All posts tagged: Poland

Poland arrests Indian rationalist for blasphemy extradition

Poland arrests Indian rationalist for blasphemy extradition

Published by skeptic

Pictured: Sanal Edamaruku, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Sanal Edamaruku, atheist and founder of Rationalist International, has been arrested in Poland over an Indian request to extradite him to face charges of blasphemy. Edamaruku, who has been living in exile in Finland since 2012, was arrested on 28 March following an Interpol red notice, with his arrest announced today. Humanists UK has expressed deep alarm at the news and called for his release. Edamaruku was charged with blasphemy in India in 2012 after debunking an alleged miracle – revealing that water dripping from a crucifix in Mumbai was in fact sewage. This angered the Catholic Church in India and led to formal charges of blasphemy. He has been living in Finland since then in self-imposed exile because he believed his life would be in danger if he returned to India. ‘Edamaruku was charged with blasphemy in India in 2012 after debunking an alleged miracle – revealing that water dripping from a crucifix in Mumbai was in fact sewage.’ Death threats and violence against rationalists in …

Polish PM Tusk makes last-ditch plea to avoid Trump’s tariffs – POLITICO

Polish PM Tusk makes last-ditch plea to avoid Trump’s tariffs – POLITICO

Published by Sam

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is urging Donald Trump not to impose sweeping tariffs on the EU this week. “You have friends and trusted allies from Portugal to Poland, from Denmark to Greece. In our common European-American interest are strong U.S., strong EU, and a strong NATO, not weaker,” Tusk told the United States president in a video posted on X on Monday. “Think about it, Mr. President and dear American friends, before you decide to impose tariffs against your closest allies. Cooperation is always better than confrontation,” he added. Source link

Polish ex-PM charged with abuse of power for trying to organize elections during Covid – POLITICO

Polish ex-PM charged with abuse of power for trying to organize elections during Covid – POLITICO

Published by Sam

Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been charged with abuse of power for attempting to organize a presidential election at the height of the pandemic in 2020 using mail-in ballots, a prosecution spokesperson announced Thursday. Morawiecki, who is now deputy leader of the opposition nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, allegedly bypassed state election bodies and ordered that ballots be printed without legal authority, costing the government 70 million złoty (€17 million). The mail-in election ultimately did not take place; Poland held an in-person vote several months later, resulting in a narrow victory by pro-PiS incumbent Andrzej Duda. Morawiecki waived his immunity from prosecution in January. He has denied any wrongdoing and has refused to answer questions from the prosecution. In a post on X, Morawiecki wrote that he is being “persecuted for the will to organize the presidential elections.” “If I had to make the decision again regarding the preparation of the elections at that time, I would do exactly the same. It was my duty. When the whole world froze because of …

Stolen Artworks Recovered Two Years After Initial Theft in Poland

Stolen Artworks Recovered Two Years After Initial Theft in Poland

Published by skeptic

More than two years after eleven artworks were stolen in a burglary in Poland, the works have been recovered, according to Polish international news network TVP World. At a value of more than $186,600, the stolen collection includes 10 paintings and one photograph by such notable artists as Damien Hirst, Banksy, and Takashi Murakami. The theft took place between March 24-255, 2022, in the southeastern Polish city Przemyśl. The works were in the process of being moved from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to Switzerland. There was a break in the case on December 9, which lead to the recovery of the stolen contemporary works. The authenticity was subsequently confirmed by foreign experts, Malgorzata Taciuch-Kurasiewicz from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Przemyśl told Polish state news agency PAP. The recovery was possible due to joint efforts between the District Prosecutor’s Office in Przemyśl and officers of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Rzeszów, along with representatives from the company that owns the works. Though the works are now in safe keeping, the investigation is still ongoing. …

Warsaw Group Opens First Museum of Queer History in Poland

Warsaw Group Opens First Museum of Queer History in Poland

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On Friday, Poland inaugurated its first museum dedicated to LGBTQ history, a milestone in a country where legal recognition for gay rights remains limited. Located in Warsaw on Marszalkowska Street, the museum was founded by Lambda, a Polish nonprofit rights organization that has also worked extensively in recent years with queer refugees arriving into the country. “We are opening the first queer museum in the world in a country where the legal situation for queer people is the worst in the whole of the EU,” said Miłosz Przepiórkowski, Lamdba’s president, in a statement at the museum’s opening last week. Related Articles The museum’s collection features nearly 150 artifacts, including letters, photographs, and early activist materials, chronicling LGBTQ history in Poland as far back as the 16th century. In a statement, Lamda’s Director, Krzysztof Kliszczynski, described the museum as the first of its kind in post-communist Europe. The ceremony attracted key figures from Poland’s LGBTQ activist circles including writer Andrzej Selerowicz and Ryszard Kisiel, who both worked as activists in Warsaw the 1980s. At the time …

