Morning headlines – January 26th 2022

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: In the last 24 hours, more than 12.000 people got vaccinated. Totally, more than 8,05 million people got the vaccine, with more than 7,94 getting both doses and 2,30 of them getting the third dose. (Press release)
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 12.082 SARS CoV-2 cases, 40 deaths, and in ICU there are now 629 people hospitalized. (Press release)
• The vaccination of kids aged between 5-11 years starts today. Today it starts the vaccination of kids older than 5 years. On the platform there were already recorded 3.355 requests, but the serum can be administrated also by going to the more than 200 centers. (Mediafax)

Global political and military events

• Joe Biden announced that Russia will invade Ukraine. The US president, Joe Biden, announced, on Tuesday, in a conference, that Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine, but it does not want a total war. According to the US president, any military movement made by Russia will get a quick and severe answer from the West. (ZF)
• NATO is preparing a written proposal for Russia. NATO will send a written proposal to Kremlin, this week, to try to „find a solution” to the increasing tensions related to the Russian troops consolidation at the border with Ukraine, said the Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, for CNN. (Mediafax)
• Macron proposes Putin a peace plan. Emmanuel Macron will discuss with Vladimir Putin on the phone these days, when he will propose a peace plan given the security situation at the Ukrainian-Russian border. (AFP)
• Ukrainian official: small chances for a war, but a local conflict is possible. The Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, Serghiy Korsunsky, has stated, on Wednesday, that there are small chances for a general war, but a local conflict is possible at the Russian-Ukrainian border. (Sky News)
• The US might sell Egypt 12 Hercules for 2.2 billion dollars. The US State Department has approved, on Tuesday, the sale of 12 military transport aircraft C-130J Hercules and the associated equipment, including some radar systems, for 2.2 billion dollars. The Congress still has to approve it. (AP)
• The US wants to recover the F-35 lost in the South China Sea before Beijing does it. The aircraft has an incident while landing, on January 19^th, and wounded 17 troops who were on the USS Carl Vinson, then falling in the sea, while the pilot catapulted himself. (CNN)

Romania’s security and defence

• The Supreme Council of National Defence. The SCND was convened by President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Palace. According to the Presidential Administration, the agenda of the meeting, which will take place from 1pm, includes topics related to the security situation in the Wider Black Sea Region and on the Eastern Side of NATO and measures on the development of response capabilities, new challenges for the security environment and increasing resilience. (Agerpres)
• Romania opens OECD accession negotiations. The Council of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced on Tuesday the decision to launch accession negotiations with Romania. President Klaus Iohannis thanked Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and the Member States for supporting Romania's candidacy. (Mediafax)