The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is set to speak to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov by phone in the coming days for the first time since Russian invaded Ukraine earlier this year.

Blinken said the call „will not be a negotiation about Ukraine,” but focus on a „substantial offer” that the United States had conveyed to the Kremlin to exchange prisoners and bring home two American citizens detained by Moscow, former US Marine Paul Whelan and basketball star Brittney Griner. Blinken declined to provide details of the deal.

Source – Polskie Radio

Six US F22 fighter jets are due to arrive in Poland next week as part of NATO’s Air Shielding mission.

Poland’s Foreign Minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, made the announcement in a radio interview on Thursday. Błaszczak, who is also a deputy prime minister, said „the US pilots would patrol the Polish skies and train with their Polish colleagues”. The six F-22 Raptor fighter jets will be stationed at Łask Air Base in central Poland. The Air Shielding mission was launched in the wake of NATO’s summit in Madrid last month, to bolster deterrence against potential Russian threats. Today is the 156th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Source – Polskie Radio

Sweden’s foreign minister has refused a request by Poland to return an ancient relic that has been in the country since the 17th century.

The relic in question is the Łaski Statutes, the first codification of law published in the historic Kingdom of Poland. The initiative to return it to Poland came from a Swedish lawmaker who is a member of the Sweden Democrats parliamentary group. In reply to the request, Sweden’s foreign minister declined, saying that under 17th-century international law, such spoils of war were legitimate acquisitions. Dating from 1506, the Łaski Statutes is one of the oldest preserved Polish legal acts. In 2016, it was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World list.

Source – Polskie Radio

Around 200 pilgrims from Gdańsk set off yesterday on the 40th walking pilgrimage from Gdańsk’s St. Mary’s Basilica to the famous Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa.

Along the roughly 440 km trip, the pilgrims will experience the kindness of strangers as they accept food and shelter at villages along the way. Every year since the Middle Ages, thousands of Poles go in pilgrim groups to visit Jasna Góra. In 2011, it was estimated that 3.2 million pilgrims from 80 countries around the world went to the shrine. Around 830,000 pilgrims took part in 228 pilgrimages organized in different places across Poland, with over 140,000 reaching the monastery on foot.

Source – Radio Gdańsk, Wikipedia

Weather

Today will be a mostly sunny day with scattered clouds in a gentle breeze and temperatures of 20 degrees centigrade (72 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and 11 degrees overnight. Tomorrow will continue in the same vein with a moderate breeze and temperatures of 21 degrees during the day and 14 degrees overnight.

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Martin Caren/MarWer