Morning headlines – January 6th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• According to the statement of the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the first team investigating the origins of the coronavirus, sent by the WHO to China, is facing some difficulties in getting the necessary authorization from the Chinese government.
•  the British government has announced that in UK the quarantine will last until March, in an attempt to stop the wave of infections with the new SARS-CoV-2 virus.
•  According to the last WHO bulletin, the new strain was identified in 41 states.
• More than 16.000 people were vaccinated in Romania in the previous day. The number of people vaccinated reaches 41.000, in only 10 days since the campaign started.
• Europol warning. The EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, EUROPOL, has launched an early warning on the fake COVID-19 vaccines emergence.

Global political-military events

• Important day for the election of the 46^th American president. January 6^th seems to be a bit tense. The Congress meets to confirm the result of the December 14^th 2020 vote of the Electoral College, a formal phase for the recognition of Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential elections. At least 11 senators, republicans, want to dispute the vote of the Electoral College from December 14^th 2020, to block the procedure of appointing Joe Biden as president of the USA. Donald Trump asked Mike Pence to support the action of blocking in Congress the result of the presidential elections and asked his supporters to dispute the victory of Joe Biden. The National Guard is on alert in Washington DC, between 5 and 7 of January, to prevent the violent actions.
• The crisis in the Gulf ends after almost 4 years, as the diplomatic relations between Qatar and other four Arab states which were boycotting it, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, were resumed, said the Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister, on Tuesday.
• Repression in China. Almost 40 candidates from the opposition, former parliamentarians and activists, were arrested on Wednesday morning, in Hong Kong, suspected for breaking the law on city’s national security. The primary elections were planned for July, but these were postponed due to the pandemic and most of the opposition’s candidates were disqualified and threatened with the national security law.
• The first Congress of the Workers’ Party in North Korea. Kim Jong Un has recognized, on Tuesday, when opening the Congress, that almost none of the objectives the previous Congress committed to, in 2016, were reached. He stated that he will set the country’s priorities for the following five years.
• Kosovo sends troops to foreign peace maintenance missions. The Kosovo’s parliament has voted yesterday that the security forces can be sent to foreign peace maintenance missions. They did not specify any mission where the Kosovar troops could be sent to.
• France has announced, on Tuesday, that it killed tens of jihadists in Mali, using missiles launched from aircrafts. According to AP, local sources have stated that almost 20 people who were participating to a wedding in Bounti were killed.

Romania’s defence and security

• -the Cyber Center of EU in Bucharest is on Government’s today agenda. The memorandum focuses on appointing the coordinating institution and the creation of an inter-institutional workgroup to identify the necessary measures to operationalise the EU’s Center of industrial, technological and research competences in cyber security.
• The special commissions in the Parliament are examining nine people proposed for ambassador positions. We are talking about Nineta Barbulescu – proposed for the position of ambassador to Malaysia, Dan Balanescu – Indonesia and Eastern Timor, Brandusa Predescu for Bulgaria, Daniela Laura Popescu – Great Britain, Cristian Istrate – proposed for the position of ambassador to the Russian Federation, Daniela Sezonov Tane – India, Maldive, Bangladesh and Nepal, Dan Mihalache for Cyprus, Razvan Rotundu – proposed for the position of ambassador in Georgia and Bogdan Manoiu – in Canada, writes Agerpres.
• Epiphany Day in Romania, following the sanitarian rules. On the Epiphany Day, in Bucharest, the holy water will only be offered after being bottled. The Orthodox Church has announced that, for the celebration of the Epiphany, the churchgoers who are going to the Metropolitan Church will only be blessed in the form of a mist with holy water by the Romanian Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Daniel, and the holy water will only be offered after being bottled.

Translated by Andreea Soare