#Bucharest Old Court

[geocursedtraveler]

Dealul Mitropoliei

Today, I will take you on a new trip to the Mitropoliei Hill. Let’s explore how the buildings in this area have evolved over time. I will guide you on a walk through one of the hills of Bucharest, many of which still exist today. In the past, Bucharest had several hills, including Radu Vodă Hill, Spirii Hill, Filaret Hill, Cotroceni Hill, Vacărești Hill, and the Hill of Mitropoliei.  The Hill of…

[vladdocs]

CD SHORTS: Vlad Țepeș was NOT the founder of Bucharest

Bucharest is mentioned by this name in a document issued on September 20, 1459, by the chancery of Vlad Țepeș.

The settlement is also mentioned in other documents of the voivode with the name "Cetatea nouă" (Uyvar in Hungarian). However, this does not make him the founder or even the first ruler to build any fortification there. In the communist period, archaeologists discovered the remains of a quadrilateral fortification measuring 12 by 14 meters, with stone walls, dating back to the 14th century.

This had probably been the seat of the Ilfov county, near the older market of Bucharest. Signs of intense habitation in this area go back to the Neolithic period. Traces of fire show that the old building was destroyed, perhaps by the Ottomans, around the middle of the 15th century. Over these ruins, Țepeș built his new princely court, probably quite modest. This court (and not the locality) is attested in 1459. Over time, it became more important than the one in Târgoviște. Why is Țepeș still considered the founder of Bucharest? Because the first written mention is considered to be the year of its founding.

[ukrfeminism]

Social media influencer Andrew Tate will be extradited to the UK after a British police force secured a European arrest warrant for allegations of rape and human trafficking.

Bedfordshire Police said they are working with authorities in Romania as part of an investigation into the 37-year-old and his 35-year-old brother Tristan.

The pair were detained on Tuesday and appeared at the court of appeal in Bucharest where it was ruled they would be extradited following the conclusion of legal proceedings in Romania.

The allegations, which the two brothers “unequivocally deny”, date back to 2012-2015.

Speaking to reporters outside court following the ruling, Andrew Tate told reporters he and his brother are “very innocent men”.

He said: “I want to give absolute credit to Romanian justice for making the correct decision today.

“Unfortunately I don’t think many people in Romania understand, but in the West, in the countries that are owned by the satanists, when you get to a certain level of fame you either put on a dress or you go to jail and I’m happy to make my choice which is jail every single time, my soul is not for sale neither are my principles.

“We’re very innocent men and in time everybody’s going to see that.

“We are excited to finish this judicial process and clear our names.”

The pair were released from police custody following the hearing, their representative said.

Lawyers representing four women who accuse Tate of rape and sexual assault said they wrote to UK police to request his detention over fears he would flee Romania.

In response to the claims made by law firm McCue Jury & Partners, Tate’s spokeswoman said: “We unequivocally deny any accusations that Andrew or Tristan Tate intends to abscond from Romania to evade the judicial proceedings.

“Our clients are fully committed to actively participating in the legal process and defending their reputation.

“We believe this rumour has originated from a popular online influencer who misconstrued a text message from our clients while streaming live. There is simply no truth to it.”

The law firm said the four British accusers were the subject of an investigation by Hertfordshire Constabulary.

The Hertfordshire investigation was closed in 2019.

In response to the court of appeal’s ruling on Tuesday, the Tate brothers’ lawyer Eugen Vidineac said: “We appreciate the Bucharest Court of Appeal’s decision to postpone the extradition of Andrew and Tristan Tate.

“This ruling provides an opportunity for the brothers to participate fully in their defence and for the legal process to proceed in a transparent manner.”

Commenting on the Tate brothers being detained, Matthew Jury, managing partner at McCue Jury & Partners, said: “Today’s news is very welcome as it has been a significant concern to many that Tate would seek to avoid justice in Romania and abroad.

“We are grateful to the British authorities for taking our concerns seriously and issuing an arrest warrant.”

Mr Jury said Andrew Tate had “spread a vast amount of disinformation about the criminal allegations he faces in the UK” since his first arrest in Romania.

The law firm said it welcomed the court of appeal’s decision on Tuesday.

In a separate case, the Tate brothers are charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania after being arrested in the country’s capital in December 2022 alongside two Romanian women.

All four deny the allegations.

[beardedmrbean]

The Bucharest Court of Appeal has ruled that controversial online influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan must remain in Romania while awaiting trial over human trafficking and rape charges.

The court overturned a decision that eased restrictions on the former kickboxer and his sibling, allowing them to travel freely within the 27-member European Union.

What did the court say?

