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Independent and informed news and insight on Polish politics, culture, business and history. Support us: https://notesfrompoland.com/donations/support-us/
A Polish city has changed the scarf on a decorative Christmas teddy bear from blue to red after complaints that the original looked like the Ukrainian national colours.
In fact, blue and gold had been chosen because they are the colours of the city’s coat of arms.
Another Soviet memorial has been demolished in Poland - the 43rd since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"We say ‘no’ to Russians who believe these lands somehow belong to their sphere of influence,” declared the Institute of National Remembrance.
Prosecutors have dropped their investigation into a doctor who performed an abortion on a woman who was in the ninth month of pregnancy. They deemed that she did not violate Poland’s strict abortion laws.
The case sparked controversy this year, with particular anger among the right-wing opposition.
Opinion polls show that Prime Minister Donald Tusk's ruling party has pulled ahead of its main rival, PiS.
However, the position of Tusk's coalition remains precarious, and the government's fundamental problems and weaknesses have not gone away, writes @aleksszczerbiak.bsky.social.
A Russian official from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg has been detained in Poland on the basis of a warrant issued by Ukraine, which accuses him of illegal archaeological excavations in Crimea.
Moscow has condemned the arrest, accusing Poland of "legal tyranny" and promising "consequences".
A gas interconnector between Poland and Slovakia has hardly been used since opening to much fanfare three years ago.
No gas at all has flowed from Poland to Slovakia since March 2024, as Bratislava continues to instead rely on Russian supplies.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has accepted an invitation to meet his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki for the first time since Nawrocki took office in August, says Nawrocki's chief foreign policy aide.
The meeting will take place in Warsaw but no date has yet been set.
New documents have raised questions about the history of August Browne, a Nigerian immigrant who has been celebrated as a Polish war hero
They cast doubt on claims he fought in the Warsaw Uprising, but also paint a clearer picture of his life before, during and after the war, writes Nicholas Boston
A longer, unpublished version of the new US National Security Strategy identifies Poland as a country the US should try to “pull away” from the EU, according to leaked excerpts.
It also calls for the US to support parties that “seek sovereignty and preservation of traditional European ways of life”
Poland is in talks over donating further MiG-29 fighter aircraft to Ukraine in exchange for access to drone and missile technologies.
09.12.2025 21:54 — 👍 20 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1
President Karol Nawrocki has been chosen as one of the 28 "most powerful people shaping European politics and policy in the year ahead" by @politico.eu.
They note how Nawrocki has "transformed the presidential palace into an alternative power center to the prime minister’s office".
Construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant is now set to begin after the European Commission approved Warsaw’s request to allocate 60 billion zloty (€14.2 billion) in state aid for the project
09.12.2025 18:46 — 👍 22 🔁 9 💬 3 📌 4
The EU's Catholic bishops have criticised a recent European court ruling ordering Poland to recognise same-sex marriages concluded in other member states.
They say it infringes on member states' right to decide on their own family law and could "fuel anti-EU sentiment".
A record amount of natural gas has been traded in Poland this year, surpassing the levels seen before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The share of gas in Poland's electricity production also reached an all-time record high of 19% last month.
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The arrival of a more liberal government in 2023 helped propel conservative broadcaster Republika from relative obscurity to the top of the news ratings.
The station has transformed Poland's media landscape, but questions remain over its long-term prospects, writes Agata Pyka.
The trial of Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun has begun. He is accused of various crimes, including relating to his attacks on a Hanukkah celebration in parliament and a Holocaust lecture
He declared in court that he is facing trial because he "dared to defend myself against Jewish supremacy"
Poland has detained and charged three Ukrainians whose car was found, during a police traffic stop, to contain an array of computer hacking equipment.
Among the offences they are accused of is "attempting to damage computer data of particular importance to national defence".
Polish flag carrier LOT’s widely expected move to buy Smartwings, the Czech Republic’s largest airline, has collapsed after a last-minute twist that instead saw Turkey’s Pegasus seal a €154 million deal for its Czech counterpart.
08.12.2025 09:06 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Polish prosecutors have requested an Interpol red notice for the two Ukrainians suspected of sabotaging a rail line on behalf of Russia.
Given that they immediately fled to Belarus, the chances of extradition to face justice in Poland appear slim.
Poland has bought 50 used rail carriages from Germany to help meet surging demand for train travel.
The opposition has criticised the deal, saying Poland will become a “graveyard for German scrap”. But rail operator PKP says it was necessitated by poor planning when the opposition was in power.
PM Donald Tusk called a classified meeting of parliament in a bid to persuade opposition MPs to overturn the president's veto of crypto-asset regulation, which Tusk said threatens national security due to Russian involvement in cryptocurrencies.
However, in a subsequent vote, the veto was upheld.
The government's majority in parliament has approved a bill intended to facilitate the transition away from coal by offering payments to miners who lose their jobs and redeveloping former mining areas.
The right-wing opposition largely abstained from voting, prompting criticism from a miners' union
A large stash of documents from WWII, many relating to Poland’s underground resistance, has been discovered under the floor in a historic tenement house in Warsaw.
The collection also includes the diary of a young woman living under the Nazi-German occupation.
OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, is acquiring Polish-founded startup Neptune, which provides tools for tracking the training of AI models.
04.12.2025 17:01 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Netflix series Heweliusz, the streaming giant's largest-ever Polish production, contributed 78 million zloty to the economy, finds a new report.
The five-episode drama, based on the true story of Poland's worst maritime disaster, quickly became one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English titles.
The Polish authorities are investigating whether a wild boar carcass infected with African swine fever virus that was dumped in a pig farming area could be a new element in Russia's campaign of sabotage against Poland.
04.12.2025 11:46 — 👍 27 🔁 22 💬 2 📌 3
The US has invited Poland to attend next year’s G20 summit in Miami, saying it has earned a place there after recently joining the world’s 20 largest economies.
G20 member South Africa, meanwhile, will not be invited amid ongoing tensions with the Trump administration.
The justice minister says he "has no intention of recognising" yesterday's Supreme Court resolution as it was adopted by illegitimately appointed judges "who have participated in an attack on the rule of law".
He accused them of trying to "undermine our membership in the EU".
