Latest news with #Transylvanian
Euronews
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Romanians vote in cliffhanger election as tensions continue to rise
Romanians are out to elect their president on Sunday in a cliffhanger election that has transfixed and polarised the country, with both candidates running neck and neck in the latest polls. Most Romanians see today's choice as probably the most important vote in Romania's post-communist history. The first hours of voting showed significant turnout both in the country and in the diaspora, a sign of the huge stakes for the future direction of NATO's Eastern flank, Euronews Romania reports. The vote in the diaspora has doubled compared to the first round, while in Romania, the urban voters and the youth have already surpassed their first-round participation. As vote participation is now the decisive election factor, at 12 pm CEST, the historic 1 million votes in the diaspora, including the Republic of Moldova, had been cast. Centrist independent candidate Nicușor Dan voted with his wife in his tranquil Transylvanian hometown of Fagaras. He represents the current pro-EU, pro-NATO course, saying he voted for 'a pro-European direction and for good cooperation with our European partners, and not for Romania's isolation.' Hard-right nationalist candidate George Simion went to vote outside Bucharest with his now-choice for future prime minister, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu, the protagonist of the unprecedented annulled elections and the ensuing political crisis in December. In a talk show on Friday, Simion and Georgescu concluded the campaign side by side to outline their potential doctrines ahead. With Georgescu calling Simion 'George' and 'my protégé', and Simion addressing him as 'Mister Georgescu, from whom I have learned a lot,' the political couple said they will prioritise good relations with the United States. 'We do everything with them, but we also have China, Russia, and Brazil," Georgescu said. "It is unimaginable not to have substantive, non-collegial relationships of minimal respect. We have catching up to do in terms of absorption of EU funds. So far, we have not attracted EU money because of incompetence at the state level.' Simion proclaimed that 'we will not withdraw from any alliance and we will cooperate, as Mister Georgescu says, this is our foreign policy, with all the states of the world.' Repeating a constant reassurance of his campaign, given EU-wide concerns, Simion proclaimed, " We will not withdraw from any alliance.' After voting on Sunday morning outside Bucharest surrounded by multiple bodyguards and supporters, Simion said he voted against 'against the inequities and humiliations to which our sisters and brothers have been subjected here, in the current borders, and everywhere." "I voted against abuses and against poverty, I voted against those who disregard us all. But I also voted for our future," Simion added. Simion and Georgescu were asked by police to leave the polling station when they were about to address the media next to the voting booths, as the law forbids campaigning inside. The social media videos show Simion saying, 'Thank you, mister policeman does not want us to take the media,' before moving outside for the media statements, further adding to the cliffhanger atmosphere in Romania. Georgescu, dubbed the "TikTok Messiah," came out on top in the first round of Romania's presidential election in December 2024, which the country's constitutional court annulled following the declassification of intelligence reports showing Russian involvement in influencing voters through social media to support the then-relatively unknown candidate. Georgescu also continues to face criminal proceedings, including committing anticonstitutional acts and misreporting his campaign finances. The charges also revolve around his support for sympathisers of the Iron Guard, a pre-World War II fascist and antisemitic movement and political party, which is illegal under Romanian law. After voting, former Romanian president and staunch NATO ally Traian Basescu spoke in no uncertain terms. "This is a crucial vote, we are at a crossroads, with clear choices to the West or to the East," Basescu said. "If the choice is pro-Moscow, they will vote for one candidate, and if the choice is pro-Euro-Atlantic, they will vote for another candidate. That's all. It's a decisive day." The estimated 6-million-strong Romanian diaspora, whose votes can decide the election, has been casting their ballots since Friday and has already exceeded the turnout of the first round, in a sign of massive mobilisation for the country's choice and future. On Saturday, Euronews talked to Romanian voters in Belgium, where no less than 29 polling stations have been set up across the country. 'A pro-European future, the possibility of accessing European funds, collaboration with member states, free movement within the European area, and more recently, Schengen, free movement,' said one voter when asked about the choice. In contrast, another one said, 'We voted for something a candidate inspired us to do, something we'd never seen before. We didn't vote for the lesser evil, we voted for what's best for Romania." As the vote can go either way, the deep divisions in Romanian society and their consequences for the country's immediate political and economic evolution will be a massive challenge for whoever wins the election tonight. Meanwhile, Simion has already expressed concerns of alleged voter fraud, stating that in case of his loss on Sunday, his supporters are prepared to protest, with some online posts calling for a Ukraine-style "Maidan" in Bucharest — threats that have added further fuel to the heightened tensions in the country. Follow Euronews Romania's live coverage of the presidential election repeat's runoff here.
