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☆ Microsoft says it launches data centre in Poland
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WARSAW, April 26 (Reuters) - Microsoft has launched a data centre in Poland, the company's President for Europe, the Middle east and Africa (EMEA) said on Wednesday at the European Economic Congress in the southern city of Katowice. Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel FlorkiewiczOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Vitalia Diatchenko: Poland's state-owned airline refuses boarding to Russian tennis player
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sammy Mncwabe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Poland’s state-owned airline LOT refused to board Russian tennis player Vitalia Diatchenko in line with restrictions introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the carrier said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday without naming her. Diatchenko was denied boarding a LOT flight departing from Cairo on Monday as she was traveling to Calvi in Corsica via Warsaw and Nice to play at a tournament. “The provisions of the regulation introduce restrictions at certain border crossings, including airport crossings, in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation traveling from outside the Schengen area,” the airline said. IOC president Thomas Bach defended the latest recommendations citing tennis as an example that participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes “works” despite the war. Bach also blasted some European governments as “deplorable” for what he calls their “negative reactions” to the organization’s stance on Russia

☆ China's Xi holds first call with Ukraine's Zelenskiy since Russian invasion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Xi told Zelenskiy that China would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties seeking peace, Chinese state media reported. Xi, the most powerful world leader to have refrained from denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, made a state visit to Russia last month. China will focus on promoting peace talks, and make efforts for a ceasefire as soon as possible, Xi told Zelenskiy, according to the Chinese state media reports. In early April, the Chinese president said he was willing to speak with Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy had repeatedly asked Xi to meet him or speak to him, including after the Chinese leader visited Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month.

☆ Tennis Polish airline says it refused boarding to Russian tennis player
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Tennis player Vitalia Diatchenko said on Monday she was refused boarding to a LOT flight in Cairo, with German airline Lufthansa then also refusing to sell her a ticket. The European Union has banned all flights from Russia and has agreed to limit issuing free-travel Schengen zone visas. In September, Finland joined the Baltic states and Poland in closing its borders to Russian tourists. Unlike many other sports, tennis did not introduce a blanket ban on players from Russia and its ally Belarus after the invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Belarusian players have been competing on the tours and at the other Grand Slams as neutral athletes.

Saatcioglu, the coordinator of Limak International Hotels & Resorts, is one of many in hospitality expecting to see Turkey's economically vital tourism sector recover from a quake that dragged down bookings and hotel stays. The quake has caused tourists to think twice before booking a trip to Turkey, a major Mediterranean holiday destination. "After months of excellent performance, when the country was leading the travel recovery in Europe (after the COVID pandemic), international tourism to Turkey is clearly taking a nosedive," he told Reuters. Despite strong bookings recently across the travel sector in Europe as a whole, Turkey has not been able to regain momentum. On the back of these auspicious March figures, the Turkish government expects to generate $56 billion in tourism revenues this year.

☆ Germany to face Ukraine in 1,000th international match
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 24 (Reuters) - Germany will play three friendly matches in June with their 1,000th international match set to be a charity game against Ukraine, the country's football association (DFB) said on Monday. Germany will play Ukraine on June 12 in Bremen, followed by a game against Poland in Warsaw on June 16 and finally against Colombia on June 20 in Gelsenkirchen. "The 1,000th international match for the Germany senior men's national team is a very special event. "That's why we are happy that we can play an international match with and for Ukraine on the occasion of our anniversary." Germany, who were knocked out of the World Cup in Qatar in the group stage, have never lost to Ukraine in eight matches.

☆ Where Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon takes the corporate jet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

"The Board fully supports the use of the Goldman Sachs planes for travel, just as it supported the use of private aircraft by previous Goldman Sachs executives," said Tony Fratto, a company spokesman. "Executives at Goldman Sachs have been flying on private aircrafts for decades as it is proven to be the most secure, effective, and cost-efficient solution to meet the extensive travel obligations for CEOs of firms like Goldman Sachs — which is why all of our peer institutions also extensively use private aircraft." John Waldron, president of Goldman Sachs Reuters/Brendan McDermidOccasionally, Solomon and Waldron switch planes, particularly when Waldron flies overseas. Goldman Sachs has a sponsorship deal with pro golfer Patrick Cantlay. "These estimates wildly overstate the cost of such flights to Goldman Sachs and are not an accurate representation," he said.

