The Polish President and the British Prime Minister have announced there is to be a new era in Polish-British relations as they met in London yesterday.

Britain also pledged to “triple its support to Poland to £30 million to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees temporarily located in Poland, including temporary shelter, education and other basic services”.

The Polish President noted Poland had announced it would wean itself off Russian energy by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Britain on Wednesday said it wanted to renounce Russian oil and coal by the end of 2022, with Russian gas to be shaken off soon after.

Source – Polskie Radio

A Polish commission reinvestigating a 2010 air crash that killed the country’s president and 95 others will release a report on its findings on Monday.

The plane crash near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, 2010, killed Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and dozens of top officials. It is still a source of controversy and recriminations. The new commission to reinvestigate the crash was set up by the ruling Law and Justice party, which came to power in 2015.

The ruling conservatives have long challenged an official report into the crash issued by the previous Polish government which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport. A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

Source – Polskie Radio

The Polish Central Bank’s monetary policy council has hiked up interest rates again this week, the 7th in a row from the body. The base interest rate now stands at 4.5%.

The rate increase exceeded market expectations by half of one percent. The increases are seen by economists as a reaction to rising inflation and the weakening national currency and will hit home-owners and borrowers hard. The rate had previously been set at 1.5% since March 2015 before being reduce to 0.1% during the coronavirus pandemic.

Source – PAP

And finally, a number of free or low-cost courses have sprung up around the Three Cities to help the influx of refugees from Ukraine get a grasp of the Polish language.

The Gdańsk branch of the Caritas charity, the largest social and charity organization in Poland, has teamed up with a number of foreign language schools in Pomerania, he decided to organize free Polish language classes. Currently there are 3 free classes being held twice a week with each lesson lasting 90 minutes. The next round of courses will start in a few days and interested parties can send applications to the e-mail address: foreigncy@caritas.gda.pl.

Source – Radio Gdańsk

Weather

Today will be a cloudy day with sunny intervals in gusty winds and temperatures of 9 degrees centigrade (48 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and 1 degree overnight. Tomorrow will continue cloudy with sunny spells in a fresh breeze and temperatures of 8 degrees during the day and 1 degrees overnight.

That was the Radio Gdańsk English news and weather.

MC/am