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
NYT Connections hints and answers for May 5, 2025
NYT Connections hints and answers for May 5 The NYT Connections puzzle for May 5, 2025, is back to challenge your wits and test your ability to spot subtle patterns in words. If you are new to the game or feeling stuck, don't worry. This guide will walk you through helpful hints to get closer to solving the day's challenge without immediately spoiling the fun. Still need help? The complete answer is also shared below. Whether you are a seasoned player or trying it out for the first time, today's puzzle blends straightforward clues with clever wordplay that will keep you thinking. What is NYT Connections NYT Connections is a daily word game offered by The New York Times that tasks players with organising 16 words into four groups of four, where each group shares a common theme. The game was developed under the guidance of associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu and has quickly gained popularity for its blend of logic, vocabulary, and creativity. Players are allowed four incorrect guesses, and each set is colour-coded from easiest to hardest: yellow, green, blue, and purple. While some groupings are intuitive, others require careful thought and interpretation of language, idioms, or cultural references. NYT Connections hints for May 5, 2025 by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Guayas: AI guru Andrew Ng recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Aroun... Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo Need a gentle nudge before seeing the full solution? Here are clues for today's categories to help you out: Yellow Category – Go along smoothly Green Category – Transylvanian—sound familiar? Blue Category – When everything comes to a halt Purple Category – Nibble it, burn it, or send it flying Tip: Start by identifying the most obvious or familiar categories. Say the words out loud or rearrange them to spot new patterns. Sometimes, just changing perspective can reveal the link you were missing. NYT Connections answers for May 5, 2025 If you have tried every angle and still feel stuck, here are today's correct groupings for Puzzle #690 Yellow – COAST, CRUISE, DRIFT, FLOAT Green – BAT, CAPE, CASTLE, FANG Blue – FLATTEN, LEVEL, PLATEAU, SETTLE Purple – BATON, CIGAR, HOAGIE, TORPEDO Whether you solved it solo or needed a helping hand, don't worry if today's puzzle tripped you up. Connections resets daily, offering a fresh challenge tomorrow. Until then, happy puzzling! How to play NYT Connections If you're a beginner or simply wanting to enhance your strategy, these tips will see you triumph in the puzzle game where you sort 16 words into 4 related sets. Below are the tips and ticks to play NYT Connections. Keep it simple Don't analyse the connections too deeply. The game tends to employ simple links such as sounding similar, similar spellings, or common themes. Example: "dear" and "deer" tend to be linked by sound, not by some elaborate relationship such as predator and prey. Exercise caution with your guesses You have only four guesses per puzzle per day, so every guess matters. Don't mindlessly click—consider each set carefully before submitting. Try to come up with at least three connected words confidently before trying a set. Employ the shuffle button The initial organization is deliberately mischievous to mislead you. Shuffling the words may allow you to see new patterns or concealed connections. Shuffle it as a routine to begin and whenever you are stuck. Also read | Genshin Impact Codes | Fruit Battlegrounds Codes | Blox Fruits Codes | Peroxide Codes AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Chicago Tribune
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘The Legend of Ochi' is a rich, intense fairy tale with a human touch
You'll find out in the first 10 minutes whether 'The Legend of Ochi' is working for you. Me? I was in by minute five, and stayed there, even with some bumps along the way. Movies steeped in fantasy and existing or newly hatched folklore can whip up anything and everything, usually digitally, which often erases half of the potential visual magic. Anything's possible, but not everything's advisable. The writer-director Isaiah Saxon, making a strong feature debut here, knows this and proves it. While 'The Legend of Ochi' mixes digital effects, robotics, puppetry and a host of practical, non-digital design and manipulation for the creatures of the title, Saxon goes easy on the digital ingredients. An art school grad, he hand-painted 200 or so matte paintings, the digital background illusions of an earlier filmmaking time, as part of the overall geographic imaginings. On the mountainous island of Carpathia, somewhere in the Black Sea, the teenage Yuri (Helena Zengel) is being raised by her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe), a credulous, lonely man who lives to hunt the ochi. These predators, the people say, have been killing sheep and even a human or two. Maxim leads a group of young boys on their first hunt, including his adopted son, Petro (Finn Wolfhard of 'Stranger Things'), with Yuri in tow, in the film's nighttime prologue. Yuri's instincts tell her this is all wrong. Also, she's had it with being stuck in the gendered margins of how boys and girls are prioritized in her corner of the world. Driven by a longing to find her mother (Emily Watson), who fled the family years earlier, the pensive, ever-watchful girl runs away. Long story short: girl meets ochi; frees ochi from a nasty metal trap set by humans; and the film becomes a sweet, sad, fraught and well-tested friendship across species, as Yuri comes to learn the ochi's sung (or, rather, chirped) language, an emotion-based mode of communication. Filmed in the Transylvanian mountains of Romania, Saxon and company capture a pretty stunning array of valleys, caves, rivers and urban areas. The movie is tightly packed with incident, maybe overpacked, but Saxon's fairy tale is an intense, lived-in experience, its centuries-old folkloric atmosphere dotted with all the usual intrusive elements of progress: cars, grunge metal, supermarkets (in one memorable scene, Yuri makes an eventful trip to the grocery store with her newfound ochi hiding in her backpack). There are clear bits and ideas derived from 1970s and '80s titles, chiefly 'E.T.,' 'Gremlins' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.' Writer-director Saxon acknoweldges another influence: the great, undervalued 'The Black Stallion.' There's an unusually fine musical score from David Longstreth, as eccentric in its woodwind-forward instrumentation as it is effective. And as Yuri, longing for a family unit to call her own, Zengel couldn't be better. When Dafoe's foolish, preoccupied father mutters a line from his runaway daughter's note — 'I am strong and cool / I don't believe what you say about anything / Don't look for me, OK? / Thanks, bye' — we hear Dafoe, of course, but also the shadow voice of Zengel. A terrific talent, she's a key reason why 'The Legend of Ochi' takes us somewhere worth the trip. 