Some 500 American soldiers have joined their Polish counterparts for joint military exercises in Drawsko Pomorskie, a village east of Szczecin in the province of Western Pomerania.
The training is part of the second phase of US-led military exercises codenamed „Defender Europe 20.” In the first phase, some 6,000 American and Polish soldiers trained together near Drawsko for almost the whole month of June.
Training plans had to be modified due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but the adapted „Emergency Deployment Readiness” exercises are scheduled to run throughout the month of July. As part of the drills, an American armoured unit has been deployed to Poland to test the US army’s capacity for a quick military response.
During a meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday, US Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy claimed the American military presence in Poland would strengthen NATO’s deterrence potential and contribute to security in the region.
Newly re-elected Polish President Andrzej Duda joins the likes of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and singer Elton John as public figures tricked by a duo of Russian pranksters.
Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, known online as „Vovan” and „Lexus,” posted a recording of the call with Duda on their YouTube channel last Tuesday. On the call, Kuznetsov, who is posing as UN Secretary General António Guterres, can be heard congratulating President Duda on his re-election and later asking how he feels about the source of COVID-19 infections in Poland.
According to the Polish Press Agency, Kuznetsov and Stolyarov are well-known in Russia for pranking celebrities and politicians with hoax phone calls. The Polish President’s Office has confirmed the recording is authentic and Polish security services are currently investigating how the call got through to Duda without being properly vetted.
Source: Radio Poland
Polish deputies approved plans yesterday to give families an electronic voucher of PLN 500 (USD 127, EUR 112) per child to be applied toward vacation costs.
When announcing plans for the program last month, President Duda expressed hopes that the vouchers would help boost the country’s tourism industry, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus crisis.
The credits are intended only for holidays in Poland. Families will be able to use them to pay for their child’s lodging and accommodation at hotels, guest houses, scout camps or sports camps around Poland.
According to Poland’s Ministry of Development, some 6.5 million children under the age of 18 will benefit from the vouchers, at a cost to the state of PLN 3.5 billion.
When voting through the measure on Wednesday, deputies rejected an amendment by the upper house that would have also entitled pensioners and people on disability benefits to receive such vouchers.
Source: Radio Poland
In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the „Bitwa Warszawa” or „Battle of Warsaw,” public broadcaster Radio Poland has announced a competition for family memoirs to be included in an online historical archive.
Photographs and documents linked to the historic Polish victory over the Russian Bolsheviks can be submitted to the historical archive online or by mail. A panel of jurors will assess each entry based on criteria such as originality and historical relevance.
Top prize in the competition is a 13″ Apple MacBook Air, while runners-up will receive a Samsung Galaxy M21 smartphone.
The deadline for participating in the competition is 12:00 on August 24. For more information on the competition, visit this site.
Weather
Today will be cloudy and rainy with winds coming in from the north and scattered rain showers throughout the day. Temperatures will peak around a high of 18°C, or 64°F, dropping overnight to 14°C or 57°F. The rain will begin to taper off early tomorrow morning with Friday set to kick off a weekend of warm, sunny weather.
EP/am
