Top Polish officials have offered their condolences after the brutal murder of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe was shot yesterday while giving a campaign speech in the western Japanese city of Nara. He was rushed to the hospital by helicopter but could not be saved.
The Polish Embassy in Tokyo, President Andrzej Duda, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed “shock” and “heartbreak” at the news of Abe’s death, calling him “a great leader of Japan” and a “great friend of Poland.”
According to reports in local media, the suspected gunman, a former member of the Japanese military, was arrested at the scene.
Source: Radio Poland, Reuters
Poland’s Monetary Policy Council will continue to hike interest rates until inflation is subdued, according to recent comments by central bank officials.
Adam Glapiński, current President of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), told reporters on Friday that “we can’t tolerate inflation” and vowed to “keep raising interest rates until inflation is subdued.”
According to Glapiński, the latest National Bank of Poland’s forecast predicts inflation “will peak during the holiday period” and “will slowly fall afterward.”
The forecast, set to be published next week, also predicts that inflation will keep falling in 2023 before returning to its target level in 2024.
Glapiński stressed that the forecast may change depending on the situation and that “if inflation keeps rising, rate hikes will continue.”
Inflation in Poland stood at 15.6 percent in year-on-year terms in June, according to a flash estimate released by the Central Statistical Office (GUS) last week.
Source: Radio Poland
The Mexican ambassador to Poland was in Gdańsk on Thursday to help open an exhibition on Polish-Mexican friendship at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk.
The exhibition, “México y Polonia: Camino Compartido (Mexico and Poland: A Common Path),” was created to celebrate the more than 90 years since Mexico and Poland established diplomatic relations.
The museum’s acting director, Grzegorz Berendt, said at the opening that the show offered „a unique opportunity to find out about different aspects of Polish-Mexican relations in the context of World War II.”
The exhibition features some 40 photographs from General Władysław Sikorski’s historic trip to Mexico in December 1942.
During Sikorski’s historic visit, Mexico agreed to establish a temporary haven for 1,453 Polish World War II refugees at Colonia Santa Rosa near the Mexican city of León, with Mexico ultimately agreeing to accept up to 30,000 Polish refugees.
The “México y Polonia” exhibition is open until August 4.
Source: Radio Gdansk, Radio Poland
On Sunday evening, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk will host a “Poetry for Ukraine” event featuring the music and poetry of various Ukrainian artists.
The concert will feature well-known orchestral pieces such as “Adagio from String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 11” by Samuel Barber alongside contemporary Ukrainian works such as “Melody” by Myrosław Skorik and “Prelude from String Quartet 3” by Valentyn Silvestrov.
The works of famous Ukrainian national poets Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka will also be performed live by renowned Polish actor Mirosław Baka.
Sunday’s concert begins at 18:00 in the Jan Olszewski room of the WWII museum. Admission to the event is free, and tickets can be picked up at the museum box office.
The “Poetry of Ukraine” event is part of the tenth annual Euro Chamber Music Festival Gdańsk, the largest chamber music festival in Poland.
Source: Radio Gdańsk
Weather
Today will be cool and cloudy in the morning, with sunshine and clearer skies later in the afternoon and a strong breeze coming in from the west. Temperatures will peak around a high of 21°C, or 70°F, dropping to an overnight low of 13°C or 55°F. Cooler, wet weather is expected for tomorrow, with a chance for rain and thunderstorms continuing into Monday.
Elizabeth Peck/aKa
