Morning headlines – November 19th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: In the last 24 hours, more than 88.000 people got vaccinated. Totally, more than 7,55 million people got the vaccine, with more than 7,06 getting both doses and 1,27 of them getting the third dose.
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 3.076 new SARS CoV-2 cases, 332 deaths, and in ICU there are now 1.632 people hospitalized.

 Global political and military events

• Putin explains why he sent 100.000 soldiers at the border with Ukraine. Vladimir Putin explained, on Thursday, that the West did not show respect for Kremlin’s `red lines` and intensified its military actions in the Blas Sea, also offering Ukraine military aid, so Russia had to take the necessary measures. (Reuters)
• Mircea Geoana asks Russia to come back to the negotiations table. The NATO deputy secretary general, Mircea Geoana, asked the Russian officials to establish a `strong, transparent and sincere dialogue` with the Allliance, given the existing tensions between Moscow and the West. (Digi24)
• The US, diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The US president, Joe Biden, has stated that he intends to boycott the winter Olympic Games scheduled for February to protest against the human rights violation from Beijing. (AP)
• Tensions at the border between Poland and Belarus. Migrants who are close to Bruzgi were transferred by the Byelorussian police in a former hangar, given that during the night temperatures stay below zero degrees. (AP)
• The UN asks the Houthi rebels to leave the US embassy from Yemen. The UN Security Council has criticized the Houthi rebels for occupying the US embassy in Sanaa and asked for the liberation of the local employees. (AP)
• The US asks Georgia to treat the former president Saakashvili fairly. U.S. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday that the State Department had called for the fair and dignified treatment of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested on October 1 and in critical condition, on Thursday, went on hunger strike. (AP)
• Britain has asked for US help to recover the F-35 plane that crashed in the Mediterranean. The British Navy asked, on Thursday, the help of the American colleagues for the recovery of the F-35 plane that crashed, on Wednesday, in the Mediterranean. The aircraft was operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the pilot catapulted and was recovered. (Daily Mail)

Romania's defense and security

• Romania, slightly vulnerable to Russian influence. Serbia is the most vulnerable to Russian and Chinese influence and gets 66 points out of 100. The second state is Hungary with 43 points, and the third is Bulgaria with 36 points. These is followed by Montenegro with 33, the Czech Republic with 28, Slovakia with 26, the Republic of Northern Macedonia with 25. Romania, with 18 points, is the least to be vulnerable to foreign influence, shows a large study conducted by Globsek in Bratislava, supported by the US Department of State. (Hotnews)
• Prolonged political crisis: PNL, PSD and UDMR negotiated last night the list of ministers and the governing program, after agreeing to a rotating leadership of the Government. (Mediafax)