Poland celebrated 103 years of independence yesterday with celebrations and events being held all around the country.

The Polish President and the First Lady took part in a Catholic Mass dedicated to Poland’s regained independence and in a special changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw on Thursday morning. During the event President Duda thanked Polish border guards for protecting the country’s eastern frontier, amid „Belarusian regime’s hybrid action against Poland and the European Union”. Poland regained independence on November 11th , 1918, the day World War I ended, after 123 years of partition by Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Source – Polskie Radio

The Belarusian regime, fronted by the so-called „strongman” president Alexander Lukashenko has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Western Europe if the EU goes ahead with planned sanctions over an escalating migrant crisis on the country’s border with Poland.

Many world organizations including the EU, NATO and UN have accused Belarus of provoking the crisis to undermine European security, an allegation it denies. In a statement the leader of Belarus said, „We are heating Europe, and they are threatening us. And what if we halt natural gas supplies? Therefore, I would recommend the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other empty-headed people to think before speaking.”

Source – BBC

Poland’s national football squad is training in Spain ahead of its remaining two World cup qualifiers against Andorra and Hungary.

Poland takes on Andorra today away from home and then plays against Hungary in Warsaw next Monday. There are 27 players to be made available for the matches, including star striker Robert Lewandowski, FIFA’s world player of the year for 2020 and English Premier League right-back Matty Cash, who became a Polish citizen last month. Poland are in 2nd place in their qualifying group.

Source – Polskie Radio

Gdynia has been awarded UNESCO City of Film status by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network initiative this week.

The Creative Cities Network program was established in 2004 to support cooperation between cities and regions that base their development on various areas of the creative economy. UNESCO awards the title of a creative city in seven areas: literature, music, film, visual arts, design, crafts and folk art, and gastronomy. Currently, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network associates 295 cities in 90 countries.

Source – Radio Gdańsk

Weather

Today will be a sunny day with scattered clouds in a light breeze with temperatures reaching 10 degrees centigrade (50 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to 4 degrees overnight. Saturday will become rainier with temperatures reaching 7 degrees during the day and 5 degrees overnight.

Martin Caren/MarWer