The US president Donald Trump has said that he is recovering well from his infection from the coronavirus in an online video. Trump posted a four minute video on Twitter yesterday from his hospital suite at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The video came after there were conflicting versions of the status of the president’s health given by the White House and the president’s own physician. Although he looked tired, Trump appeared to be healthy, noting that the next few days would be important. He said, „Over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test, so we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days”.

Source – Reuters

The Polish Space Agency, POLSA, is in talks with NASA over joint projects in space exploration, according to the Polish Associated Press. The prospective collaboration may include building devices and instruments for space missions according to a spokeswoman for POLSA. POLSA has already collaborated with NASA mainly as a subcontractor for its European partners including the German Aerospace Center or within the European Space Agency of which Poland has been a member since 2012. Giving an example of the kinds of successes that Polish firms have contributed, to the spokeswoman gave the example of a hi-tech robotic device designed and built by innovative Warsaw-based company Astronika which was in 2018 launched to Mars on board a NASA spacecraft, amongst other achievements.

Source – Polskie Radio, Polish Associated Press

The ratings agency Standard & Poor has upheld its current rating of the Polish economy as A- for long-term liabilities in foreign currency, with stable outlook according to its latest report. The agents predicts that COVID-19 pandemic will cause Poland’s economy to shrink by 3.4 percent in 2020 and that public finances will be burdened by spending pressure. At the same time, a strong economic upturn in 2021 supported by EU financing and accompanied by policies aimed at reducing government deficits and debt accumulation should keep the general government deficit below 60 percent of GDP. Poland’s Finance Minister said that he was encouraged and pleased by S&P’s decision to maintain Poland’s rating at the unchanged level.

Source – Polish Associated Press

And finally, the long running rebuilding of the palm house in Oliwa Park may be coming to an end. The works to rebuild the palm house have been going on since 2017. One of the main challenges of the work was the fitting of the 420 glass panels that make up the rotunda and are secured with 1400 glass supports which have to be individually fitted. Access to the rotunda housing the exotic plants will be possible only afer the completion of the reconstruction of the conservatory building which is not due to be finished until the end of 2021, but the plan for now is that the fencing around the rotunda will soon be removed so visitors will be able to get a close up view of the new rotunda before the end of the year.

Sources – gdansk.pl

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