In its decision, the court "dismisses as unfounded the request of the defendants to replace the obligation not to leave the territory of Romania with an obligation not to leave the territorial limit of the European Union." 

The ruling followed an appeal by prosecutors. The Tate brothers are under judicial supervision in Romania, a status reviewed every 60 days.

In a press statement, the Tates' lawyer Eugen Vidineac announced that the brothers would "fully comply" with the court ruling.

The Bucharest Tribunal's decision to allow the pair to leave the country had been hailed by his spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, as a "significant victory and a major step forward" in the case.

What are the charges against Tate?

The 37-year-old Tate, well known for his misogynistic views, was arrested along with his 36-year-old brother and two Romanian women, in late 2022 for suspected human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

They allegedly coerced female victims into "forced labor... and pornographic acts" for "substantial financial benefits."

After the December arrests, Romania's anti-organized crime agency said in a statement that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case.

It said they had been subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion" and that they had been sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime group.

It said victims were lured with pretenses of love and later intimidated, placed under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics. They would then be coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the financial gain of the criminal enterprise.

The brothers' detention was commuted to house arrest in March 2023 and they were indicted in June. They were released in August on condition that they do not leave Romania.

After they stand trial in Romania, the brothers are to be extradited to the United Kingdom where they are charged in separate cases of rape and human trafficking committed between 2012 and 2015, as well as tax evasion.

[icecreamwithjackdaniels]

“They were talking about you today, before you came, they said you were working on a novel of manners, set in Bucharest, and I could barely keep from laughing. I mean, really: you and Bucharest manners. Maybe Chinese manners, as far as that goes, because you might as well be Chinese. How are you supposed to know manners, when you don’t know anybody? Do you ever go anywhere, ever see anyone?”

— Mateiu Caragiale, Rakes of the Old Court, 1929

[autumnmobile12]

Was Once A Princess

My concept art of Zamfir before Dracula’s attack on Târgoviște. (A little bit more Germanic clothing than it should be and it's the wrong time period...) I used Anne of Cleves as inspiration for the top left one.

Awhile back, I made a post about Zamfir, specifically speculating on Sypha’s line of asking if she was the ‘last person of noble birth left alive’ when everything went to hell. Due to her...devotion, I guess, to the royals, I like to play with the idea she was the daughter of the dead Prince. This would explain how she found herself at the head of the capital's guerilla resistance force.

What I imagine happened was after Dracula's castle landed in the heart of the city and the place became overrun with demons, the court fractured into at least two groups: Zamfir's underground faction and a faction that gave up Târgoviște as lost, fled south, and established a new court in Bucharest. (Historically, Wallachia's capital did move from Târgoviște to Bucharest around this time.) For a little bit of context, the Wallachian throne had been contested by the Dănești and Drăculești branches of the ruling family since 1420, some 56 years before Castlevania takes place. So if the reigning monarch were to die, the boyar lords would not have hesitated to flock to the next viable option. Zamfir, on the other hand, seemed to have the people of the Underground Court pretty convinced the royals were alive and well, so they may have been doggedly believing her promises and clinging to the old regime.

Due to the hostile environment of the court, Zamfir was probably already deeply disturbed before Dracula's attack. If she was the Prince's daughter, she's living a world where her father could be at any time deposed, either by his own people or by an outside force, or even betrayed and murdered by his own family members. As a woman, she wouldn't be able to present herself as a claimant to the throne and so would not be in danger of being murdered as a political rival, but the sudden loss of her father would still threaten her already tenuous place of safety. Her madness didn't start with Dracula; he probably just finished what the Wallachian political scene started.

...

As to the identity of dead prince himself, he can only be Vlad III Dracula or Basarab Laiotă and at the same time, it's impossible for him to be either. It's unlikely the prince has the same name as the vampire and Basarab Laiotă doesn't die until 1480.

To reconcile this, I'm calling the reigning prince Dan III because Dan III did not exist and is often confused by historians with Vladislav II, who may have simply used the name as an alias. (Ever misunderstand something so bad that you accidentally invent a whole-ass dude?)

...

Another thing of note is Zamfir is a Romanian surname that denotes a jeweler, not a given name. With this information, she's neither a Dănești or a Drăculești, but she could be an illegitimate child of the prince. Illegitimate children in Wallachia didn’t have the same status as they did in the west.  Any one of a man’s sons had the opportunity to inherit. The daughters were another story, but the Prince still could technically acknowledge her as his if he chose.

[mariacallous]

In January 2023, Andrew Tate was alone in a Romanian prison cell. But he hadn’t been abandoned.

