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☆ Poland asks Germany to send Patriot missile launchers to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WARSAW, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Wednesday he had asked Germany to send Patriot missile launchers offered to Poland to Ukraine. "After further Russian missile attacks, I asked Germany to have the Patriot batteries offered to Poland transferred to Ukraine and deployed at its western border," Blaszczak wrote on Twitter. "This will protect Ukraine from further deaths and blackouts and will increase security at our eastern border." On Monday Poland said it would propose deploying additional Patriot missile launchers near its border with Ukraine, following an offer from Germany. Berlin offered Warsaw the Patriot missile defence system to help secure its airspace after a stray missile crashed in Poland last week.

WARSAW, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Polish regulator UOKiK has started proceedings against PayPal (PYPL.O) over possible prohibited contractual provisions, it said on Wednesday, adding that the possible fine could amount to 10% of the company's revenue. The regulator said it has doubts regarding the payments company's right to impose contractual penalties, such as blocking access to accounts, financial sanctions, or terminating contracts among others. UOKiK said that prohibited activities which could incur penalties were described in an unclear way and users may not understand exactly what was not allowed and what action the company could take in such cases. PayPal did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anna Koper, additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The scramble to rearm Ukraine is transforming NATO in a way that would've been hard without Putin's help
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Rachel Nostrant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

NATO countries have scrambled to rearm and resupply Ukraine as it fights off Russia's invasion. Troops from six NATO countries during a joint terminal attack controller training in Latvia on April 6. Germany has agreed to send some older hardware to countries that send their Soviet-made tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine. Interoperability with weapons and alignment on tactics will also make it "veritably impossible for these countries to leave NATO," Banerjee added. "The weapons are from NATO, they're going to be from NATO, they will be back-built, and these components will be from NATO countries."

☆ Russian prankster impersonating Macron spoke to Poland's Duda after blast
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful," Duda tells the caller. "I don't want to have war with Russia and believe me, I am extra careful, extra careful." "During the call, President Andrzej Duda realized from the unusual way the interlocutor conducted the conversation that there might have been an attempted hoax attempt and ended the conversation." Duda's office was investigating how the callers managed to get through to him together with the relevant services, it said. In 2020 Vovan and Lexus called Duda pretending to be U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, raising questions about security and call screening in Duda's office.

☆ Elon Musk says Twitter Blue relaunch delayed, may use different color checks for organizations
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Todd Haselton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter owner Elon Musk said on Monday evening that the company is planning to delay the relaunch of its $8 per month Blue Verified service. Musk said Twitter will "probably use different color check for organizations than individuals." It allowed users to pay for a Blue checkmark, previously reserved for verified users. Musk had earlier said he planned to relaunch Twitter Blue on Nov. 29. The paid Blue subscription service led to a plethora of pranksters creating imposter accounts on Twitter.

☆ Polish regulator charges four banks over response to unauthorised transactions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WARSAW, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Poland's consumer watchdog UOKiK has charged four banks, Bank Pocztowy, ING Bank Slaski (INGP.WA), Nest Bank and Santander Consumer Bank, for failing to deal appropriately with clients who report unauthorised transactions. According to UOKiK, clients of the banks failed to have money that had dissappeared from their accounts returned within the statuatory time period and received misleading responses to complaints. If found guilty, the banks could face fines of up to 10% of annual revenue. "Unfortunately... banks very often fail to meet the statutory obligation to return funds lost as a result of unauthorised transactions, and in addition they mislead consumers," the head of UOKiK, Tomasz Chrostny, said in a statement. Reporting by Alan Charlish; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Polish regulator to appeal after Gazprom Nord Stream 2 fine annulled
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WARSAW, Nov 21 (Reuters) - UOKiK will appeal a ruling that annulled fines it imposed on Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and five other companies responsible for building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Polish regulator said on Monday. UOKiK in 2020 fined Gazprom more than 29 billion zlotys ($6.33 billion) for building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline without Warsaw's approval. It also imposed a total fine of 234 million zloty spread across five other companies involved in financing the project. The other companies affected by the fines were Engie Energy (ENGIE.PA), Uniper (UN01.DE), OMV (OMVV.VI), Shell (SHEL.L) and Wintershall. Poland was a staunch opponent of the Nord Stream 2 project because it feared Russia could use energy supplies to exert influence over European countries.

☆ Analysis: COP27 loss and damage fund heralds 'new dawn for climate justice'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Megan Rowling | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Yeb Saño, head of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the fund's approval "marks a new dawn for climate justice." While the loss and damage fund would not be enough to deal with growing climate losses, "it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust" between rich and poor nations, he said in a video statement. Their opposition was rooted in fears of being held financially liable for the impacts of their historically high greenhouse gas emissions. FOSSIL FUELS MISSINGPolitical figures had urged countries at COP27 to set aside geopolitical fights in order to keep climate action on track. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, global climate and energy lead for environmental group WWF, who presided over COP20 in Peru, said leaders had missed the chance in Egypt to speed up the rapid and deep emissions cuts essential to limit climate damage.

