Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga over the weekend to discuss regional security issues and economic investment opportunities like the Three Seas Initiative. The joint Polish-Croatian initiative brings together twelve countries situated between the Adriatic, Baltic, and Black Seas. The program primarily focuses on transport, digital services, and energy production, along with building roads, railways, pipelines, and power grid links.
The Japanese PM declared that his country was considering joining the project alongside the United States and Germany. In return, he asked Duda to help lift restrictions on Japanese food imports put in place after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.
Poland is particularly interested in a business partnership with Japan to encourage Japanese companies to invest in cyberspace, infrastructure, and energy, as well as support for Poland’s energy transition.
Source: Radio Poland
The Tokyo Olympics are now well underway, with a host of Polish athletes striving to be the first person to bring home the first Olympic medal for their country.
Tennis phenom Iga Światek is one of the current favorites to bring home a medal after her brilliant performance in Italy last month and the success of her opening performance against Mona Barthel of Germany last Friday.
She will face off today at 14:30 CEST against Paula Badosa of Spain for the first time in her life. The winner will advance to the ⅛ finals, and her next rival will be either the Argentinian Nadia Podoroska or the representative of the Russian Olympic Committee, Yekaterina Alexandrów.
Source: PAP
Citizens of Belarus top the list for asylum seekers in Poland this year, according to recent data announced last Saturday by Poland’s Office for Foreigners.
1,700 refugee applications were submitted to the Office (UdSC) in the first six months of 2021, with international protection being granted to 391 foreigners, mainly citizens of Belarus, Russia, and Turkey, according to spokesman Jakub Dudziak.
International protection is awarded on a case-by-case based on a set of internationally-approved criteria, namely that the application faces persecution or a real threat to life or health in their country of origin.
Dudziak noted that in the case of Belarusian applicants, the approval rate was 100 percent in comparison with the average approval rate of 39 percent.
Belarus has been gripped by mass protests against strongman Alexander Lukashenko for almost a year. During this time, hundreds of journalists, protestors, and opposition figures have been detained, and thousands have been exiled or fled the country, many across the border to Poland.
Source: Radio Poland
Along with Jarmak Dominikański, Gdańsk is currently playing host to a festival celebrating the sound of the carillon, a massive musical instrument consisting of a series of bronze bells.
The 13th Carillon Festival in Gdańsk features works composed especially for the instrument, ranging from Baroque to present-day compositions. It is the only festival of its kind, and Gdańsk is the only city in Poland to possess two sets of the instrument. Poland’s only other carillon is at the Jasna Góra monastery in the southern city of Częstochowa.
Leading carillonists from the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland will be performing at special concerts over the next 13 weekends. The festival itself runs until the end of August.
For more information on the history of the carillon or the schedule of concerts, visit us online at radiogdansk.pl
Source: gdansk.pl, Radio Poland
Weather
Today will be mostly cloudy with a light breeze coming in from the east and a good chance of rain in the late afternoon. Temperatures will peak around a high of 26°C, or 78°F, cooling off overnight to a low of 18°C or 64°F. Thunderstorms are forecast again tomorrow, with a good chance of rain in the early afternoon.
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