“THE WAR ROOM Network has my life completely in order while I’m unjustly detained,” Tate told his legions of followers in January 2023. “I have brothers on the outside who have taken on my responsibilities,” he added. 

At the time, the 36-year-old influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist wasn’t surrounded by the sports cars, cigars and bikini-clad women that have become a staple of his online content. The British-American Tate, his brother Tristan and two alleged female accomplices had been arrested and detained in December 2022 on suspicion of a number of alleged crimes, including human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group. 

None of the allegations have yet been proven in a court of law, while the Tate brothers and their representatives have consistently denied the charges against them.

Despite being formally charged in June 2023, Andrew Tate remains hugely popular. From his home just north of Bucharest, where he was under house arrest until August 2023, Tate continues to post online about the War Room and his other businesses. Tens of thousands of men, if not more, have been estimated to sign up for his online money-making courses. A virtual army bombards social media with clips of Tate’s videos. Millions of devotees take to social media every day to view his content.

Tate’s popularity and influence is a worry to many, including UK educators. Some schools there have provided resources and training to tackle Tate’s influence among young men and boys amidst warnings from teachers that some male students “idolise” Tate and have copied his attitudes, catchphrases and behaviours. A 2022 survey by the investment bank, Piper Sandler, found Tate was among the most popular influencers among US teenagers who participated. 

Most media coverage of Tate and his brother Tristan has, understandably, focused on the two men themselves. But, as Tate has previously said, “you won’t go far alone” — a man, in his view, needs “powerful brothers to call on” because “lone wolves are never champions.” 

For Tate, some of those ‘brothers”’ are the senior members of his so-called War Room. As he said on Telegram in January 2023: “THE WAR ROOM Network has my life completely in order while I’m unjustly detained. I have brothers on the outside who have taken on my responsibilities”. While there is no evidence these men are involved in any illegal activity – and none are in any way linked to the charges currently laid against the Tate Brothers in Romania – they either promote his ideology, protect his image or appear to participate in some of the activities that make up his personal brand. Several of them have sought to do all this while hiding their real identities. 

According to Nina Jankowicz, author of “How to be A Woman Online” and an expert on online abuse, “it is just as important to hold the networks [Tate] built to account as it is to focus on Tate himself” given the influence and following the Tate ideology has gathered in recent years.  

Patrik Hermansson, a senior researcher at UK anti-extremism advocacy group Hope Not Hate, said: “We cannot forget that Tate is just one of many people in this sphere.” He added: “Some of them are close to him and appear in his videos, they support him and amplify his views to their own followers.”

Ensuring the War Room audience remains engaged also appears to be a lucrative business, with reports estimating that Tate’s online courses bring him millions of dollars a month. Those who gain access to The War Room, meanwhile, are asked to send US$7,979 (around €7,290 or £6,280) to either a cryptocurrency wallet or a bank account. They are then asked to sign a non disclosure agreement. However, some have spoken out about what they saw there. “The War Room is basically just a bunch of Telegram chats,” one former member claimed in May 2023. “There’s a chat for business…a chat for girls…for money, a chat for freelance, a chat for fitness, and all that stuff.” The same former member said that in-person War Room meetups also took place.

According to several vlog reviews from individuals who say they had access to the War Room, members still need to pay thousands of dollars to be admitted to more ‘elite’ chat rooms after paying their entry fee. 

While there are others who are more open about their association with the War Room, Bellingcat has decided to focus on a small number of individuals who have been more cautious about sharing their true identities.

War Room Leaders in the Shadows

1. Joule Sullivan/‘Sartorial Shooter’

One of the War Room’s most prominent representatives is a Dubai-based Australian who goes by the moniker of ‘Sartorial Shooter’.

“I’m here to represent the Tate brothers and the War Room,” he states at the beginning of a July 2023 YouTube interview. He goes on to describe his background: a soldier in the Australian armed forces who then “went into the intelligence world” who has worked across the Middle East and Africa. He further claims that he met the Tates after Andrew “helped out” with an unnamed task in Romania, and then thanked him by taking him to one of “[his] facilities in Ukraine — I have various weapons and tactics training facilities around the world.” 

It’s easy to find Sartorial Shooter’s real name with a simple online search — Joule Sullivan, a former director of international security at a global healthcare company. In several interviews online, including in the above from July 2023, interviewers refer to him by name as ‘Joule’, and it has been noted as his full name in a broadcast about Tate’s arrest by Antena 3, a Romanian news channel.

