—🤝🇲🇩/🇷🇴 NEW: Over 850,000 citizens from the Republic of Moldova had gained Romanian citizenship by 2024.

Total (2002–2024): 773,413
Total (1991–2002): 85,500

📊 A recent poll shows 55% of Moldovans view relations with Romania as good and 14.2% as very good.

🔗 Brave Romania

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—🇽🇰/🇨🇺 NEW: Kosovo has begun exporting mattresses to communist Cuba.

The first shipment of 4,000 units is underway.

🔗 kos_data

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—🪖🇭🇷 WATCH: Premiere of Croatian kamikaze drones and Bayraktar TB2 drones.

Croatia has produced 180,000 of these drones this year.

VIDEO via: HRT.

🔗 Jan

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—❗️🇷🇸 BREAKING: Serbian authorities have arrested 14 people, including a former trade minister, over the collapse of the Novi Sad railway station roof.

President Aleksandar Vučić has called an emergency security council meeting for tomorrow.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗️UPDATE: A warrant has been issued for Serbia’s former minister of construction, transport, and infrastructure, also part of an investigation by the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗🇧🇦/🇷🇸 BREAKING: The BiH Court upheld the sentence against Republic of Srpska President Milorad Dodik.

He was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year political ban for defying Christian Schmidt’s decisions.

Bosnia faces its worst crisis since the war.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗🇬🇧 URGENT: The United Kingdom’s embassy in Bosnia issued a statement following the verdict against Republic of Srpska President Milorad Dodik, saying the “judgment needs to be respected without reservation.”

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗URGENT: “This is an attack on the Republic of Srpska. I’ll continue my duties until the parliament defines our course. We won’t hesitate to defend Srpska and peace. A serious threat looms, and Srpska must respond,” said President Milorad Dodik.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗🇭🇺 URGENT: “It’s time for everyone to respect the decision of the PEOPLE of Republika Srpska, who elected Milorad Dodik as their President. There is no place for legal witch-hunts in a democracy,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗🇪🇺 URGENT: The European Union said the verdict against Republic of Srpska President Milorad Dodik is final and must be respected, following the court’s second-instance ruling.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗🇷🇸 URGENT: Dodik denounces coordinated effort to "dismantle" Serbia and Republika Sprska.

It is now perfectly clear that we are witnessing the most intense, synchronized attack on Serbia and Republika Srpska by certain EU countries.

They want to leave us without a state and without a future. Someone has destined the Serbs to share the fate of the Kurds.

It is no coincidence that Aleksandar Vučić and Milorad Dodik are being targeted.

We can only defend ourselves from this new "Storm" looming over the Serbian people through national unity.
One people, one state — Serbia and Republika Srpska.

🔗 Milorad Dodik on X

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—🇷🇸 WATCH: Thousands protested in Belgrade this evening, marking nine months since the canopy collapse at the renovated Novi Sad train station that killed 16 people.

🔗 The National Independent

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—❗️🇷🇸 URGENT: "Serbia hasn’t faced a crisis this serious since 2008," President Aleksandar Vučić said, referring to the verdict against Republic of Srpska President Milorad Dodik.

🔗 The National Independent

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—🍏 🇺🇸/🇽🇰 NEW: The US Embassy in Pristina announces Apple Pay is now available in Kosovo.

🔗 US Embassy Pristina

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🇷🇴🏭 ⛏ Romania has the potential to make billions of its graphite reserves but it isn't doing it

Graphene is a form (allotrope) of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a honeycomb nanostructure. In other words, it is a very thin transparent material made up of a single layer of carbon atoms which can be seen with the naked eye.

Multiple layers of graphene stacked together form graphite, a variant of the sedimentary rock that is more commonly known as "coal". Because graphite is hard to ignite, it saw uses in pencil-making, steelmaking and lubrication.

With the advent of computers and batteries, scientists began researching graphite's potential uses in battery-making. Graphite has been used for decades to make batteries for laptops, smartphones and other similar products. With the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) so did the demand for graphite and graphene.

Because graphene is a lot smaller than graphite (graphene is formed from a single layer of carbon atoms meanwhile a graphite rock can have hundreds or thousands of layers), graphene has become a valuable and useful nanomaterial due to its exceptionally high tensile strength, electrical conductivity, transparency, and being the thinnest two-dimensional material in the world known so far.

Graphene can be used as an alternative to lithium when making batteries for EVs and other electronic devices. It also has been used successfully in the making of solar panels and integrated circuits.

As China has a near monopoly on the renewables and lithium-ion battery market, Romania with its graphite reserves (a graphite rock can be broken into thousands of graphene) has the potential to steal a good chunk of the EV market from China and earn untold amounts of money.

In March 2024, the EU adopted the Critical Raw Materials Act, an effort to reduce the EU's dependence on raw materials needed for the transition to clean energy from potentially hostile sources like China. Graphite was mentioned among the rare materials needed to accomplish this transition and it can be mined in Romania.

The graphite reserves in Romania won't be able to cover the EU's demand for green energy and some worries have begun to appear regarding the faltering EV market in the EU as, over the last two months, automakers have begun selling existing plants and stopping construction of new ones due to a decline in the EV demand, money is to be made.

Romania still has a lot of miners with a lot of experience as coal has been mined in the country for hundreds of years. Most of them were forcefully sent to retirement early by the government due to EU mandated mine closures but they can be brought back into the market by at least passing down their knowledge to a new generation of miners.

The graphite reserves are owned by Salrom, the National Society of Salt. Salrom operates a dozen salt mines across Romania and can find the manpower and experts to mine the graphite reserves of Romania, process the graphite into graphene and sell it to buyers in Europe and abroad. The only thing Salrom needs is money from the government or the EU since they are interested in the renewable energy transition.

🔗 https://hotnews.ro/interviu-video-de-ce-nu-exploatam-grafen-materialul-revolutionar-al-secolului-xxi-de-ce-nu-finantam-regia-autonoma-a-sarii-in-loc-sa-finantam-dezvoltarea-chinei-1793988

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