>At least four countries interfered in the presidential elections in Romania, claims vote loser George Simion in an appeal to the Constitutional Court, requesting that the elections be annulled. The Court rejected his appeal on Thursday, Digi24 reported. In his appeal, published by the Court on Wednesday, Simion claims there was interference in the elections by France, Poland, Moldova, and Spain.

>Tsachev commented that four projects are currently being developed for the construction of new Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plants (PSHPP) that will store over 50 000-60 000 MWh of electricity... > >Two PSHPPs are already being considered at the Dospat dam. The others are on Batak and Vucha dams. Each of them is planned to have a capacity of 800MW, and in the course of the analyses it is possible to increase the capacity for some of them. > >The aim is to have the pumped storage hydropower plants ready in 7-10 years to replace the battery storage plants currently under construction, which are then expected to be decommissioned. Work is already underway with Bulgarian Energy Holding, the National Electricity Company and the environment ministry to assess the environmental impact of these new projects, Tsachev said.

>Olena Kolisnichenko and her mother, Svitlana, found out someone was living in their apartment in occupied Crimea after they received a utility bill with someone else’s name on it: Server Kurseitovich Seitumer.

>“There are already seven apartments like this in my building,” said Olena. “So it’s clearly already a widespread phenomenon. Reportedly, criminal cases are finally being opened in Feodosia. At first, they didn’t want to do this because this is an occupying government, and we’re Ukrainian citizens.”

>"A community of Romanians who want a profound change in Romania won," Dan said.

>"Russia, don't forget, Romania isn't yours," Dan's supporters chanted.

>The key to Simion's success in the first round was his extraordinary win among diaspora voters in Western Europe, including in the UK. > >His supporters turned out in force again on Sunday, with partial results giving him 68.5% support in Spain, 66.8% in Italy and 67% in Germany. He also had the edge in the UK, where voters said they would have picked Calin Georgescu if authorities had not barred him from running. > >"We didn't know anything about [Georgescu] but then I listened to what he was saying, and you can tell he's a good Christian," said 37-year-old Catalina Grancea.

>A record turnout both in the country and abroad helped Dan come back from 1.88 million votes behind in the first round. His victory shows that the majority of Romanians still support Romania’s pro-EU choice. > >Moldova's President Maia Sandu was the first international leader to congratulate Nicusor Dan for his victory. Close to 88% of the votes in Moldova went to him.

Historically high turnout is a sign that politics matters to people.

>Over 11.64 million Romanians, representing 64.72% of those registered in the electoral registry, went to vote. This is the highest turnout since 1996. In the country, the number of voters was close to 10 million, 1.4 million higher than in the first round, while a record 1.645 million Romanians voted abroad, compared with 973,000 in the first round.

>The network, which engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations between August 2020 and February 2023, was led by Orlin Roussev, who was sentenced to ten years and eight months’ imprisonment. > >The other group members sentenced were Biser Dzhambazov (ten years and two months), Katrin Ivanova (nine years and eight months), Ivan Stoyanov (five years and three weeks), Vanya Gaberova (six years, eight months and three weeks) and Tihomir Ivanchev (eight years). > >Before the group was formed, Roussev had been contacted by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian fugitive who in 2020 fled fraud charges in Germany, and according to investigators is probably hiding in Russia.

>The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), declared by Turkiye for a terrorist organization, announced Monday that it had decided to dissolve itself during its 12th congress held on May 5-7.

>Originally from the central Romanian town of Fagaras, Dan was a maths prodigy, studying in Bucharest and Paris, where he earned his PhD. > >After a period as a mathematics researcher and civic activist fighting the demolition of historic buildings in Bucharest, Dan first dabbled in politics in 2015, when he founded Union Save Bucharest, USB; this later morphed into Union Save Romania, USR, and entered parliament. > >Dan, however, quit in 2017, citing internal policy differences between conservative and progressive factions of the party. Dan held onto his parliamentary seat as an independent and went on to win two consecutive mayoral elections in Bucharest in 2020 and 2024.