Some of Sullivan’s public comments appear to echo the Tates’ worldview. In August 2022, Vice News visited a War Room event in Romania. In the documentary, Sullivan suggests that it’s acceptable for Tate to use phrases like “my women” and adds that men “at certain levels” can provide for multiple women at the same time. However he also claimed in the same documentary that misogyny was not what the War Room was about and that if anyone exhibited racist or sexist behaviour they would be “out straight away.” In a June 2023 appearance on a popular American podcast — a podcast which just a few weeks later would host a prominent American far-right extremist who openly denied the Holocaust — Sullivan called the Tates “cultural icons leading the fight against wokeism, against modern degeneracy, against all of the perversion we see in western society.”

In a reply to questions from Bellingcat, Sullivan confirmed his identity and stated he was “one of the leaders in the War Room”, mentoring members and running events and seminars. He described the War Room as “a very positive and supportive community of men” that “focuses on all areas of life from fitness to business to nutrition.” 

Through the War Room, he said he had “also helped many men come back from very difficult places in their life” and that he had received significant harassment because of his association with Tate. While he acknowledged Tate had made a lot of “negative comments” online, he said he had not seen any indication that he was engaged in any of the crimes alleged against him.

“I am proud of the work that War Room does in supporting men to be the best version of themselves,” Sullivan continued, adding that it was “a valuable community of brothers.”

2. Miles Sonkin/‘Iggy Semmelweis’

Unlike Sullivan, another senior member in the Vice documentary refused to speak on camera — a grey-bearded self-described hypnotist who called himself ‘Iggy Semmelweis,’ the name of a 19th-century Hungarian physician.

In the documentary, Semmelweis is described as “Andrew’s right-hand man” and the “second in command” of the War Room behind Tate himself. On his Twitter account, which has more than 56,000 followers, Semmelweis regularly promotes the War Room, speaks of himself as a senior day-to-day leader, shares content praising the Tates and retweets conspiracist and anti-trans content from prominent far-right Twitter accounts. 

“The War Room has never been stronger as it is now,” Semmelweis said in a June 2023 tweet. “Our ranks grow daily as we attract the Best and the Brightest Men from around the world.” 

Semmelweis is no newbie to the Tates or, as a scroll through his Twitter feed makes clear, to their worldview. In 2019, Semmelweis tweeted an endorsement of one of Andrew Tate’s ‘webcam courses’, stating that women “exist as assets to be upgraded by MEN.”

In early 2023, anonymous and unverified claims had appeared on Twitter that claimed Semmelweis was actually an American man by the name of Miles Gary Sonkin. 

In an effort to verify whether these claims were correct, Bellingcat used several publicly-available, paid and unpaid online search tools to look for the name “Miles Gary Sonkin”. This search revealed a number of potential contact details.

Bellingcat’s journalist entered potential phone numbers revealed by this search into a mobile phone contact book and then checked common social media apps such as WhatsApp and Signal to see if the numbers were attached to any accounts. One of these numbers was attached to a WhatsApp account with a profile photo of a man strongly resembling Semmelweis, alongside a woman herself strongly resembling a woman who has been seen with Semmelweis in War Room promotional videos.

Bellingcat also used TrueCaller, a publicly-available phone contact book app, where users can see who is calling them thanks to shared contact books of other users. We discovered this number was identified on the app as “Miles Sonkin.”

Bellingcat contacted Sonkin on WhatsApp and on Telegram, asking him to confirm his identity and his role within the War Room; though the WhatsApp message was viewed, he had not yet replied by publication. Bellingcat further reached out to multiple War Room email accounts, as well as the Telegram account associated with Tristan Tate’s Telegram channel, to enquire about Sonkin. Though both Telegram messages were viewed, we received no reply. Bellingcat also left a voicemail with the same phone number that had appeared for Miles Sonkin.

3. Jonathan Bowe

In July 2022, Semmelweis stated on Twitter that an anonymous user with the handle ‘@1stPriestWudan’ had been “my Right Hand since the earliest days of The War Room; making possible much of whatever little I have been able to accomplish,” and boasted about how with “the new systems @1stPriestWudan is putting into place The War Room will be capable of serving 10K Men easily”.

The @1stPriestWudan account, as of July 2023, has barely more than 1,000 followers and only a few hundred tweets, many of which are retweets of Andrew Tate and other content supportive of Tate. The account also isn’t shy about sharing misogynistic views. In an exchange with Semmelweis in June 2021, ‘@1stPriestWudan’ mused about why women experiencing menopause were “in the workforce to begin with.”

Later in 2021 the same account wrote that the best way to “fix the [United States] military quick” was to “get rid of women.” The operator of the account claimed to have military experience, stating they were a pilot and, specifically, an “Antarctic Ice Certified Instructor” in another 2021 tweet.