'The Legend of Ochi' — 3.5 stars (out of 4) MPA rating: PG (for violent content, a bloody image, smoking, thematic elements and some language) Running time: 1:35 How to watch: Premieres in theaters April 25 Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic. Originally Published: April 24, 2025 at 1:11 PM CDT
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ancient buried treasure unearthed by metal detectorists in Transylvania
Two men with metal detectors recently discovered a trove of ancient treasure in Transylvania, which shed new light on early settlements in the storied historical region, local officials said. Encompassing much of present-day Romania, Transylvania is known for its medieval towns, Gothic architecture and vampiric folklore, with a mythical reputation tied to the fictional character Dracula and his real-life inspiration, the notorious 15th-century ruler Vlad the Impaler. The treasure unearthed this spring in the Transylvanian town of Breaza dates back much farther than the brutal monarch's reign. In an announcement shared last week, officials in Breaza said the metal detectorists found jewelry that originally belonged to Dacian people, who inhabited what is now Transylvania and some of its surrounding areas from around the 1st century B.C.E. until the 1st century of the common era. Dacia was eventually conquered by the Roman Empire. Silver brooches and a bracelet decorated with plant motifs were among the artifacts discovered, in addition to a chain necklace and a belt constructed out of circular metallic pendants, each marked with solar symbols. The treasure weighed 550 grams altogether, officials said, equating to more a pound. The Mures County Museum, near Breaza, confirmed the jewelry's origins in ancient Dacian society. An archaeologist at the museum, Daniel Ciota, will study the treasure as it is prepared for display. Officials in Breaza said the silver pieces were likely worn by a Dacian aristocrat, citing its lavishness as a signal of its owner's status, potentially as a "high-ranking" member of their society. As for why the jewels were ultimately buried in the ground, the officials suggested they could have been used as offerings to some unknown deity long ago. However, they also acknowledged someone may have hidden them for more personal reasons. There were no previous records of Dacian settlements in this part of Transylvania, and the treasure is the first physical evidence off Dacian people living around Breaza. Moving forward, officials said archaeologists and researchers will begin to explore the area in hopes of finding remnants of a settlement where the owner of the jewels may have lived. "These historical artifacts remind us of the cultural heritage and importance of our region in the history of Dacia," the town of Breaza wrote in a social media post unveiling the treasure. "This discovery honors and encourages us to proudly protect and promote our heritage." Savannah Bananas pack stadiums with their zany twist on baseball | 60 Minutes Watch: Blue Origin's first all-women flight crew launches to space Harvard University hit with funding freeze after rejecting Trump administration's demands
CBS News
15-04-2025
- CBS News
Centuries-old buried treasure unearthed by 2 metal detectorists in Transylvania
Two men with metal detectors recently discovered a trove of ancient treasure in Transylvania, which shed new light on early settlements in the storied historical region, local officials said . Encompassing much of present-day Romania, Transylvania is known for its medieval towns, Gothic architecture and vampiric folklore, with a mythical reputation tied to the fictional character Dracula and his real-life inspiration, the notorious 15th-century ruler Vlad the Impaler. The treasure unearthed this spring in the Transylvanian town of Breaza dates back much farther than the brutal monarch's reign. In an announcement shared last week, officials in Breaza said the metal detectorists found jewelry that originally belonged to Dacian people , who inhabited what is now Transylvania and some of its surrounding areas from around the 1st century B.C.E. until the 1st century of the common era. Dacia was eventually conquered by the Roman Empire. Silver brooches and a bracelet decorated with plant motifs were among the artifacts discovered, in addition to a chain necklace and a belt constructed out of circular metallic pendants, each marked with solar symbols. The treasure weighed 550 grams altogether, officials said, equating to more a pound. The Mures County Museum, near Breaza, confirmed the jewelry's origins in ancient Dacian society. An archaeologist at the museum, Daniel Ciota, will study the treasure as it is prepared for display. Officials in Breaza said the silver pieces were likely worn by a Dacian aristocrat, citing its lavishness as a signal of its owner's status, potentially as a "high-ranking" member of their society. As for why the jewels were ultimately buried in the ground, the officials suggested they could have been used as offerings to some unknown deity long ago. However, they also acknowledged someone may have hidden them for more personal reasons. There were no previous records of Dacian settlements in this part of Transylvania, and the treasure is the first physical evidence off Dacian people living around Breaza. Moving forward, officials said archaeologists and researchers will begin to explore the area in hopes of finding remnants of a settlement where the owner of the jewels may have lived. "These historical artifacts remind us of the cultural heritage and importance of our region in the history of Dacia," the town of Breaza wrote in a social media post unveiling the treasure. "This discovery honors and encourages us to proudly protect and promote our heritage."
