Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has become the next world leader to declare that his government is considering whether or not to leave the World Health Organization after its questionable handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The “Wall Street Journal” yesterday wrote that US president Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to pull up to 9.5 thousand American soldiers out of Germany before September. The report was followed by Reuters informing that part of the 9.5 thousand Americans are to be transferred to Poland, with the figure of 5000 being mentioned as the most probable.
Today was truly a show of bad manners in the Polish Sejm. The quarrel began with the leader of the Civic Platform party, Borys Budka interrupting the speech of Barbara Nowacka, who was giving arguments behind the motion to dismiss the Minister of Health. Budka tried to stop deputy Prime Minister Gliński and the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Jarosław Kaczyński from leaving the hall during the vote of no-confidence against Minister Szumowski. After that, the situation spiralled out of control, especially when chairman Kaczyński called the shouting members of the opposition "a rude rabble". Speaker Terlecki could not get the MPs of both sides to calm down and finally ordered a five-minute break. It seems like both the ruling party and the opposition are going to go all out in the coming days leading to the presidential elections on June 28th. Only time will tell who will be the winners, and who will be the losers of this unacceptable rudeness.
Leaders like chairman Kaczyński and President Andrzej Duda, are the individuals who clearly send the message around the world that the future of Poland is bright.
That energy resources that you have on shore and the energy resources that you develop with relationships will continue to make Poland if not the leading country in Europe, certainly one of the strongest, most committed to democracy countries in the entire, not just European Union, but in the world. Said Rick Perry at the Lech Kaczyński's Prometheus Award Ceremony in Warsaw, Poland.
Nearly PLN 43.8 billion of subsidies from the Financial Shield of the Polish Development Fund (PFR) went to companies all over Poland, PFR informed on Twitter. It was added that e.g. small and medium enterprises received PLN 31 billion.
Speaker of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek, has set the date of the presidential elections in Poland for June 28th. This date allows for the avoiding of a situation in which the highest office in the country would remain vacant, following the end of Andrzej Duda’s term of office on August 6th as President of Poland.
The Act to annul the presidential elections of May 10th because of the coronavirus, written three weeks ago by the National Electoral Commission, has finally been published in the Law Gazette. This means that the Speaker of Sejm now has 14 days to announce the new date of the elections. The head of the Prime Minister’s chancellery, Michał Dworczyk, commented on this today during an interview on Polish Radio’s Programme One.
The potential of the liquid natural gas terminal named after Lech Kaczyński in Świnoujście, (...) is 5 billion cubic meters and our sister company in Poland, which deals with the infrastructure, Gaz-System, is currently expanding this terminal, is about 8 billion cubic meters. This will provide us, on the one hand, with diversification of supplies and will ensure us full independence from Russian gas. - Said Jerzy Kwieciński CEO of he Polish Oil Mining and Gas Extraction.
The Sejm adopted an act on granting public aid to rescue or restructure Polish companies. According to the authors of the act, this assistance is to consist of providing entrepreneurs with accounting liquidity for the time needed to develop a restructuring plan or carry out an efficient liquidation.
The political crisis surrounding the presidential elections in Poland continues. There are more and more rumours of illegal acquiring of signatures by the Civic Platform party for its new candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski. Today in the Warsaw City Hall, the Law and Justice party councilmen filed a report to the prosecution concerning the matter. The Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki stated in an interview that if the new head of state is not elected by August 6th, he is willing to temporarily take on the position. The only problem being such procedure does not exactly have a legal leg to stand on.
Since June 6 it will be possible to open cinemas, but not all organizers will take advantage of this opportunity. Opening at the beginning or in the second part of the month is announced by some small cinemas. Multiplexes withhold the decision, wanting to learn detailed guidelines to assess whether they will be able to operate without financial loss.
Directors of schools and educational institutions submitted over 11,000 applications for free disinfection measures. "Applications can still be submitted, the deadline for submission is on May 29", the Ministry of National Education's spokeswoman said today.
Since June 1, St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow will open to visitors who will be able to see the Altarpiece by Veit Stoss located in the centre of the church. 200 people can be inside the temple at the same time.
The Speaker of the lower House of the Polish parliament, Elżbieta Witek, expressed feelings of being cheated by Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki, as far as promises regarding the new presidential election bill. Grodzki convened a meeting of the Senate, which has this bill on the agenda, for June 1. Witek appealed to him to take the vote on the presidential elections bill as soon as this week. This bill is necessary for her constitutional duty to announce the new date for the presidential election. She is, however, being blocked by unnecessary delays in the Senate, where the opposition has the majority.
Małgorzata Manowska was sworn in today as First President of the Supreme Court, and Judge Stanisław Laskowski as President of the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court, in the presence of President Andrzej Duda. The president expressed hope that the newly nominated presidents will help to calm the situation in the Supreme Court, and guard the apoliticality of this institution.
Maciejowice is a historic town where general Tadeusz Kościuszko, hero of the American war of Independence, fought his last battle for the freedom of Poland. Three horses were shot from under him and a Cossack stabbed him with a pike from behind. After this battle Kościuszko was imprisoned. In his first public appearance since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, President Andrzej Duda spoke to the citizens of the town of Maciejowice.
This week saw another triumph for Polish video game producer CD Project when its market valuation overtook that of French giant Ubisoft to become the largest video game producer and distributor in Europe. With a market valuation of 8 billion Euro, the company was already the most valuable Polish company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange having this year overtaken such giants as oil company Orlen and Bank PEKAO. Best known for the Witcher game series, based on the books of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, and now also a Netflix TV series, CD Projekt is working on its next game Cyberpunk 2077 which is scheduled to be released in September this year. This much anticipated game - the first trailer was released in 2013 - has already won a number of industry awards. The game is set in dystopian metropolis Night City, in the Free State of California, and features actor Keanu Reeves in a starring role as character Johnny Silverhand.
Robert Karaś, a prominent Polish athlete, finds himself at the centre of controversy as the International Ultra Triathlon Association (IUTA) imposes a harsh penalty for doping violations. Karaś's once-celebrated record in the 10xIronman distance has been tarnished, marking a significant setback in his career.
Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski was a Polish Cold War spy who divides opinions. He has been hailed as a hero by some and denounced as a traitor by others for leaking confidential plans about the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact alliance to the CIA.
A tragic accident occurred in the north of Italy. A drunk driver drove into a group of German tourists who were standing on the side of the road. 6 people were killed and 11 were injured. All fatalities were between 20 and 25 years old.
The most beautiful Polish tall ship Dar Młodzieży “The Gift of Youth” set sail for a voyage around the world to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence.
Few other Polish nuclear scientists have been as forgotten by the Polish general public as Joseph Rotblat. Known abroad as one the greatest champions of the global peace movement and one of the most influential proponents of nuclear disarmament, the memory of Rotblat in Poland has been fading away for years. Determined to do something to change that course, Warsaw officials have decided to name a centrally located square after him.