☆ Germany to offer Poland Patriot system after stray missile crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Germany has offered Warsaw the Patriot missile defence system to help it to secure its airspace after a stray missile crashed in Poland last week, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told a newspaper on Sunday. "We have offered Poland support in securing airspace - with our Eurofighters and with Patriot air defence systems," Lambrecht told the Rheinische Post and General Anzeiger. Ground-based air defence systems such as Raytheon's (RTX.N) Patriot are built to intercept incoming missiles. More than a dozen NATO allies led by Germany in October kicked off an initiative to jointly procure air defence systems for several layers of threats, including Patriot. Germany had 36 Patriot units when it was NATO's frontline state during the Cold War.

☆ Polish villagers bury man killed in blast near Ukrainian border
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Kuba Stezycki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Poland and other Western states have said the missile that landed in Przewodow, a village near the border with Ukraine, was a Ukrainian air defence missile that went astray in pursuit of a Russian missile. For the village itself, the blast plunged residents into mourning for two of their neighbours. [1/3] A military member carries a picture of one of two victims of a missile that hit a southeastern Polish village near the border with Ukraine, during his funeral in Przewodow, Poland November 19, 2022. The man buried on Saturday, named in most Polish media only as 62-year-old Boguslaw W., was working at a grain-drying facility in the village when the missile struck. "We learned that we live under stress, we know that we live close to the border with Ukraine.

☆ Elon Musk says he will reinstate Twitter account of former President Donald Trump after online poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

New Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk announced that he will reinstate the Twitter account of former President Donald Trump on Saturday. Musk ran a straw poll on the social media platform starting late Friday asking his followers to vote on whether to reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump's account on the platform. At its conclusion, Musk wrote in a tweet, "The people have spoken. Under previous ownership, Twitter had issued a lifetime ban on President Donald Trump's account in January 2021. For his part, former President Trump said earlier this year that he would not return to the social media platform even if Musk reversed the ban.

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to the media after an alleged Russian missile blast in Poland, in Bali, Indonesia, November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueWASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden has been adamant that the United States will back Ukraine in its nine-month fight to repel a Russian invasion. We will determine what happened and what the appropriate next steps would be," said White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson. Sullivan, who has been in touch with Russian officials about the risks around the Ukraine invasion, did not make contact in relation to this incident, a White House official said. "It's now just a matter of doing forensics work to determine what kind of missile it was," the official said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday that access to the site of the explosion would require the agreement of both countries leading the investigation, Poland and the United States. "The Ukrainians asked for access to the site of the investigation. You see shots over Ukraine, fighting over Ukraine, and at some point, in a very short time, you see a certain sequence of events," he added. Police officers walk near the site of an explosion in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, November 16, 2022. Przewodow is less than 10 kilometres away from one of the two power lines linking Poland and Ukraine.

KYIV/WARSAW/LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine has few viable options currently to boost grain exports by rail, road or river barge anytime soon if a United Nations-brokered deal with Moscow to export by sea runs into trouble. Ukraine has shipped grain by truck and train via its western border and through small Danube river ports in the south west. But the capacity on those routes is much smaller than from its sea ports - meaning there is no significant plan B if the sea corridor falters. "Rail and truck capacity can maybe be increased 3-5% but no more, because the infrastructure of Europe can't absorb our grain. They are not ready on truck, on rail, on river barge, on storage, to accept this grain at volume," he said.

☆ G20's criticism of Russia reflects the rise of new Asian power: India
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“Today’s era must not be of war,” it said, echoing what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting in September. “How India united G20 on PM Modi’s idea of peace,” ran a headline in the Times of India, the country’s largest English-language paper. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo hold hands during the handover ceremony at the G20 leaders' summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, November 16, 2022. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a bilateral meeting on November 16, 2022 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. And while this year’s G20 was looked at through the lens of the war, India could bring its own agenda to the table next year.

☆ Poland missile relief dents dollar; stocks retreat
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Amanda Cooper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationLONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Global stocks eased from two-month highs on Wednesday while the safe-haven dollar fell, after Poland's president said a missile that hit his country was probably a stray Ukrainian defence projectile, dispelling fears that it originated from Russia. Data on Wednesday showed U.S. retail sales rose by 1.3% in October, compared with expectations for a 1.0% rise, showing consumers were undeterred by high inflation last month. This gave a bump to the dollar, which cut some of the day's losses and weighed heavily on European shares. The dollar, which acts a safe haven in times of geopolitical or market turmoil, rallied overnight, before falling throughout the European session. Gold rose 0.2% on the day to $1,776 an ounce, supported by a slightly weaker dollar, while Brent crude futures fell 0.6% to $93.33 a barrel, having retreated from an overnight high of $94.79.

