Ukrainians voted in early Parliamentary elections yesterday to support newly elected president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s mandate for reform on issues including corruption, the economy, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. As of midnight Sunday, Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party was projected to win close to 50% of the vote, with its closest competitor, the party of pro-Russia tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, coming in a distant second with roughly 12%. While Zelenskiy’s party has won enough seats for a majority in parliament, they will still need a coalition partner to form a stable government.

Since winning the presidential election three months ago, Zelenskiy has garnered early praise for his efforts to address the conflict in eastern Ukraine, attempting to foster engagement and inclusion by using Russian during his inauguration and holding his first diplomatic phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. His efforts may already be paying off in the region of Stanytsia Luhanska, where a troop pullback and disengagement zone were agreed upon last month.

Opposition party leader Medvedchuk previously proposed granting autonomy to regions of eastern Ukraine and full amnesty for separatists in exchange for a discount on natural gas imports from Russia, a proposal which Zelenskiy has roundly rejected. While confirming a willingness to negotiate with Russia on resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, members of Zelenskiy’s party emphasized a desire to seek a peaceful resolution, “but not at any cost.”

Over the weekend, millions of customers received an alert from discount airline provider Wizz Air prompting them to change their passwords.

Though the unusual request raised questions about hacking and a potential data breach, Wizz Air assured customers in a formal statement and via Twitter that they had not been hacked, and that the requests were a “precautionary measure” in response to a “temporary technical irregularity.” As Twitter user Petar Todorov pointed out, under new European data protection requirements, Wizz Air is “supposed to give full and detailed account of the breach” in the event that customers’ personal data had been compromised. While assuring Mr. Todorov and others that a breach had not occurred, the company has not yet provided any additional details as to the nature of the “irregularity.”

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, Polish VR company Immersion has partnered with NASA and the Smithsonian Channel to create an augmented reality app allowing users to relive the historic moon mission for themselves.

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Amstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin spent four days and traveled 400,000 kilometers before landing at the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969. Fifty years later, users of „Apollo’s Moon Shot Augmented Reality” app can make the same journey instantaneously using a tablet or mobile phone. After constructing and stepping through a portal to the moon, users are then able to walk around and explore the lunar environment for themselves. Additionally, they can embark on a series of missions, including launching a Saturn V rocket or safely piloting the Apollo lander to the moon’s surface.

The app complements the US Embassy’s current “Reaching the Moon” exhibition in Warsaw, which features 100 photographs from the NASA archives detailing the entire journey from the Earth to the Moon during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. A special soundtrack produced by Jarek Grzesica of the Warsaw Electronic Festival also accompanies the photos.

The exhibition will be on display through September and the app is available for free download on Google Play and the App store. More information on the Apollo moon landing and the exhibit can be found at https://pl.usembassy.gov/moon/ and information about the Moon Base app can be found at immersion.pl.

The annual Ladies’ Jazz Festival opens in Gdynia this week and features award-winning performers from around the world beginning now through Sunday the 28th.

Beginning on Sunday July 21st, Gdynia will play host to the 5th annual Ladies’ Jazz Festival, the only festival of its kind in Europe. Performers from North America, Africa, and around Europe will be in attendance, with the Filharmonia Kaszubska in Wejherowo kicking off the weeklong concert series tonight with a performance by Luísa Vilar Sobral, a Portguese singer/songwriter who rose to prominence for her composition „Amar pelos dois” which took home the top prize at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.

A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in the United States, Sobral’s compositions are known for featuring musical elements from her native Portugal, along with elements of Brazilian, French, and North American traditions.

The concert in Wejherowo will begin at 8pm tonight; tickets range from 89-149 złoty and can be purchased online at www.ladiesjazz.pl or at the venue.

RGEN/EP