Warsaw, Poland’s capital, has probably the largest District Heating Network in Europe. It covers 80% of the city and delivers heat that is generated by combined heat and power plants, most of which burn hard coal. In 2011 the city sold the entire network to French company Veolia for approx 350 million Euro. Since then the network has been poorly maintained. When the more severe winter weather arrived this year, pipes burst leaving whole districts without heat and hot water.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus test was carried out on nearly 134,000 teachers of grades 1-3 of primary schools and school staff. Only about 2 percent of them were infected. Schools are ready to admit students for full-time education from Monday.

Increasing the income thresholds entitling to one-off and periodic financial assistance and enabling the granting of one-off financial assistance twice a year, among others for activists of the anti-communist opposition and repressed people, a draft amendment submitted to the Sejm assumes.

On Thursday, we exceeded 400,000 vaccinated people in Poland, the head of the Prime Minister's Office, Michał Dworczyk informed. In total, more than 250,000 people will be vaccinated this week, and over 330,000 next week, the vaccination plenipotentiary wrote on Twitter.

We have an update on the case of Sławomir Nowak. Nowak is a former close personal friend of former Civic Platform leader and prime minister Donald Tusk. When his party was in power Nowak administered funds for transport infrastructure and later became chief of the Ukranian Road Authority. In July Nowak was arrested and charged with corruption and abuse of power. The Warsaw District Court has decided to keep him behind bars until mid April.

It is not yet known whether the draft law submitted by the Law and Justice party to the Sejm, which removes the right of people to refuse to accept penalty notices given by the police, will be approved. The proposed amendment to the law has generated a great deal of controversy. The opposition claims that this new law violates basic civil rights while the government points to other EU countries where such regulations are accepted as the norm.

Thousands of Poles living in the United Kingdom have been galvanised by a decision of an English court which allows a hospital to discontinue the treatment which is keeping a patient alive. The man, a Pole, suffered a heart attack last November. The hospital argues that the man is now in a persistent vegetatative state, but other neurologists argue that he remains in a state of minimal awareness and that he is breathing independently and reacts to the presence of his family.

I strongly believe that the good that Father Maciej Zięba spread here on earth is in our hearts and will bear fruit in the future, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during the funeral ceremony of the Dominican who died on December 31 last year, at the age of 66.

We have already performed over 153 thousand vaccinations in 616 points throughout the country. On January 15, we will launch a special service with current data reports and an interactive map, I encourage you to follow the profile now, the head of the Office of the Prime Minister, the government's proxy for vaccination, Michał Dworczyk, announced on Wednesday.

Tomorrow, January 7th, the Orthodox Church will be celebrating Christmas. The Polish presidential couple wrote a special letter to express Christmas wishes to the Orthodox community.

In an update on a case from last July, the prosecutor’s office arrested Sławomir Nowak, a high-ranking politician of the Civic Platform party and chairman of the Ukrainian road authority. Ukraine accuses Nowak of financial mismanagement. If found guilty he faces from three to eight years in prison.

News from Poland seldom reaches such remote places as Gambia or Nigeria, but this time is different. Polish celebrities who got their Covid vaccinations out of turn are definitely making a splash. Students and medical personnel from Warsaw Medical University alerted Polish media and later the world. We spoke to Piotr Nawrot, chairman of the Warsaw Medical University Student Union. He regrets that his school neglected students and young doctors in the vaccination sequence.

Paweł Mucha became an advisor to the President of the National Bank of Poland Adam Glapiński, acting deputy Director of the NBP communication and promotion department Jacek Majcherek confirmed in an interview with PAP (Polish Press Agency). Mucha previously served as the deputy Head of the Polish President's Office.

Caritas of the Archdiocese of Poznań has launched a fundraiser for victims of the earthquake in Croatia. Almost 100 people have already supported the campaign.

In 2021, the first Polish pilots will be trained to fly F-35 fighters, the head of the Ministry of National Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak, announced on Wednesday. The minister also talked about cash awards for the soldiers who helped drivers who stuck in Dover.

Volunteer Fire Services from the communes that won both rounds of the "Battle for Fire Trucks" received rescue and firefighting vehicles, said the deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Paweł Szefernaker. It is 65 trucks with a total value of PLN 52 million.

Ski jumping is one of the most popular winter sports in Poland. Aside from the Olympics, the Four Hills Tournament is one of the most prestigious ski jumping events there is. So it was a blow yesterday when the Polish team was excluded from the competition after one of the contestants tested positive for the coronavirus. However, today Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch came second in the competition in Oberstdorf.

Anywhere you look, there are empty streets and parking lots as Poland is experiencing the new lockdown period. At least until 17 January of 2021, non-essential stores in large shopping centers will remain closed. Today, a regulation imposing an obligation on store owners to limit retail has come into force. In 3 days' time, restrictions will mainly affect the ones bidding farewell to 2020.