☆ Opinion: What happens when you knock on a door
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. In Kansas City, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old White homeowner shot Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who rang his doorbell. And, “with Trump as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, Fox has resumed coverage of him which often veers into the free-advertisement category. Neither Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who announced his candidacy last week, nor Marianne Williamson represents a serious threat, Axelrod noted. “The calendar reads 2023,” wrote the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, “but it feels like 2016 all over again.

☆ Meek Mill: Rapper vows to 'spread the word' against antisemitism after Auschwitz visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Dana Bash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

One of the most famous marchers was Meek Mill, a 35-year-old African American rapper from Philadelphia without any prior connection to the atrocities that happened there. But at a time of rising antisemitism in the US, his presence spoke volumes, and that was the point. Mill is a friend of New England Patriots owner and philanthropist Robert Kraft, whose Foundation to Combat Antisemitism is in the midst of a $25 million national campaign, #StandUpToJewishHate. When Meek was incarcerated, Kraft visited him in prison, and the two stayed in touch and have remained friends. “But I think it’s also important for me to support Robert, all my Jewish friends, everyone that always supported me.

☆ A Meal in Which Bread Was the Starter, the Main and the Dessert
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Gisela Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since the Middle Ages, the perception of a blanched loaf as more exclusive than a darker one, though the latter is typically more nourishing, has been hard to shake. The invention of the iron roller mill in 19th-century Hungary made the process of beating all color, and nutrition, out of wheat easier and white bread cheaper. Still, the devaluing of whole grains continued, explained the Berlin-based American baker Laurel Kratochvila, 39, recently. “The 20th century was a very bad time for bread,” she said. “Be very wary of the perfect white loaf,” Kratochvila said, arching one eyebrow.

☆ EU lawmakers demand obligatory hosting of migrants under looming overhaul
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Gabriela Baczynska | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Evidence, from Nigeria, looks at the sea on his sixth day waiting for a safe port to disembark on board of NGO Proactiva Open Arms Uno rescue boat in central Mediterranean Sea, August 22, 2022. The bloc's migration and asylum system collapsed in 2015 when more than one million people - mostly fleeing the war in Syria - reached Europe's southern shores. But Mediterranean arrivals rose last year, with the bloc's border agency Frontex reporting some 330,000 unauthorised arrivals. With irregular immigration on the rise, those including Italy's far-right government are leading growing calls for the EU to do more to reduce sea arrivals. While the EU wants to overhaul its defunct system before a bloc-wide election in 2024, the issue of obligatory relocations seems as stuck as ever, according to diplomats.

☆ The F-35 is becoming the most popular fighter jet among NATO militaries — with one 'baffling' exception
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Romania is the latest NATO member to say it will buy the F-35 stealth fighter jet. To some in the West, Turkey's decision to choose the S-400 over the F-35 just does not compute. As one of the original partners in the US-led F-35 program, Turkey should have been among the first to get the cutting-edge stealth fighter. The F-35/S-400 controversy illustrates Turkey's position as the odd man in NATO since it joined in 1952. Putin and Erdogan inspect a Russian Su-57 fighter jet at the MAKS air show in Russia in August 2019.

☆ Opinion: The untold story about Anne Frank’s hiding place
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Opinion Roy Schwartz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

British actors Bel Powley and Joe Cole play Miep and Jan, with Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank. Only Otto Frank survived. Anne Frank's (1929-1945) world famous diary charts two years of her life from 1942 to 1944, when her family were hiding in Amsterdam from German Nazis. Anne Frank has particularly been in the zeitgeist in recent years, with the 2021 French animated film “Where Is Anne Frank,” a magical retelling of her story loosely based on the 2018 graphic novel; the 2022 Dutch Netflix movie “My Best Friend Anne Frank,” based on the book “Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend”; the controversial, eventually pulled 2022 book “The Betrayal of Anne Frank”; and “After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond,” coming out in May. While 89% have heard of Anne Frank, 32% don’t know she died in a concentration camp.

