Ukraine and Moldova have both been granted EU candidate status, the President of the European Council Charles Michel has announced. He said „Today marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU,” describing the European Council’s decision as a „historic moment”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed Thursday’s decision, tweeting: „It’s a unique and historical moment in UA-EU relations…”; „Ukraine’s future is within the EU.”
The mayor of Kyiv, former boxer Vitali Klitschko, paid an emotional tribute to his fellow citizens resisting the invasion. „We paid a very high price for this chance,” he wrote on Telegram. „Indeed, our best defenders are dying for this.”
Candidate status is the first official step towards EU membership, but it can take many years to join and there’s no guarantee of success.
Source: Reuters, BBC
Nike has announced plans to leave Russia, becoming the latest Western brand to quit the country permanently since the invasion of Ukraine in February.
The American sportswear giant halted online orders and closed the stores it owned in Russia in March. Stores run by local partners continued to operate, but the firm is winding down those agreements too.
Networking giant Cisco has also confirmed it would start to fully shut down operations in Russia and Belarus. Other companies that have finalised plans to leave in recent weeks include McDonald’s and Starbucks.
Russia has grown increasingly economically isolated since the invasion, as the West and allies impose sanctions and shut down local operations.
Source: Reuters, DW, BBC
Changes at Gdansk airport
Work on the western pier of terminal 2 at Gdańsk airport has been completed. Construction started in 2019 and has increased the size of the terminal from 45 to 60 thousand square meters.
The new terminal is intended to serve Non-Schengen destinations including the UK and charter flights to the Mediterranean. The improved infrastructure will bring the terminal up to date.
The investment, worth a quarter of a billion zlotys might have seemed risky given the pandemic, but last month passenger numbers reached 400,000, 80% of record-breaking levels in May 2019.
The new part of the terminal will be available to passengers by the end of this month. Automatic passport gates will be installed from the Autumn. The investment cost PLN 255 million.
The current terminal was built in 2012 and was enlarged three years later. Today, it serves 71 airports at 88 destinations in 22 countries.
Source: Radio Gdansk
Posters designed by students of the Academy of Fine Arts have appeared around Gdańsk, encouraging us to travel by rail. Train travel is fast, convenient and safe, and accounts for less than half a percent of CO2 emissions compared with 92 percent emitted by cars.
This is joint project between the Provincial Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, and was celebrated by an exhibition of students’ work on this theme at the Environmental Fund’s Head office in Gdansk. The highly creative posters have started appearing around the Tri-City on backlighted billboards. July will see the full exhibition presented on the fence of Oliwa Park in Gdańsk.
Szymon Gajda of the Fund said, „These are wonderful works of art. They say more than words. Many thanks to the Academy of Fine Arts for your cooperation.”
Prof. Sławomir Witkowski from the Academy of Fine Arts explained that „Ecology is a very important issue for young people. This topic was part of their way of expressing their opinion about the world. The environment is an engaging issue for them.”
Source: Radio Gdansk
Weather
Today will continue to be pleasant and warm. After a cool start, expect temperatures higher than yesterday, reaching the mid 30’s Celsius (85 Fahrenheit) but still cooling down to 17 degrees (62 Fahrenheit) just before dawn. The outlook for the weekend: pleasant and warm with southerly winds.
Posłuchaj:
AG/MarWer