In an attempt to identify who @1stPriestWudan was, we began digging into other potentially useful online content from Tate and his associates.

In the comments to a 2022 Reddit post about Andrew Tate’s car collection, a user linked to a fundraising page for an electric motorbike manufacturer, claiming that Andrew Tate as well as a “war room insider” were listed as team members. While there’s no mention of either on the current page, an archived version from December 2022 shows that Tate and an individual named Jonathan Bowe listed as team members. 

Bowe is described on the archived page as “a former United States Air Force Major…[and] Antarctic Ice Landing Instructor” who “supervises Logistics and Event Planning for Tate Ltd., putting on private events worldwide.”

Searching further online for the exact phrase “Antarctic Ice Landing Instructor” revealed another fundraising page for the same manufacturer of electric motorbikes, with both Bowe and Tate mentioned — but, unlike the archived version of the other fundraising page, accompanied by a photo of Bowe.

In the 2023 Vice documentary about Tate’s War Room, there are several scenes featuring a man next to Tate with his face blurred. In the photo below, this man stands to Tate’s right, while Semmelweis stands to Tate’s left.

Despite the blurring, it was easy to find an un-blurred photo of the man standing next to Tate — from the War Room’s own Twitter account in May 2023 which documented the same event.

A photograph of a man who looks like Bowe also appears in a 2019 tweet from Semmelweis. “The Man who makes my visions real in this world,” he tweeted along with a photo of Bowe. “With him at my side we guide, we protect, we conquer.” An archived version of the account tagged by Semmelweis has a profile picture of Bowe, and a description similar to archived versions of ‘@1stPriestWudan’’s account, including referencing themselves as “Hand of Wudan,” “Master of Logistics” and “Chief Cam Technologist.”  It appears likely this is an old handle of Bowe’s as the Semmelweis post that included his image was dated to 2019. The new owner of the account set it up in June 2022.

The @1stPriestWudan account, meanwhile, was set up in December 2020. Just five months later, one of Tristan Tate’s previous Twitter accounts tagged four of his “friends” in two photos, including the ‘@1stPriestWudan’ account. Clearly identifiable in one of the photos — as are the other three men, who are identifiable and can be matched up by name to their tagged Twitter accounts — is Jonathan Bowe. 

The image itself details an Instagram handle above Bowe’s head rather than the @1stPriestWudan Twitter handle. While the Instagram account is private, Bowe is clearly visible in the profile picture. The name Jonathan also adorns the account, while the profile states: “Former USAF C17/757 EP/IP.” The C-17 is an aircraft that can make ice landings. 

Bellingcat asked Bowe via Telegram (both his personal Telegram account and the War Room’s main contact account) as well as via an Instagram message whether he was indeed the owner of the @1stPriestWudan Twitter account, and about his role in the War Room. He did not respond to requests for comment before publication. Bellingcat further reached out to multiple War Room email accounts, as well as the Telegram account associated with Tristan Tate’s Telegram channel, to enquire about Bowe, and to ask that he be made aware of our correspondence. Though the message to Tristan Tate’s Telegram channel was viewed, we received no reply.

[bukarest]

Godmorgon, nu har vi avnjutit en bra frukost. Med mycket kaffe, det behövdes eftersom klubbarna drog på för fullt till klockan fem imorse…🙂

Dags för en tvåtimmars stadsvandring med guide strax, spännande!