Charles de Gaulle airport is negatively affected, both as a destination and as a hub," said Olivier Ponti, VP of Insights at travel data firm ForwardKeys. Some 33,300 flights were cancelled this year over Easter, compared with 7,800 last year, while 9,000 flights were delayed by more than three hours, compared to 6,800 last year. Around 73% of flights were on time, compared with 76% in 2022 and 81% in 2019. There were 33,700 flights cancelled, compared with 26,600 last year, while 10,800 flights, which made up 1% of all total flights, were delayed by more than three hours, up from 9,500 last year. Air traffic authority Eurocontrol previously warned that delays could continue into the northern hemisphere summer, especially if strikes keep going.

[1/4] A load of corn is poured into a truck, at a grain storage facility in the village of Bilohiria, Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine April 19, 2023. REUTERS/Gleb GaranichBILOHIRIA, Ukraine, April 19 (Reuters) - Volodymyr Bondaruk takes little comfort from Poland's decision to lift a ban on the transit of Ukrainian grain. His mixed dairy and arable farm in western Ukraine has already lost a Polish contract and he doubts it will ever be renewed. With uncertainty growing over the future of a Black Sea Grain Initiative that allows safe grain exports from three ports in southern Ukraine, Bondaruk said the outlook for exports appeared increasingly bleak. He called for European help for Ukrainian farmers seeking to export grain, saying that he, unlike "some in Europe", did not want subsidies, just an even playing field.

☆ As EV costs tumble in China, an export wave builds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] People use their phones in front of the BYD Seagull that is displayed at the Auto Shanghai show, in Shanghai, China April 19, 2023. Patrick Koller, chief executive of French auto supplier Faurecia (EPED.PA), said the entry-level EV market in Europe was an open lane for Chinese automakers. Koller said he had met with the CEO or chairman of more than two dozen Chinese automakers in Shanghai. Renault’s (RENA.PA) Dacia ships the Spring EV, an entry-level hatchback like the BYD Seagull, to Europe and ranked as the second-largest EV exporter from China last year after Tesla. BYD has not announced export plans for the Seagull, which is priced below what is now the best selling EV in China, the BYD Dolphin, which is priced from 116,800 yuan ($17,000) in China.

☆ Ukraine's cheap grain exports are causing an awkward rift with its European neighbors and staunch allies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The move to ban Ukraine's agricultural imports has angered the European Union given that the bloc has sought to help Kyiv maintain its exports as an economic lifeline for the war-torn country. Slovakia's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development told CNBC that despite its temporary ban on Ukrainian imports, the country continued to be open for "solidarity transit," meaning that Ukrainian grain could still pass through its territory to other countries. The ministry added that "we would appreciate the whole-European solution [to] the Ukrainian grain because the topic is relating to the protection of the whole internal European market." It also said it recognized the impact of the "oversupply" of Ukrainian imports on EU farmers, particularly those in bordering nations. Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections, are seen anchored off the Istanbul coastline on November 02, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.

SummarySummary Companies Three EU states have banned Ukrainian grain, food importsRomania looks set to follow suitUkraine also trying to salvage Black Sea grain dealWARSAW, April 18 (Reuters) - Poland agreed on Tuesday to lift a ban on the transit of Ukrainian grain and food products, but Ukraine said a wartime deal allowing it to safely ship grain from Black Sea ports was still under threat. Failure to resume exports into eastern European countries or secure an extension of the Black Sea grain deal would trap large amounts of grain in Ukraine, hitting its exports and causing further economic problems for Kyiv as it battles Russian troops. Large quantities of Ukrainian grain have been trapped by bottlenecks in eastern and central Europe as low global prices and demand mean grain cannot easily be sold on. BLACK SEA GRAIN DEAL IN DOUBTUkraine, which relies on grain and food sales for a significant slice of its gross domestic product, also has concerns about the Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered between Moscow and Kyiv by Turkey and the United Nations last July. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss the Ukraine Black Sea grain export deal with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York next week, Russia's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

