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Ready for a ride on the highway to Hel? The infamous 'Route 666' bus service to the Polish seaside resort is being resurrected by Flixbus – three years after it was renumbered due to pressure from religious groups. The 13-hour route links Kraków and Hel, with stops in major Polish hubs like Władysławowo, Kuźnica and the capital, Warsaw. The route gets its name from a mix of its destination, Hel (similar to the English word 'hell'), and bus number 666, the biblical number of the beast. Although the service ran for over a decade, the number was ultimately retired and...

Russia's war on Ukraine is devouring its finances. War spending now totals 16.8 trillion roubles ($238 billion) — nearly 40% of the entire 2026 budget — and Putin's own finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has privately warned of a possible economic collapse, urging deep cuts to avert it. -The deficit is the largest since the 2022 invasion, growth has flatlined at 0.4%, and analysts say Moscow is faking its books. According to a 30 May report in the Financial Times, Russian government spending on the war in Ukraine is on track to exceed budget allocations by about 2 trillion Russian roubles...

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has announced plans to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour, after the Ukrainian president named a military unit after a group that led massacres of ethnic Poles during World War Two. However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government regularly clashes with the opposition-aligned president, has sought to calm emotions, warning that the only one to benefit from conflict between Poland and Ukraine is Russia. Zaproponowałem, aby jednym z punktów było odebranie prezydentowi Zełenskiemu Orderu Orła Białego – Prezydent RP @NawrockiKn. pic.twitter.com/4NaOAIjO3C — Kancelaria Prezydenta RP (@prezydentpl) May 29,...

Polish state defence firm Bumar-Łabędy has signed an agreement with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem setting out the terms of production in Poland of dozens of South Korean K2 tanks. It will be the first time in almost two decades that Poland will manufacture tanks domestically. The agreement, signed on Monday, formally defines the division of work and payments under a wider 2025 contract in which Poland ordered 180 K2 tanks and 81 support vehicles, some of which were to be produced domestically. Under the plan, Bumar-Łabędy will assemble 61 Polish-configured K2PL tanks and 72 support vehicles. The first K2PL tank...

President Trump on Thursday said the U.S. will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, stirring confusion following weeks of changing statements from Trump and his administration about reducing the American military footprint in Europe.

The United States will be sending an additional 5,000 troops ​to Poland, U.S. President Donald Trump said on ‌Thursday. Trump, in a Truth Social post, cited his relationship with Poland’s conservative nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, as the reason behind his decision ​to send additional troops. The announcement comes two days ​after U.S. Vice President JD Vance told reporters a ⁠U.S. troop deployment to Poland had been delayed.

Two senior Polish defense ministry officials are on their way to Washington to get more information on why the U.S. suddenly canceled the deployment of 4,000 soldiers on a planned rotation to the country. Paweł Zalewski and Cezary Tomczyk — both deputy defense ministers — will try to get details on what Zalewski called "the incident." "No one in Poland knew that the rotation of the American brigade would be suspended," Zalewski told TOK FM radio on Monday morning. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth blindsided Warsaw by halting the long-planned deployment of soldiers with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st...

The Ministry of the Interior and Administration said the planned changes would end what it called “automatism” in granting Polish citizenship and replace it with a model based on a foreigner’s real connection to Polish society, culture and the state. Under the proposal, foreigners seeking Polish citizenship would have to meet stricter conditions. The ministry said the aim was to avoid “the mistakes made in the past by other countries handing out citizenships.” One of the main changes would extend the required period of legal residence to eight years. This would include three years of temporary residence followed by five...

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia was seeking to draw Belarus deeper into its war in Ukraine and was weighing plans to attack Ukraine's north or a NATO country from Belarusian territory. "We continue to document Russia's attempts to draw Belarus deeper into the war against Ukraine," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app after meeting military and intelligence officials. He said Ukraine knew of additional contacts between Russia and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to persuade him to join "new Russian aggressive operations". "Russia is considering plans for operations to the south and north of Belarusian territory –...

Pete Hegseth’s last-minute decision to cancel the deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland caught Pentagon staff and European allies by surprise — the latest example of an abrupt personnel move from the Defense secretary that blindsided both sides of the Atlantic. It wasn’t clear exactly why Hegseth issued the order, according to three defense officials familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed anger and frustration with European allies for their failure to help with the Iran war, although Trump has labeled Poland a “model ally” for its high defense spending. The decision was even more surprising because...