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.20

250 – Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution. 649 – King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.[citation needed] 1156 – Finnish peasant Lalli kills English clergyman Henry, the Bishop of Turku, on the ice of Lake Köyliö. 1265 – The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament". 1320 – Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland. 1356 – Edward Balliol surrenders his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension. 1523 – Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway. 1567 – Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estácio de Sá definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro. 1576 – The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza. 1649 – The High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I begins its proceedings. 1783 – The Kingdom of Great Britain signs preliminary articles of peace with the Kingdom of France, setting the stage for the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year. 1785 – Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong river by the Tây Sơn in the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút. 1788 – The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, beginning the British colonization of Australia. Arthur Phillip decides that Port Jackson is a more suitable location for a colony. 1839 – In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia. 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British during the First Opium War. 1874 – The Treaty of Pangkor is signed between the British and Sultan Abdullah of Perak, paving the way for further British colonization of Malaya. 1877 – The last day of the Constantinople Conference results in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans. 1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base. 1909 – Newly formed automaker General Motors (GM) buys into the Oakland Motor Car Company, which later becomes GM's long-running Pontiac division. 1921 – The British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 56 on board die. 1921 – The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty. 1929 – The first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, In Old Arizona, is released. 1936 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years. 1937 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President; it is the first time a Presidential Inauguration takes place on January 20 since the 20th Amendment changed the dates of presidential terms. 1941 – A German officer is killed in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers. 1942 – World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the "Final Solution to the Jewish question". 1945 – World War II: The provisional government of Béla Miklós in Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies. 1945 – World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months. 1949 – Point Four Program, a program for economic aid to poor countries, is announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as president. 1954 – In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations. 1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated the 35th President of the United States of America, becoming the youngest man to be elected into that office, and the first Catholic. 1972 – Pakistan launches its nuclear weapons program, a few weeks after its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, as well as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. 1973 – Amílcar Cabral, leader of the independence movement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, is assassinated in Conakry, Guinea. 1974 – China gains control over all the Paracel Islands after a military engagement between the naval forces of China and South Vietnam. 1981 – Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America, Iran releases 52 American hostages. 1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time. 1986 – Leabua Jonathan, Prime Minister of Lesotho, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by General Justin Lekhanya. 1990 – Protests in Azerbaijan, part of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union. 1991 – Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south. 1992 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board. 2001 – President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent four-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. 2009 – Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the first African-American President of the United States. 2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start. 2018 – A group of four or five gunmen attack The Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle. The attack kills 40 people and injures many others. 2018 – Syrian civil war: The Government of Turkey announces the initiation of the Afrin offensive and begins shelling Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in Afrin Region. 2021 – Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. At 78, he becomes the oldest person ever inaugurated. Kamala Harris becomes the first female Vice President of the United States.

[mubashirnews]

Andrew Tate in Romanian court to appeal detention

Andrew Tate in Romanian court to appeal detention

Comment on this story Comment BUCHAREST, Romania — The divisive social media personality Andrew Tate arrived at a court in Romania in handcuffs on Tuesday morning to appeal against a judge’s earlier decision to extend his arrest period from 24 hours to 30 days on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape. Tate, a 36-year-old British-U.S. citizen who has…

[geocursedtraveler]

The Black Chancellery

Today, we will journey back to the 17th century in the old Bucharest, exploring a city that looks entirely different and is much smaller than what we know today. Picture us strolling along the wooden bridge that connects the old court to the palace located outside the city at Mogoșoaia. This bridge, though simple, serves as a vital thoroughfare designed to keep the nobility clean and unsoiled as…

[suetravelblog]

Old Town and City Centre Bucharest Romania

Old Town and City Centre Bucharest Romania

Stavropoleos Church Old Town – Diana Condrea I’m becoming more comfortable using the metro and trams to get around town and learn about Bucharest. It’s a beguiling city, unlike any other I’ve experienced. After Romanians discover you’re a foreigner, they’re curious and cautious. It takes them time to warm up, but if they decide you’re OK, they’re open and great communicators. They don’t “mince…

[beardedmrbean]

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have appeared in a Romanian court after the UK issued warrants for their arrest.

The internet personalities were detained by Romanian police on Monday night on arrest warrants over alleged sexual offences in Britain.

Bucharest's Court of Appeal postponed a decision on the warrant.

Andrew Tate, 37, and Tristan, 35, "categorically reject all charges", their representative said.

The men remain in custody.

Romanian Police said two arrest warrants were issued by British authorities for exploiting people in the UK.

A representative for the Tate brothers before the hearing described the arrest warrant as a "bewildering revival of decade-old accusations" leaving the brothers "dismayed and deeply troubled".

"They categorically reject all charges and express profound disappointment that such serious allegations are being resurrected without substantial new evidence," the statement said.

"They are fully committed to challenging these accusations with unwavering determination and resolve."

Their representatives claim the allegations cover 2012 to 2015.

Andrew, wearing a black hoodie, and Tristan arrived at court in handcuffs escorted by police.

They did not say anything to the gathered press, but as they were leaving court Andrew smiled when asked if he is ready to go back home.

Following the hearing, the brothers' lawyer Eugen Vidineac told reporters he knew little information regarding the warrant and did not know if new evidence was provided by the authorities.

Andrew Tate wins legal challenge over seized assets

Andrew Tate denied request to see ill mother in UK

Andrew Tate: The self-proclaimed misogynist

In December, the Tate brothers, who are dual UK-US nationals, were ordered by a Romanian court not to leave Romania after the brothers made a request to visit their mother in hospital in the UK.

The brothers are being investigated by Romanian authorities over separate allegations of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang - charges they deny.

They are accused of exploiting women via an adult content business, which prosecutors allege operated as a criminal group.

Two female Romanian associates were also named alongside the brothers in an indictment published in June, and seven alleged victims were identified.