KYIV, April 17 (Reuters) - Kyiv will aim to secure the re-opening of food and grain transit via Poland as "a first step" at talks in Warsaw on Monday, Ukraine's agriculture minister said, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on some imports from Ukraine. Poland's ban on grains, in effect since Saturday evening, also applied to transit through the country. Officials have said it is meant to keep grain transport from entering the Polish market. Deliveries to Hungary accounted for around 6% of Ukraine's farm exports, he said, adding that Ukrainian food transit via Hungary and Slovakia was unaffected. Talks between Ukraine and Poland were due to start in Warsaw around 12:00 p.m. (1000 GMT), Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said on TVP Info.

As a result, farmers in Poland, Hungary and other nations have seen their incomes plummet. measures,” his country would follow Poland in restricting Ukrainian grain imports until the end of June, according to Hungarian news reports. The announcement came after Warsaw reached a deal with Kyiv on Friday to strictly limit and, for a time, halt Ukrainian grain deliveries to Poland. Image Ukrainian grain being loaded onto a cargo ship near Odesa, Ukraine, in August. Image A Ukrainian soldier loading shells inside an American-made M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer to be fired toward Russian positions in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Friday.

☆ Polish ban on Ukrainian grain and food imports includes transit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WARSAW, April 16 (Reuters) - A Polish ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other food will also apply to the transit of these products through the country, the development and technology minister said on Sunday. The Polish ban came into effect on Saturday evening. Ukraine's ministry of agrarian policy and food said on Saturday that the Polish ban contradicted existing bilateral agreements on exports, and called for talks to settle the issue. Ukraine's state-run Ukrinform news agency said Ukrainian and Polish ministers are due to meet on Monday in Poland and the transit arrangement would be focused on in the talks. Around 3 million tonnes of grain left Ukraine every month via the Black Sea grain corridor while only up to 200,000 tonnes are moving to European ports through Polish territory, according to the Ukrainian ministry.

☆ Ukraine's fighter jet fleet is slowly growing, but its weapons to bring down Russian jets are dwindling, leaked US document shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The jets will bolster Ukraine's fighter fleet, which is still under fire from Russia's larger air force. But air-defense ammunition is a more urgent need, one underscored in recently leaked US documents. Berlin approved Warsaw's request to send jets to Ukraine on Thursday, the same day it was received. Both air forces have shifted tactics and now operate farther from the front line, playing to the advantage of the Russian aircraft, which have an edge at longer ranges. Without the threat posed by those interceptor missiles, Russian aircraft would have greater freedom to attack Ukrainian aircraft and bomb Ukrainian targets, including in support of Russian front-line troops, the leaked document says.

☆ Polish government bans grain and food imports from Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Pavlo PalamarchukWARSAW, April 15 (Reuters) - The Polish government has decided to ban imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect the Polish agricultural sector, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczyński, said on Saturday. "Today, the government has decided on a regulation that prohibits the entry, importation of grain into Poland, but also dozens of other types of food (from Ukraine)," Kaczyński said during the PiS party convention. The list of these goods will be included in the government regulation, and there are goods "from grain to honey products, very, very many things," he added. But it is the duty of every state, every authority, good authority in any case, to protect the interests of its citizens," Kaczyński said. Kaczyński said Poland was ready to start talks with Ukraine to settle the grain issue and the Ukrainian side had already been notified of the decisions of the Polish government.

☆ Ukraine is getting Soviet-era fighter jets from Poland after Germany approves transfer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Poland will provide Ukraine with five Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets. The jets originally belonged to East Germany during the Soviet era and were sold to Warsaw. Poland obtained the MiG-29 jets from Germany in the early 2000s, according to media reports. Poland has said it was willing to provide Ukraine with its entire fleet of 28 MiG-29s. "So far, everyone has agreed that it's not the time to send fighter jets," Pistorius said just last month.

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