Tag: poland

Poland Prepares New Hate-Speech Law: 3 Years In Prison For Insulting LGBT People

Poland, once a bastion of conservatism, is radically shifting gears under the new left-liberal government with a new “hate speech” law that could see offenders imprisoned for up to three years for “offensive” content against LGBT people.

The left had already been pushing for stricter speech controls before the coalition government formed, and since it won power, the left is now making good on its promises. On Wednesday, the Polish Ministry of Justice published a draft amendment to the penal code regarding hate speech on the website of the Government Legislation Center.

The new draft law is looking to expand classifications regarding hate speech to include age, disability, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, according to Polish news outlet DoRzeczy.

In a strong stand against government plans to penalize what it calls “hate speech,” Poland’s Confederation party asserts the need for free and unrestricted public discourse

“The introduction of the proposed solutions will ensure enhanced and full criminal law protection against the use of violence or unlawful threats, incitement to hatred, insults and violations of bodily integrity due to the disability, age, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity of the injured party,” reads the draft.

The draft also threatens up to five years in prison for “threats.”

However, even for “insults,” which are loosely defined, penalties could be extremely harsh under the new draft law.

Provisions regarding gender, sexual orientation and gender identity have been added to article 256, which covers incitement to hated and in article 257 regarding insults.

Now, under these new rules, “insults” against sexual orientation or gender identity will be punishable by up to three years in prison.

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Lost in Time and Out of Place: Trypillia Copper Axe is Poland’s Oldest

A remarkable discovery has been made in eastern Poland. Archaeologists have unearthed a copper axe in Poland’s Hrubieszów district which looks for all the world like it belongs to the ancient Trypillia culture.

This would date the find to a period between the 4th and 3rd millennium BC and make the axe the oldest copper artifact ever discovered in Poland. There is however a problem: the Trypillia culture was never in Poland.

A Lost Axe, Found

The axe itself is only small, and we can only guess as to what its exact purpose was. The Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments describes it as being made of copper and 7.4cm (3”) in length with a wide fan-shaped blade 4.1cm (1.6”) wide, and a rectangular convex head measuring 0.9cm x 0.6cm (0.3” x 0.2”), reports Heritage Daily.

When it was initially uncovered it was a complete mystery to the archaeologists, who had never seen anything like it before. The axe did not look like anything known from the Bronze Age in that region, and its simplicity and shape suggested it could be Neolithic. This would make it an extremely early example of metalworking.

“Our axe was made in a quite simple ‘primitive’ casting method in a flat-convex form, no longer used in the developed metallurgy of the Bronze Age. Therefore, it was necessary to pay attention to the earlier Neolithic era. Unfortunately, in the inventories of Neolithic cultures from Poland there is no such equivalent,” the Lublin conservator noted as reported in Arkeonews.

Given it did not resemble anything known from Neolithic cultures in Poland, either, it seemed to defy our understanding. It would take another discovery, in the neighboring Ukraine, to finally provide an answer.

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Former Top Polish Army Chief: ‘Ukraine is Losing the War’

A former top Polish army chief says Ukraine is losing the war and that “more than 10 million people are missing.”

General Rajmund Andrzejczak, the ex-chief of the Polish General Staff, made the comments during an appearance on Polsat Television.

“More than 10 million people are missing. According to my estimates, losses should be in the millions, not hundreds of thousands. The country has no resources, no one to fight. Ukrainians are losing this war,” said the general.

Andrzejczak pointed to Ukraine’s dwindling anti-aircraft missile supplies, which would allow Russia to conduct more effective strikes, casualties, and infrastructure damage.

“The Ukrainians are losing this war,” he stated emphasized.

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Polish Foreign Minister Says Sending NATO Troops Into Ukraine ‘Not Unthinkable’

Poland’s foreign minister says the presence of NATO forces “is not unthinkable” and that he appreciates the French president for not ruling out that idea.

Radek Sikorski made the observation during a discussion marking the 25th anniversary of Poland’s NATO membership in the Polish parliament on Friday, and the Foreign Ministry tweeted the comments later in English.

Last month French President Emmanuel Macron said the possibility of Western troops being sent to Ukraine could not be ruled out, a comment that prompted an outcry from other leaders.

French officials later sought to clarify Macron´s remarks and tamp down the backlash, while insisting on the need to send a clear signal to Russia that it cannot win its war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has warned that if NATO sends combat troops, a direct conflict between the alliance and Russia would be inevitable. Russian President Vladimir Putin said such a move would risk a global nuclear conflict.

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Poland Issues Military Order You Have 6 hrs to Report for Service

As of yesterday, Poland has issued a new directive that if you are called for military service, you have just 6 hours to report. The penalty for failure to report is three years in prison. If you cannot make it there in 6 hours, call the commander and explain why. If you fail to show up and avoid military service, you will be imprisoned for five years.

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US Announces $2 Billion Loan for Poland to Spend on Military

The Biden administration on Monday announced a $2 billion loan for Poland that will go toward modernizing Warsaw’s military.