The ruling coalition candidate, who remained third, refuses to support the pro-democratic remaining contender, current mayor of Bucharest.

The socialist party withdraws from the government. With this, previous Romanian politics is out of the window. But what is arriving? Whatever it is, it will have importations throughout the Black Sea.

A piece of history we cannot afford to forget... nor to allow be rewritten. >During the decade-long conflicts, the major powers dithered as Serb militias carried out their brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing. Guardian reporters became more passionate and more outspoken in their condemnation, attracting praise and criticism

Around Germany and Greece there were other countries. They went by names like frugal four and PIIGS. They forced "austerity" and stricter working hours onto indebted countries to save their own banks.

The colours on this map show well that northern "productivity" is not about working hours, but about other topics that did not get addressed. Among these topics are also tax heavens (think the Netherlands) and money laundering (think Austria's special relationship with Russia).

So it was nothing more than poor political leadership without vision.

>The battle for the Black Sea’s future will be won—or lost—in Romania. As Russia’s war of aggression grinds on and the United States doubles down on Ukraine’s reconstruction, no ally is more critical to securing American interests in the region than Romania. A frontline NATO and EU member, Romania anchors the southeastern flank of Europe and can boast a proven record of military solidarity with America, from Iraq to Afghanistan.

>With 99% of votes counted late on Sunday, George Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) began as an anti-vax movement during the pandemic, was comfortably in the lead on a projected 40.5% of the vote. > >Far behind in second place was Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan with 20.89%, and in third place the governing coalition’s joint candidate, Crin Antonescu, with 20.34%. He conceded defeat after midnight, saying he believes it’s an “irreversible result.”

It's a flying circus.

>On Friday, in Hungary, Trump Jr participated in a closed-door business forum. “I am totally out of politics,” he assured the Hungarian business site Portfolio in a video interview. Earlier, he met the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Szijjarto. > >Although the business forum was not covered by the media, Donald Trump Jr outlined his mission in a short interview, revealing at the same time that he was looking for allies of the Trump administration among people and countries who “share our values and beliefs. > >Trump Jr urged countries in the region to work with allies and not create dependencies on countries that “send people to a Gulag”, likely referencing China. He called for a decoupling from China in a number of technologies, such as AI and biotech.

>The earthquake on April 23, 2025, in the Marmara Sea region, Western Turkiye, with a magnitude of 6.2, was the strongest in the region in the last ten years, the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences announced on its official Facebook page Thursday. More than 120 aftershocks were registered after the main quake, which had its epicentre in the western part of the North Anatolian Fault and was also felt in Bulgaria, the Institute adds.

>Among them were several posts by the former judge and civic activist Cristi Danilet. His Facebook messages, which expressed voting preferences and criticised various candidates, were classified by the BEC as “political advertising” and Danilet was labelled a “political actor”, leading to the posts’ deletion.

>Danilet has challenged the decision, insisting he has no ties to any party or candidate. “I have no connection to anyone, neither candidates nor political parties. I have openly criticised all candidates regardless of affiliation. The authorities are misinterpreting and misapplying the law,” he said in a Facebook post, adding that such measures discourage civic engagement and public debate.

>In its defence, BEC stated that the measure is not intended to silence voices but to create a fair and regulated campaign environment. “The same rules that apply to television and print media must now apply to digital platforms,” a spokesperson said early this week.

>A former DJ, producer and party promoter, Einhorn had spent the previous three years working for Netanyahu’s Likud party via his public relations firm Perception, helping to secure the party a string of electoral victories.

>This particular document, however, originally concerned Serbia and its president, Aleksandar Vucic.

>Goal 1: “Significantly improve the image of President Vucic and Serbia among the current US administration, the Democratic Party, the media, and the liberal world in the United States and Europe”, its authors wrote; the key message should be: “President Vucic has turned Serbia into a global crossroads of peace and prosperity between Russia, China, the EU, the US, and the Gulf states”.

>In its original form, the document provided intriguing insight into the spin employed to bolster Vucic’s reputation at a time when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was putting his East-West balancing act under unprecedented strain.