‘A Real Pain’ gets achingly close to the real quandaries of Holocaust remembrance

‘A Real Pain’ gets achingly close to the real quandaries of Holocaust remembrance

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(RNS) — After arriving in Poland for a weeklong Holocaust “roots” tour, Benji, one of two Jewish American cousins whose trip is depicted in the new movie “A Real Pain,” has a meltdown in the first-class section of the Warsaw-Lublin train. Benji (Kieran Culkan) wrestles with an eerie sense that as he walks in the footsteps of Jews put on cattle cars on the way to concentration camps, his privilege obscures the real horror of the Shoah. It’s a feeling many American Jews experience when they encounter Holocaust sites: the sense that their existence is an unintended consequence of this catastrophe and to return means to explore the violent rupture that destroyed the world that could have been. Benji’s cousin David (Jesse Eisenberg) watches this outburst and is horrified. But Benji is insistent: If a Holocaust tour isn’t the time to grieve, then when is? “A Real Pain,” about the cousins’ trip to Poland to honor their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, after her death, builds on a host of earlier movies about the Holocaust, adding …

‘A Real Pain’ is a real triumph

‘A Real Pain’ is a real triumph

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(RNS) — You will go to see “A Real Pain” because of the all-star cast of Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed it), Kieran Culkin (whom many of us loved in “Succession”) and Jennifer Grey (welcoming her back to the big screen). You will go to see this movie because it is the story of the relationship between David Kaplan and Benji Kaplan, two Jewish cousins, each with their own quirks. If you had watched the series “Succession,” you will nod knowingly, as Kieran does a great job of reprising the personality traits of Roman Roy, his character from that show. You will go to see this movie (or, at least, I did) because it takes place in Poland and is the story of those two cousins and a tour group seeing various Jewish sites in Poland. During the tour, Benji and David take a side trip to a small town in Poland to find their late grandmother’s old house. (This is based on a trip that Jesse and his now-wife took to his …

What does it mean to remember Oct. 7 — in Poland?

What does it mean to remember Oct. 7 — in Poland?

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Everyone knows the song “American Pie,” with that one line: “The day the music died.” I remember the day my music died — the music of unfettered enthusiasm for Israel’s security and for the American Jewish future. Or, if you want to quote Don Henley, it was “the end of the innocence.” It happened exactly a year ago, on Oct. 7, 2023. At about 7 a.m. that Shabbat morning, my phone started buzzing with a message from a good friend. “I am so so sorry about what has happened in Israel.” With that, I turned on the television. Then began the longest day of my life and of our collective Jewish lives. Oct. 7 is still here. The sun has not yet set on that day. I have been spending the High Holy Days in Warsaw, Poland. It is difficult to walk more than a few yards without sensing the twin histories of Jewish grandeur and Jewish vulnerability. Leave it to me to find myself here, remembering Oct. 7 in this place of …

Poland urges Nord Stream patrons ‘keep quiet’ as pipeline mystery returns to spotlight

Poland urges Nord Stream patrons ‘keep quiet’ as pipeline mystery returns to spotlight

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WARSAW, Poland —  Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Saturday reacted to reports that revived questions about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, saying the initiators of the gas pipeline project should “apologize and keep quiet.” That comment came after one of his deputies denied a claim that Warsaw was partly responsible for its damage. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Ukrainian authorities were responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022, a dramatic act of sabotage that cut Germany off from a key source of energy and worsened an energy crisis in Europe. Germany was a partner with Russia in the pipeline project. Poland has long said its own security interests have been harmed by Nord Stream. “To all the initiators and patrons of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The only thing you should do today about it is apologize and keep quiet,” Tusk wrote on the social media portal X Saturday. Tusk appeared to be reacting specifically to a claim by a former …

France stall against Netherlands and Austria on the up – Football Daily | Football

France stall against Netherlands and Austria on the up – Football Daily | Football

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Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email. On today’s podcast: France and the Netherlands serve up the first goalless draw of the Euros, as a VAR decision denies Barry’s favourite, Xavi Simons, what would have the winning goal. The panel discuss that decision and Poland’s early exit, confirmed by events in Leipzig after a very exciting Austria swept them aside earlier in Berlin. Ukraine came from behind to beat Slovakia thanks to a touch of Bergkamp magic from Roman Yaremchuk, and a grandstand finish to Group E looks on the cards with Romania playing Belgium on Saturday. Plus, Elis James shares a voice note as the Welsh sack Rob Page, more England fallout, and a reader hits back at claims that Barry Island is scary. Support The Guardian here. You can now also find Football Weekly on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images Support The Guardian The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open …