“Today, the United States is proud to announce the signing of a milestone $2 billion Foreign Military Financing (FMF) direct loan agreement to support Poland’s defense modernization,” the State Department said in a press release.

The State Department said the US would also provide $60 million in FMF funds to cover the cost of the loan. The press release described Warsaw as a “stalwart US ally” as Poland has become a major hub for arms shipments to Ukraine and spends more on its military than most European NATO members.

“In addition to its central support role in facilitating international assistance to neighboring Ukraine, Poland has demonstrated its ironclad commitment to strengthening regional security through its robust investments in defense spending,” the State Department said.

Poland has been unloading its old Soviet-made equipment into Ukraine and is purchasing lots of US and other NATO military equipment, a policy that’s been a boon for Western arms makers. The US has also significantly expanded its military presence in Poland since Russia invaded Ukraine, with about 10,000 US troops now stationed there.

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Canada’s Speaker Resigns After Honoring Nazi Now-Wanted For Extradition By Polish Minister

The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, Anthony Rota, has resigned after leading Parliament in praising a Ukrainian man who moved to Canada after fighting for a Nazi unit.

“I must step down as your Speaker,” Rota said, adding “I reiterate my profound regret.“

Still no opinion on the matter from the ADL… Weird!

Developing…

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A high ranking Polish government official is pressing for Warsaw to begin an extradition request for Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian Canadian who served the Nazi SS Galizien formation in WWII. Hunka was hailed as a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero” by Justin Trudea’s government days ago, receiving a standing ovation in the House of Commons also as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky looked on and cheered.

Polish Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek announced on Tuesday he has “taken steps” to initiate the extradition of Hunka to Poland for possible war crimes.

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Putin Issues Stark Warning To Poland And NATO

Putin held a video conference on Thursday with members of Russia’s Security Council. I hope folks in the West pay attention to what he said, so I’m presenting the entirety of his remarks following a presentation by the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Based on public source information and Russia-collected intelligence, Russia believes that Poland plans to seize Ukrainian territory west of the Dnieper River as Ukraine’s much-ballyhooed counter-offensive collapses.

Let me give you Putin’s bottom line up front:

Regarding the policy of the Ukrainian regime, it is none of our business. If they want to relinquish or sell off something in order to pay their bosses, as traitors usually do, that’s their business. We will not interfere.

But Belarus is part of the Union State, and launching an aggression against Belarus would mean launching an aggression against the Russian Federation. We will respond to that with all the resources available to us.

Vladimir Putin is not a weak, spineless creature like Barack Obama or Joe Biden. He does not make idle threats and does not succumb to emotion.

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Archaeologists Found Proof of a Viking City That Was Supposed to Be Mythical

The rousing debate surrounding the potential existence and possible location of a key 10th century Viking city has resurfaced, thanks to an observation tower on a Polish island in the Baltic Sea.

The history of Viking life has been largely buried, whether physically or figuratively. But a simple construction project to erect a new observation tower in a public park on the Polish island Wolin unearthed fresh artifacts. Those artifacts point toward the existence of a 10th century city—at least, according to the man doing the finding.

When Polish islands start offering up clues to a 10th century city, Viking scholars get excited, knowing that the potentially-real-possibly-mythical city of Jomsborg could be part of the equation.

“It is very exciting,” Wojciech Filipowiak, an archaeologist at Poland’s Academy of Sciences working on the project, tells the New York Times. “It could solve a mystery going back more than 500 years: Where is Jomsborg?”

Believed to be a key part of Viking history, Jomsborg first surfaced in 12th century texts. But the location was never discovered. That led some to believe that Jomsborg was nothing more than a compilation of lore—a mythical mash-up city described as a fortress combined with a bustling trading post.

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Railway Track Unearthed at Nazi Bunker Complex Sparks Amber Room Speculation

An unearthed railway line within a Nazi bunker complex in Poland has sparked speculation that it could lead to the legendary lost Amber Room. The remarkable discovery was reportedly made by researchers in the town of Mamerski, where the German Army Supreme Command was headquartered during World War II. A recent deforestation project saw the site cleared of trees, which allowed experts from the Jaćwież-Elk, Augustów Historical and Exploration Association to survey the area. To their amazement, they discovered a set of railway tracks and wagon wheels at a depth of around five feet below the ground, leading into what would have been the bunker system.

Detailing the find on social media, the Mamerki museum’s Bartlomiej Plebańczyk marveled that “this is a huge surprise as we did not know that there was a railroad inside the complex.” He went on to observe that “the railway line and the wagon were covered up on purpose, but we have no idea who did, when they did it and why.” The mysterious nature of the discovery led Plebańczyk to theorize that it could possibly be connected to the apocryphal Nazi ‘gold train’ which is said to have been stuffed with a slew of pilfered treasures, including the ornate gold and amber paneling stolen from a Russian palace, and subsequently hidden at the end of WWII.

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