President Donald Trump said Friday night that the United States military could decide to relocate the troops that are currently stationed in Germany and move them to Poland. The president touted his friendship with the country's leader, President Karol Nawrocki, who assumed office last year. The Pentagon previously indicated that the U.S. would move 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months. “Well, Poland would like that," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We have a great relationship with Poland. I have a great relationship with the president. I endorsed him, and he won. He came...

As we mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe this Friday, 8 May, it’s clear that Germany will again be the leading European military power. Already next year its defense spending will be as much as that of France and Britain combined — and it is projected to be significantly larger by 2030. The German government’s declared goal is to have the strongest conventional army in Europe. True, France and Britain have nuclear weapons, but that means less money to spend on the rest of defense. So, the question is not “will this...

Nato is “disintegrating”, Poland’s prime minister has said after the United States announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany. Donald Tusk made the dire assessment of the Western alliance on Saturday amid an escalating war of words between Donald Trump and Germany over Berlin’s criticism of the war on Iran. In a post on X on Saturday, Mr Tusk wrote: “The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend.” On Friday evening, the US department of defence...

President Trump announced Friday he would soon raise tariffs to 25% on vehicles imported from the European Union, claiming the bloc was non-compliant with its US trade deal. “I am pleased to announce that, based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States,” he said in a post to Truth Social. Companies that build vehicles in the United States will be exempt from the tariff, he added. “Many Automobile and Truck...

A Kanye West concert in Poland has been cancelled following government pressure and condemnation over a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments by the US rapper, the BBC reported on Friday. West, who now goes by the name Ye, was scheduled to appear at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów on June 19, his first performance in Poland for 15 years, but the venue said on Friday it would now not take place "due to formal and legal reasons". Marta Cienkowska, Poland's culture and heritage minister, had described the decision to book West as "unacceptable". West has faced repeated backlash...

They are now the safest country in Europe, which is something that nobody expected because they are unapologetic about the fact that they will put their citizens first before any kind of online manipulation, EU rhetoric that tries to make them feel bad and push them to taking in refugees that just end up destroying their country. Of course, when I say they, I am referring to Poland, which surprise, surprise, has turned out to be a bastion of freedom and peacefulness against this takeover that we're seeing across Europe. But not only are they doing a great job at...

US President Donald Trump has asked European allies for a lot lately – the use of military bases, the potential relocation of missile defense systems and generally stronger support for US military action against Iran. Many responses have been lukewarm, with allies offering limited defensive support but also repeatedly calling for de-escalation. But increasingly, White House requests have been met with a firm “no.” Or nie, non, rifiuto. This week, Italy denied a US request for aircraft to land at a military base in Sicily, according to state broadcaster RAI on Tuesday. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has perhaps been...

A generation ago, Poland rationed sugar and flour while its citizens were paid one-tenth what West Germans earned. Today its economy has edged past Switzerland to become the world’s 20th largest with over $1 trillion in annual output. It's a historic leap from the post-communist ruins of 1989-90 to today’s European growth champion that economists say has lessons on how to bring prosperity to ordinary people — and that the Trump administration says should be recognized by Poland’s presence at a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies later this year In 35 years — a little less than...

POZNAN, Poland (AP) — A generation ago, Poland rationed sugar and flour while its citizens were paid one-tenth what West Germans earned. Today, the economy of the country has edged past Switzerland to become the world’s 20th largest with more than $1 trillion in annual output. It’s a historic leap from the post-Communist ruins of 1989-90 to European growth champion, which economists say has lessons on how to bring prosperity to ordinary people — and that the Trump administration says should be recognized by Poland’s presence at a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies later this year. The...

According to a statement released by the University of Gdansk, evaluation of the remains of people who lived in what is now north-central Poland between 4100 and 1230 B.C. has revealed how their diets changed from the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. Using radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and stable isotope measurements of carbon and nitrogen, a team led by Łukasz Pospieszny of the University of Gdansk suggests that Corded Ware communities of the late Neolithic period herded their animals in forests and wet river valleys. After several hundred years, however, their diet began to resemble that of nearby farmers,...