July 13, 2019

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 13.07.2019, 14:16

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Simona
Halep is today playing for the first time in the finals of the Wimbledon tennis
tournament, the third Grand Slam tournament this year. The Romanian will be
taking on US challenger Serena Williams, one of the world’s strongest tennis
players, who has so far won 7 Wimbledon trophies. Halep is the first Romanian
to have ever made it to the women’s finals of this prestigious tennis
competition. Another Romanian, Ilie Nastase, played in Wimbledon men’s finals
twice in 1972, when he conceded defeat to Stan Smith of the USA and in 1976,
when he was defeated by Bjorn Borg of Sweden. Simona Halep has secured a clear
semifinals win against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, while Serena Williams has outperformed
Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic. Halep, a former WTA number one, boasts a
title she won in Roland Garros last year. She also became a finalist in Paris twice
as well as in Australian Open in 2018.

CANDIDATE A congress of the opposition political party Save Romania
Union (USR) is expected today to be designating its candidate for the
presidential election in November and to be adopting some amendments to its
status. A favourite for this position is the incumbent USR president Dan Barna.
The National Council of PLUS, an extra-Parliamentary political group founded by
the country’s former technocratic Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, is also to
convene today to designate its presidential candidate. The two polical groups
are to later designate a common candidate for the presidential election. We
recall that the USR PLUS election alliance came third in the European
Parliament election in May, after the National Liberal Party, the main
right-wing opposition party and PSD, number one in the leftist government
coalition.

WEATHER The weather is unsettled in Romania’s western,
south-western, central and northern regions as well as in the mountains, where
heavy downpours and strong winds have been reported. The sky is variable in the
rest of the territory but the unstable weather is expected to be felt all over
the country as of Sunday, when heavy showers, strong winds and even hail are to
be seen in almost all its regions. The highs of the day are ranging between 21
and 30 degrees Celsius with a noon reading in Bucharest of 26 degrees.

DRILL Over 2,000 servicemen from 11 NATO members, Albania,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, the USA and
Turkey are taking part in the international military drill Breeze 2019 held
from Saturday until July 21st in Bulgaria’s territorial waters on the Black
Sea, the Bulgarian news agency Novini has announced. The exercise will also be
attended by 26 military vessels, 10 warplanes and helicopters, NATO’s permanent
fleet and the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group with the Immediate
Reaction Force as well as representatives of various state institutions and
NGOs. The drill, which includes a maritime security response to a simulated
crisis situation, is aimed at increasing interoperability and cooperation
between the naval forces of the participant countries.