Morning headlines – February 10th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• The WHO mission in Wuhan has ended. WHO expert: “The coronavirus comes from animals. The most likely to have transmitted the virus are the bats or the pangolins”. The WHO experts have also said that one way to transmit the virus could have been the frozen food.
• The situation in Romania: in the last 24 hours there were 2.797 new cases of coronavirus, and 95 Romanians have died due to the coronavirus infection. One death is included in the 30-39 age categories. Until now, 749.434 cases were confirmed in Romania and 695.398 patients were healed.

Global political and military events

• The US Senate has established that the trial against Donald Trump is constitutional. The votes were 56 to 44, as six Republicans have joined the Democrats. After four days of debates, the Senate will establish, through a two thirds majority, if Donald Trump is or not guilty. 17 Republican senators must vote to do that, together with the votes of all Democrat senators. Most likely, Donald Trump will be acquitted if there will be no new significant proofs against him, says Agerpress.
• Russia has blocked the UN’s negotiations on Syria. The UN Security Council did not make it, on Tuesday, to agree on a joint statement on the situation in Syria, at the end of a day full of negotiations marked by organization’s envoy call for unity to launch again a blocked political process, says AFP. Russia, the main supporter of the Damask’s regime, has repeatedly blocked the negotiations, said diplomatic sources, according to Agerpres.
• The EU wants to impose new sanctions to Russia. The EU’s diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, has recommended on Tuesday the imposition of new sanctions against Kremlin, after the humiliation he went through when he was in Moscow and announced that he will make some recommendations to that end to some member states, says Reuters.
• The first probe from the Arab world got to Mars. The first mission to Mars launched by the United Arab Emirates got, on Tuesday, to the red planet

• and entered the orbit successfully, after its first attempt, says CNN. The Al-Amal probe (Hope) marked the Emirates as the fifth country in history to ever get to the red planed and a first for the Arab world, says Digi24.
• Iran is threatening with a military nuclear program. The Iranian Minister Mahmoud Alavi has announced that Iran could launch a military nuclear program if the US will keep the imposed sanctions. The threats come after the US president Joe Biden has stated that these sanctions will not be lifted until the Tehran regime will stop the enrichment activities of the uranium, says Digi24.
• Kalashnikov shotgun for hipsters. The Russian Kalashnikov weapons producer will launch a new hunting weapon, MP-155 Ultima, especially dedicated to hipsters, as the director of the weapons company, Dmitri Tarasov, said, according to Agerpress. The weapon will have gadgets for the Z Generation, like a mini-computer, video-camera and WiFi.

Romania’s defence and security

• The exploitation of Black Sea’s gas will wait. The Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, has announced, on Tuesday, that the exploitation of the Black Sea’s gas cannot start sooner than 2024-2024. Before starting to work on that, they mush modify the offshore law. The amendments will be debated in the Parliament this year, said the liberal minister.
• The Publisind Federation strike. On Wednesday, Publisind, which is composed of the Police and Border Police, Penitentiary and Probation Police, Central and Local Public Administration, Social Assistance, Judiciary Court Clerk, Finances and Financial Control, Environment and RAAPPS, will organize protests at Romania’s Parliament, the City Halls from Giurgiu, Braila and Valcea, starting with 10am. Their claims target the removal or inequalities in state’s salaries, the application of the Framework-Law on the state’s employees payment and a minimum salary given the increase of the consumption prices, says Agerpress.