Millions of viewers watched Italy triumph over England in the Euro 2020 final last night, setting viewing records in Poland and across Europe.

Some 12 million Polish fans reportedly tuned in to TVP1 and TVP Sport to watch the final, with TVP president Jacek Kurski calling the match „the final of dreams from the perspective of not only fans but also television.”

While England struck early with a goal by Luke Shaw in the 2nd minute of play, Italy fired back with an equalizer by Leonardo Bonucci in the second half, eventually forcing the 1-1 match into extra time and eventually into penalties.

Italy went on to defeat England 3-2 in a penalty shootout, giving Italy only its second Euro victory since their first win in 1968.

Source: PAP

Polish and international officials were in the northeastern Polish town of Jedwabne yesterday to mark the 80th anniversary of the WWII massacre of the town’s Jewish inhabitants by their Polish neighbors.

The pogrom took place on July 10, 1941, in what was then Nazi-occupied Poland, with ethnic Poles playing a „decisive role” in the Jedwabne pogrom, according to an investigation done in 2000 by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).

During the pogrom, some 340 Jews were killed after being herded into a barn which was then set alight. A similar scenario forms the basis for the controversial 2012 film Pokłosie (Aftermath).

A number of Polish, Israeli, German, and US officials attended Sunday’s event, with Poland’s Chief Rabbi, Micahel Schudrich, describing the ceremony as a chance to „pray” and „repent together.”

Source: Radio Poland, PAP

It was a weekend of remembrance for communities across Poland as the country marked the National Day of Remembrance of Victims of Genocide by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II.

The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943 in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, in what was then Nazi-occupied Poland.

The massacres of July 11, 1943, were part of an operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). According to historians, the massacre on July 11 resulted in the deaths of some 10,000 ethnic Poles, with the aim of driving the Polish minority out of the region.

Polish officials laid wreaths yesterday at the Wołyn monument in Warsaw, while local Polish diplomats led similar commemorations in the Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Lviv.

Source: Radio Poland, PAP, BBC

Two winners of the Nobel prize in Literature, Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk and Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich, are set to meet later this week in Wrocław.

Headlined „Protest/Pratest,” the organizers say that the event will be „not only a conversation of two eminent writers, awarded the most important distinction in the literary world, but also a debate of two unquestionable artistic and intellectual authorities, whose words have the power to change reality.”

The two writers are to speak primarily about the role of women and the challenges they face in both countries, as well as the themes of freedom, responsibility, and courage in the world of literature.

Outspoken writer Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018. Writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich is a dedicated critic of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko and was subsequently forced to emigrate from Belarus. She was awarded the Nobel Literary Prize in 2015.

The event, which is being hosted by the City of Wrocław, is scheduled for this Thursday, July 15, and will be broadcast online.

Source: Radio Poland, www.wroclaw.pl

Weather

Today will be a mix of rain and sun with a light breeze coming in from the northeast and a good chance of thunderstorms throughout the afternoon. Temperatures will peak around a high of 24°C, or 76°F, staying warm overnight with a low of only 18°C or 65°F. Tomorrow looks to be sunny and hot, with a chance for rain returning later in the week.

EP/am