Morning headlines – December 7th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: In the last 24 hours, more than 45.000 people got vaccinated. Totally, more than 7,80 million people got the vaccine, with more than 7,54 getting both doses and 1,67 of them getting the third dose.
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 803 new SARS CoV-2 cases, 54 deaths, and in ICU there are now 881 people hospitalized.

Global political and military events

•  Biden-Putin summit. Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will have, on Tuesday, an online discussion and Biden will reaffirm US’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity given the Russian troops’ dislocation at the border. Putin, however, will ask the US for guarantees that NATO will not expand to the east. (CNN)
• Biden discussed with the European leaders before the Putin summit. Joe Biden had a discussion with leaders from Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy about the Russian troops at Ukraine’s border. Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Mario Draghi and Boris Johnson have expressed their support for Ukraine.  (AP)
• US will increase its military presence in Eastern Europe if Russia will attack Ukraine. The Pentagon will increase the military troops in Eastern Europe if a conflict will start between Russia and Ukraine, said a top US official. (AFP)
• President: Ukraine can reject a Russian attack. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has visited, on Monday, the Ukrainian troops, in the Donbas Region conflict area, on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day. He stated that Ukraine can reject a Russian attack. (Reuters).
• The US is boycotting the Winter Olympic Games from Beijing. The US have announced, on Monday evening, that it will not send officials at the Winter Olympic Games from 2022, as a protest on against the human rights abuses conducted by the Chinese communist party, however, US sportsmen and women will participate. (CNN)
• Germany will have a new chancellor. The ruling coalition in Germany, composed of the Social Democratic Party (SPD, center-left), the '90s/Greens (environmentalist) and the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP, Liberal), presented the list of portfolio holders, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government will be installed on Wednesday. (Mediafax)
• Rohingya refugees are demanding $ 150 billion in compensation from Facebook. They accuse the social network that the algorithms used favored misinformation and extremist ideologies that led to violent acts in the real world. (AFP)
• Israel bombed the Syrian port of Latakia. Several rockets hit containers in the port of Latakia on Tuesday morning, without causing any casualties. (SANA)

Romania's defence and security

• SCM balance sheet. The Superior Council of Magistracy is to present, on Tuesday, its activity report for the year 2021. The meeting of the SCM plenum will take place starting with 1 pm, at the Faculty of Law in Bucharest. (Agerpres)
• International Civil Aviation Day. International Civil Aviation Day was first marked on December 7, 1994, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the International Civil Aviation Convention in Chicago. (TVR)