Mr Tate has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence against him and there is a conspiracy to silence him.

He is a self-described misogynist and was previously banned from social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views.

[vladdocs]

Additional photos of the Old Princely Court in Bucharest https://imgur.com/a/niOuNxi

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This is an interesting and really vague line, and it’s unfortunate Zamfir’s arc is probably the most rushed subplot in the series.  (I mean, I didn’t really care for what Sumi and Taka had going on, but at least they got a brief flashback explaining their motives.)

So let’s dive into the historical context here:

Since it’s founding in 1310, Wallachia was ruled by the House of Basarab, a family that some historians believe may have migrated from Asia.  Wallachia’s first ruler on record was Basarab the Great.

After the death of Mircea the Old in 1418, a direct descendant of Basarab the Great, the ruling family split into two factions:  Mircea’s descendants through his sons known as the Drăculești and the descendants of his brother, Dan I, known as the Dănești.  This split would become the defining feature of Wallachian politics for this time period.  During the last years of Mircea’s reign, he named his only legitimate son Mihail as co-ruler to ease the transition of power after his death.  Within three years of ruling on his own though, Mihail was overpowered by the Ottoman Empire and the boyar lords under him defected to his cousin Dan II and Wallachia broke into a civil war.  Mihail was killed in the spring of 1420, after which several of his illegitimate half-brothers took up the Drăculești line’s bid for power, fighting the each other as much as Dănești faction.  It’s like Game of Thrones but even more chaos and the bastards are 100% valid players in the eyes of the law and society.

Castlevania takes place in 1476, so in between this year and the year of Mihail I’s death, rule of Wallachia (the Voivodate) would change hands 24 times and see a total of 10 separate rulers, only one of whom would die of natural causes.  (In comparison, England’s throne saw three different occupants in the same amount of time.  Although, one of those three was a usurper and one died under mysterious circumstances of the ‘probably murder’ variety.) So Sypha coming out and guessing that Zamfir is the last of the nobles is thought-provoking in that the royal court was already a hostile place even without Dracula bearing down on the capital.

Zamfir’s psychosis may have deeper roots than what happened when Dracula attacked, and I really want to explore that further.  ‘Last person of noble birth’ can have a few meanings.  The Wallachian nobility were the boyar lords, whose power and influence was dependent on wealth and/or land.  At court, there was the princely council who advised (or schemed against) the ruling prince, and there were also a few court positions that weren’t part of the council.  More to the point, Wallachia’s society behaved the same way as most European nations did at the time: ‘You have no power for you are but a woman.’

As for the mummified corpses in the Underground Court, in the interest of loose historical accuracy, the dead prince could only be Vlad III Dracula of House Drăculești.  In November of 1476, Vlad III usurped the throne from Basarab III, who had held it since 1474 after killing his predecessor Radu III (Vlad III’s younger brother, actually.)  In December of that year, Basarab III returned to Wallachia and took back the throne, killing Vlad III in the process.  Basarab III would live another four years.  In addition, the capital of Wallachia was moved from Târgovişte to Bucharest this same year.  So intentional or not on the creators’ part, the show roughly matches up with the historical timeline.  There’s also the fact that it’s not entirely clear exactly how Vlad III died and there is some speculation by historians that Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the historical Dracula only share the same name and the latter was not the actual inspiration for the former.

It’s a bit of a stretch to say Vlad III Dracula and the vampire Vlad Dracula Ţepeş were intended to be two separate people in the series, so I won’t go out there and make that claim.  The mummified royals are probably just nameless artifacts for the plot and we are definitely in speculation, headcanon, string and thumbtacks territory now.

Still, the ‘last person of noble birth’ line does have me wondering what Zamfir’s connection to the court is aside from ‘leader of the Târgovişte resistance.’  Daughter of a courtier, daughter of a council lord, or daughter of the ruling prince himself?

[ias14-gr03]

The main attraction and the absolute symbol of Iași, the Palace of Culture represents an emblematic museum of Romania and the headquarters of the National Museum Complex of Moldavia.

The monumental edifice imposes through its height (the 55m tower), surface (268 rooms with a total surface of 35.000 m2) and its privileged position on a promontory of the “Golden Plateau”, the terrace from above the Bahlui river which offers the best visibility.

The current shape of the building is the result of the remake, between 1906 and 1925, of the former residence of Moldavia’s Princes, situated inside the old Princely Court of Iași. The Court was initially erected during the reign of Alexander the Good towards 1400, and documented in 1434. This is where the capital of Moldavia was moved in 1564, during the time of Voivode Alexandru Lăpușneanu, followed by a long consolidation process. On the 27th of May 1600, in the same place, Michael the Brave proclaimed himself “Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania and Moldavia”, a title that no other voivode has had before. The Iași Union of Romanian Principalities for almost a year, later strengthened the ideals of union of Romanians everywhere.

