Officials have announced that NATO will step up patrols in the Black Sea region to counter Russian threats to civilian ships and its ongoing attacks on Ukrainian ports.
The decision was made yesterday at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council in Brussels, convened “to address the serious security situation in the Black Sea region following Russia’s unilateral termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye.”
In a statement, The NATO-Ukraine Council “strongly condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal and its deliberate attempts to stop Ukraine’s agricultural exports on which hundreds of millions of people worldwide depend.”
NATO allies and Ukraine also denounced “Russia’s recent missile attacks on Odesa, Mykolaiv, and other port cities, including Moscow’s cynical drone attack on the Ukrainian grain storage facility in the Danube port city of Reni, very close to the Romanian border.” in response to Russia’s actions, NATO and NATO-allied countries have agreed to “step up surveillance and reconnaissance in the Black Sea region, including with maritime patrol aircraft and drones.”
Today is day 519 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Source: Polskie Radio
Unemployment in Poland was a modest 5.0 percent in June, a slight drop from 5.1 percent in May, according to figures released earlier this week by Poland’s state-run Central Statistics Agency.
According to Polish officials, the figures for June published by the Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS) are consistent with an earlier flash estimate by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.
The European Union’s Eurostat statistics agency, which uses a different methodology, estimated that unemployment in Poland was a modest 2.7 percent in May, unchanged from April and the second-lowest rate in the 27-nation bloc.
According to the Eurostat data, the Czech Republic continued to boast the lowest jobless rate in the EU in May, at 2.4 percent, while Malta trailed Poland in third place, with 2.8 percent. Conversely, Spain had the highest seasonally-adjusted jobless rate in the EU at 12.7 percent, while Greek unemployment was the second-highest at 10.8 percent.
The EU average for May dropped slightly to 5.9 percent from 6 percent in April, a noted improvement over the high of 7.2 percent reported in June 2021.
Source: Polskie Radio, ec.europa.eu
This week marked 84 years since a trio of Polish mathematicians successfully reverse-engineered the Nazi German Enigma cipher machine and shared their decryption methods with British and French allies.
On 25-27 July in 1939, the revolutionary decryption work of Polish codebreakers Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski – which included a copy of “Bomba,” a reverse-engineered version of the now-famous Enigma machine – was passed to British and French intelligence in a village near Warsaw.
The initial contribution of Polish cryptographers was essential to the Allied codebreaking work popularized in films like 2001’s “Enigma” and 2014’s “The Imitation Game.”
While previously overshadowed by similar narratives featuring British mathematician Alan Turing and the Bletchley Circle in the UK, historians now recognize the vital role played by the collaboration between Polish and British codebreakers. Their work is thought to have collectively shortened World War II by several years, saving millions of lives.
An original copy of a commercial Enigma K574 machine can currently be seen at the Polish Arms Museum (Muzeum Oręża Polskiego) in Kołobrzeg as part of their newly revised exhibit on the Enigma codebreakers.
More information is available on the museum website at muzeum.kolobrzeg.pl.
Source: Polskie Radio, PAP
Beaches in Pomerania now offer an accessible solution for people with mobility issues to enjoy spending time in the sea.
Individuals using wheelchairs or assistive devices, including seniors, children, and those with chronic conditions or recovering from accidents, can borrow specialized amphibious trolleys for sea bathing in areas around Trójmiasto.
In Gdańsk, the trolleys are offered at the entrance to Brzeźno (entrance no. 50) and Stogi (entrance no. 26) beaches, which are equipped with amenities for all, including those with disabilities. Similar equipment is available in Gdynia, Sopot, Kuźnica, Jastarnia, and Jurata.
The trolleys are free of charge and accessible to anyone needing assistance with sea bathing. Visitors wanting to use a special sea trolley should contact the trained lifeguard on duty for assistance.
A list of locations and contact information is available >>>HERE.
Source: Radio Gdańsk
Weather
Today will be partly cloudy, with only a slight chance of rain and a gentle breeze coming from the southwest. Temperatures will be slightly warmer than yesterday, with a daytime high of 21°C or 70°F, dropping to a low of 13°C or 56°F overnight. Cooler, wet weather is expected tomorrow, with a good chance of rain showers throughout the day.
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