Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau opened a new embassy in Malta on Friday, citing the increasing number of Polish tourists visiting the island and choosing to reside there.

According to Rau, some 140,000 Polish tourists visit Malta annually (pop. 500.000), and some 2,000 Polish nationals reside permanently on the island.

Rau attended Friday’s opening ceremony in Santa Venera and met with Ambassador Tomasz Czyszka, who has been on the island for three years but was previously unable to take up his post formally.

The decision to open the new embassy was made in 2019, but the launch was delayed for many years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The embassy will consist of an ambassador, a consul, and a cultural attaché, with plans to establish a Polish school.

Source: Polskie Radio

Polish state-run energy giant PGE and Danish power company Ørsted have signed an agreement to purchase 107 wind turbines for their planned offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.

PGE’s CEO Wojciech Dąbrowski told reporters in Warsaw last week that the contract was “the biggest in the history of renewable energy in Poland,” while Ireneusz Zyska, the Polish government’s commissioner for renewable energy sources, called it “Poland’s biggest-ever renewable energy project.”

The 107 turbines, each with a capacity of 14 MW, will make up Baltica 2, PGE, and Ørsted’s joint wind farm in the Polish waters of the Baltic Sea, officials said. The Baltica 2 project alone is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 2.4 million Polish homes, reporters were told.

PGE and Ørsted are planning to build two offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea, Baltica 2 and Baltica 3, with the latter due to be ready by 2030, according to officials. The two wind farms will have a collective capacity of 2.5 GW, representing “the biggest offshore wind farm project in Europe and one of the biggest in the world,” according to Dąbrowski.

Source: Polskie Radio

World No.1 Iga Świątek secured a spot in her second straight Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final after her opponent, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, was forced to retire yesterday due to a calf injury.

Świątek took the lead in yesterday’s semi-final match by winning the first game, with Jabeur showing signs of a calf injury in the last point of the game and calling for a medical timeout.

Though Jabeur returned to the court with her leg taped, she was not playing at her best, which led Świątek to win the next two games easily before Jabeur decided to retire.

In today’s final match, Świątek will be defending the title she won at the 2022 Stuttgart Open, in a repeat of last year’s match against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

The match is set to begin at 13:00 CEST this afternoon.

Source: Polskie Radio, wtatennis.com

The painting installation “Angel over Elbląg” was unveiled yesterday at Plac Dworcowy in Elbląg, courtesy of Marie-Luise Salden (Salewska), an artist born in 1939 in Elbląg.

During the opening ceremony, the artist described the message and placement of the artwork as universal, in that “the angel on the work represents peace, forgiveness, protection, and love,” while the location of the work at the train station is also symbolic.

“Train stations are often the first point of contact with a new home, both the city and its inhabitants,” explained Salden.

The location references those who left the city due to the war, those who arrived immediately after, and the current migration situation in Poland, where millions of citizens of Ukraine fled to neighboring Poland to seek shelter from invading Russian forces.

Despite living in Germany most of her life, Marie-Luise Salden remains emotionally connected with Elbląg and its inhabitants, which is why she donated to “her city” a work that has a symbolic dimension for her.

Source: Radio Gdańsk, info.elblag.pl

Weather

Today will be sunny and warm, with very little chance of rain and a gentle breeze coming in from the south. Temperatures will peak around a high of 22°C or 71°F dropping to a low of 9°C or 48°F overnight. Cooler, wet weather is expected tomorrow, with a chance for rain showers overnight and again tomorrow morning.

Elizabeth Peck/aKa