During the first centuries of existence, the Princely Court looked like a fortress, with defence walls, bastions and entrance tower, but the fortifications were removed at the order of the Ottoman Empire. A remodeling takes place under the reign of Vasile Lupu (1634-1653). After some fires and the devastating earthquake in 1802 (7.9 Richter), which destroyed a big part of the constructions, the Prince of Moldavia Alexandru Moruzi builds an imposing Princely Palace (1806-1812) designed by the architect Johan Freywald, similar to Viennese palaces. It is said that it had 365 rooms, one for each day of the year. After a fire, between 1841-1843, Prince Mihail Sturdza ordered the reconstruction of the edifice under the name “The Palace of Reign”. After the 1848 Revolution, Iași was the cradle of Romanian intellectuals’ effort of accomplishing the ideal of Union: “Hey, Wallachian, hey, neighbour, come join me” (“Hora Unirii”, Vasile Alecsandri, 1856). In the Hall of the Elective Assembly in the Palace (situated then above the entrance hallway) the election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as Prince of Moldavia was confirmed on the January 5th 1859 and the mission of accomplishing the Union was given to him. Cuza’s investiture firman was read here on the 21st of September 1859 by the Turkish colonel Samih-bei. After the decision of moving the capital to Bucharest (1862), the building loses a part of its roles and after the 1880 fire, the palace receives a Neoclassical aspect of French inspiration. In 1883, in front of the Palace, the equestrian statue of Voivode Stephen the Great was erected, with bas-reliefs representing the battle of Moldavia with Poland and with the Ottoman Empire, work of the French sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet. The promise of King Charles I to offer Iasi a true symbol led to the redesign of the edifice in 1906 by the architect Ion D. Berindei, in a Flamboyant Neogothic architectural style, changing its destination into a Palace of Justice and Administration. The inauguration took place on the 11th of October 1925, in the presence of King Ferdinand I and Queen Mary. During the Second World War, it served as barracks of German and then Russian troops and field hospital. Begining with 1955, the edifice received the name “Palace of Culture”, hosting the Museum of History of Moldavia and the Museum Complex.

The building reflects the spirit of ducal palaces in Western Europe, with triumphal hallways decorated with pavement mosaics, very large halls and a rich wall heraldic decoration. In the arrangement of some rooms, ultramodern technologies were used (ventilation system, lighting, vacuum cleaner, clocks synchronized with the one in the tower, etc.) or, as a first, the usage of bois-ciment (“wood-cement”), a decorative material from a mixture of cement and resin, boiled in oil, imitating oak wood, invention of the famous engineer Henri Coandă.

The Palace of Culture shelters four museums of national importance: The Museum of History of Moldavia, The Museum of Art, The Ethnographic Museum and The “Stefan Procopiu” Museum of Science and Technique.

The Union Route proposes an incursion in the Museum of History of Moldavia (left wing, ground floor) which approaches the evolution of the Iași Princely Court, the Iași society in 1900 and its role as Palace of Justice during the interwar period. The testimony of the existence of the Princely Court is present in the medieval foundations visible through glass floors or in the exhibits which approach the evolution of military organization of the capital of Moldavia. The society of Iasi of the 19th century is illustrated through fashionable activities – theatre, photography and sports bets. The role of Palace of Justice is present in the typical Court room or in the former Jury Court in the Henri Coandă Hall. The most impressive room in the Palace is the Voivodes Hall (first floor), a festivity hall with a Gothic arch ceiling, with the portrait gallery of the rulers of Moldavia’s lands, from Decebal to Charles II (Carol II), on a Prussian blue background, and with a superb fireplace symbolically decorated with the genealogic tree of Moldavia’s rulers. The clock tower has the carillon horologe – a drum with pins which operates eight bells. These bells play “Hora Unirii” (composed by the Iasi composer of German origins Alexander Flechtenmacher) at each precise hour, symbol of the essential role that Iași had in the birth of modern Romania.  Fifteen minutes before the precise hour, tours are organised in the palace’s attic and tower in order to observe the clock’s mechanism, to experience the vibration of the bells and to admire the superb view over the Old Centre of the city.

The Princely Court ruins (still in arrangement), the effigy of the Rosetti family, from the current Roznovanu Palace and the two cannons (trophies from the Independence War in 1877) harmoniously complete the Palace Square.

(text source: www.iasi.travel)