preda walked away with gold and silver from the high diving event of the European Aquatics Championships held in Rome. Popovici made history as the first European champion in this event with 455.70 points. Preda, who took the lead after the first three rounds, eventually ended second with 436.20 points. Italian Alessandro De Rose came third in the aforementioned event. Constantin's namesake David claimed two European titles and a world record in the pool and has been designated the best athlete in the men's events at the present edition of the Aquatics in Rome.

SALES Hybrid and electric car sales almost doubled in Romania in the first 7 months of the year as compared to the same period of 2021. According to the Association of Car Producers and Importers (APIA) out of the 15 thousand green vehicles sold in the period between January and July this year, 47% were in the full hybrid category, nearly 40% were electric vehicles while the rest plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

VOLLEYBALL Romania's national men's volleyball side have qualified for the European Championships due next year after a 3-0 win against Albania in their last away game in the preliminary group G. Romania ranks first in the group with 5 wins and 15 points followed by Switzerland with 12 points, Bosnia-Herzegovina 4 points and Albania with two. The seven winning sides of the preliminaries as well as the best five runner-ups are qualified for the final tournament. Romania won a European title in 1963, two silver medals in 1955 and 1958 and two bronze in 1971 and 1977. At the 2019 edition of the European Championship our side ranked 21st.

DIPLOMACY According to the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, Russia will have a proper response to Bucharest's decision to declare persona non grata an employee of its embassy in Romania. Zakharova says that Romania has declared the Russian employee persona non grata 'without any reason and under exaggerated pretexts'. The Romanian Foreign Ministry says that a decision to expel the Russian employee has been made because the person was involved in activities incompatible with the Vienna Convention of 1961 concerning diplomatic relations, a generic definition for espionage allegations.

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