Morning headlines – October 14th 2021

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: In the last 24 hours, more than 60.000 people got vaccinated. Totally, more than 5.85 million people got the vaccine, with more than 5.58 getting both doses and 437.000 of them getting the third dose.
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 15.733 new SARS CoV-2 cases, 390 deaths, and in ICU there are now 1.676 people hospitalized.
• Hungary helps Romania. Hungary offers 50 beds in ICU for the Romanian patients that have COVID-19, said Kelemen Hunor. (Aleph News)

Global political and military events

• Turkey captured Iranian spies who wanted to kidnap and forcefully repatriate a former Iranian military official. Eight people were captured following an operation by the National Intelligence Organization and the national police, on September 24th, in east of Turkey, said an official, in conditions of anonymity. (AP)
• The EU proposes a solution to the United Kingdom for the trade exchanges with Northern Ireland. The European Union on Wednesday offered the United Kingdom a package of measures aimed at easing the trade regime for goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland. The situation in Northern Ireland became extremely complicated after Brexit - the British province remained under the rules of the European single market, to avoid the emergence of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which would have called into question the peace resulting from the Belfast Agreement since 1998. (Digi 24)
• Moldova no longer gets Russian gas and declares a state of alert. The Commission for Exceptional Situations (CSE) of the Republic of Moldova decided on Wednesday to declare a state of alert in the energy sector. The Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Andrei Spinu, stated that the price proposed by the Russian side is not acceptable for the Republic of Moldova and fuel oil from the national reserve will be used. (Digi24)
• Israel bombed Syria. Several military targets in Palmyra, including a communications tower, were attacked by Israeli aviation on Wednesday. (AP)
• UN: Children and the elderly in North Korea are at risk of starvation. A UN investigator, Tomás Ojea Quintana, issued a report on Wednesday showing the disastrous humanitarian situation in North Korea, where children and the elderly are at risk of starvation. (AP)
• Four Egyptian intelligence agents and police chiefs sent to court in Italy for killing a student. Four intelligence officers from Egypt will be tried in absentia on Thursday in Italy for the alleged murder, in 2016, in Cairo, of doctoral student Giulio Regeni. Italian justice will try Major Magdi Sharif of the Egyptian Intelligence Service, Major General Tarek Sabir, the former head of state security in Egypt, and police colonels Hisham Helmy and Ather Kamal, accused of having a role in the abduction, torture and the murder of Regeni, who was documenting in the doctoral dissertation the role of the army in Egypt's economy, a sensitive subject in that country. (Reuters)

Romania's defense and security

• Prolonged political crisis. The first meeting of the appointed prime minister, Dacian Cioloş, with leaders from PNL and UDMR failed. Citu: We will discuss more, but today there is no conclusion. Kelemen: I found a lack of trust. (Aleph News)
• The government starts the procedure for appointing 3 candidates for the position of judge at the ECHR. The Government is launching the procedure for appointing the three candidates on behalf of Romania for the position of judge at the European Court of Human Rights, the interested persons being able to submit their candidacy until November 30th. (TVR)
• The government declassifies the Securitate documents at the Ministry of National Defense. The agenda of today's Government meeting also includes a draft decision on the declassification of classified state secret information contained in documents issued between 1956 and 1989 by structures of the State Security Department, managed by the Ministry of National Defense. (Agerpres)