Morning headlines – February 8th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• The eighth tranche of Pfizer/BionTech vaccine arrives in Romania today. The National Committee for Coordination of Vaccination Activities against COVID-19 says that 163.000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are arriving today on the Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara airports.
• Dentists and dermatologists used for vaccination. Doctor Valeriu Gheorghita, the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign against COVID-19, has said that dentists and dermatologists could be used in the immunization campaign. Still, the pharmacists are not an option now because they do not have the right to administrate any treatment.
• Form for students’ vaccination. The Ministry of Education has announced, on Sunday evening, that it completed the form for the approval of students who have COVID-19 symptoms to be tested, given that the schools will reopen on Monday. You can find the form here.

Global military and political events

• The EU imposes sanctions to Russia. The chief of the European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, says he is worried about the refusal of the Russian authorities to have a „constructive” dialogue with the European Union and asked the European leaders to make decisions which could include sanctions as well, says AFP.
• Failed coup d’état in Haiti. The Haitian authorities have stopped, on Sunday, a failed coup d’état which was targeting the controversial president Jovenel Moise. He says he escaped an attempt of murder, according to AFP.
• 100 people were killed by a glacier in India.  More than 100 people lost their lives after a piece of a glacier broke, fell over a dam and provoked an avalanche of dust, rocks and water, in Himalaya.
• Great Britain has expelled three Chinese spies. Without publicly announcing it, the United Kingdom has expelled, last year, three Chinese citizens who were working undercover in the country, pretending to be journalists, says The Guardian.
• Israel buys military equipment from the US. Yesterday, the Israeli government has approved to procure US military equipment worth of more than 6 billion dollars, including Chinook helicopters, F-35 and F-16 airplanes, and different types of bombs. The US gives Israel a military aid worth of 38 billion dollars, starting with 2018, in 10 years, says Anadolu.
• US-Iran disputes about the nuclear agreements. Iran has reacted after the US president has warned that the sanctions against Tehran will be lifted only if Iran fully complies with the 2015 nuclear agreement. The Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has asked Washington to make the first move: “Nor the Americans or the Europeans have the right to ask something from Iran, because they, unlike Iran, did not follow their commitments”.

Romania’s security and defence

• The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) won 6.6 billion lei. The Bucharest Stock Exchange has won, last week, 6.6. billion lei from capitalisation, meaning 4.13%, and the value of the stock transactions has recorded an increase of 25.4%, comparing to the previous week, says Agerpress. According to data published by the BSE, the stock’s capitalisation reached 167.982 billion lei, between the 1^st and 5^th of February, from 161.318 billion lei recorded last week.
• A pandemic of trash. Romprest will stop, starting with Thursday, 11^th of February, the sanitation services if the local authorities will not make the payments, has stated, on Sunday, for Agerpress, the operational director, Sorin Velicu. Given the pandemic, the lack of sanitation could worsen the epidemiologic situation, and the mayor of the 1^st District, Clotilde Armand, has stated that if they will not get to an agreement, another operator will start working.