☆ Stocks pare losses, dollar falls after Biden defuses tensions over Poland blast
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Amanda Cooper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Global stocks pared losses and the dollar fell on Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden told G7 and NATO partners that a missile blast in Poland was caused by a Ukrainian defence missile, dispelling fears that it originated from Russia. This is whatever it was, but it was not an attack on Poland and Biden’s comments took the tension out of it," Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes said. When the missile struck, NATO member Poland first said a Russian-made rocket was responsible and summoned Russia's ambassador to Warsaw for an explanation after Moscow denied it was responsible. Biden said the United States and its NATO allies were investigating the blast but early information suggested it may not have been caused by a missile fired from Russia. With geopolitical tensions injecting some volatility into the broader markets, benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were almost unchanged on the day at 3.807%.

☆ Asian stocks shaken by blast in Poland, dollar gains
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Xie Yu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Asian stocks dropped and the dollar gained on Wednesday after blasts in Poland that Ukraine and Polish authorities said were caused by Russian-made missiles. The potential for a further ratcheting up of geopolitical tensions saw MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) lose 0.6%. Australian shares (.AXJO) fell 0.5%, while Japan's Nikkei stock index (.N225) dropped 0.76%. NATO member Poland said on Wednesday that a Russian-made rocket killed two people in eastern Poland near Ukraine, and it summoned Russia's ambassador to Warsaw for an explanation after Moscow denied it was responsible. read moreThe dollar rose against major peers, led by a 0.3% advance versus the yen .

[1/4] Police officers walk near the site of an explosion in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, November 16, 2022. If this is an a mistake of the Ukrainians, there should be no major consequences, but I'm not an expert here." After a sleepless night, Byra decided to keep her school, situated some 300 metres from the blast site, open on Wednesday. "I told the parents I see no grounds to close the school but kids haven't shown up. "Since the start of the war we keep analysing the danger, it has quieted down recently, but here we are today," she said.

☆ No concrete evidence on who fired missile, Poland's Duda says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Two people were killed in the explosion in Przewodow, about 6 km (3.5 miles) from the border with Ukraine, firefighters said. "We do not have any conclusive evidence at the moment as to who launched this missile ... it was most likely a Russian-made missile, but this is all still under investigation at the moment," Andrzej Duda told reporters. Duda said that it was very likely that Poland would request consultations under Article 4 of the NATO military alliance following the blast. Duda spoke after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland would increase surveillance of its airspace following the incident. Reporting by Alan Charlish, Justyna Pawlak, Anna Koper; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine alleges 'Russian trace' in Poland blast
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine has evidence of a "Russian trace" in an explosion in eastern Poland which Warsaw and NATO say was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Wednesday, without giving any details. Kyiv is "completely open to a comprehensive study of the situation", he wrote on the council's official Facebook page. Danilov provided no details of what evidence he was citing when he referred to a "Russian trace" behind the incident. Duda said earlier it was "highly probable" that the missile was fired by Ukrainian air defence. Earlier on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the blast, which killed two people, was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile but that Russia was ultimately responsible because it started the war in Ukraine.

☆ Polish PM says missile incident could be result of provocation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WARSAW, Nov 16 (Reuters) - It is possible that the incident in which a missile hit a southeastern Polish village was the result of a provocation from the Russian side, the Polish prime minister said on Wednesday. "We cannot rule out that the shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure near the border was an intentional provocation done in the hope that such a situation could arise," Mateusz Morawiecki told the Polish parliament. Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anna Koper; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Poland may not have to launch NATO art. 4 procedure, says PM
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WARSAW, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Poland is still analyzing the possibility of launching the NATO Article 4 procedure, but it seems it may not be necessary to use that measure, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday a day after a rocket killed two in South-East Poland. President Andrzej Duda, speaking at the same press conference, said there were no signs of an intentional attack on Poland and the rocket was probably used by Ukrainian air defence. Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Anna Koper, Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Leaders from the Group of Seven nations as well as Spain and the Netherlands, who are all on the Indonesian island of Bali for the G20 summit, held an emergency meeting in response to the missile strike in Poland. The G20 leaders' meeting on Wednesday will be important to raise their awareness of the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Tuesday after reports of the blasts in Poland. G20 leaders were due to visit a site in Bali to plant mangroves on Wednesday morning, although the schedule of the meeting hosted by Indonesia has not always run to plan. As at other recent international forums, the United States and its allies were seeking a statement from the G20 summit against Moscow's military actions. A 16-page draft declaration seen by Reuters, which diplomats said was yet to be adopted by leaders, acknowledged the rift over the Ukraine war.

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskiy says he met CIA head Burns in Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

On Monday, Burns met President Vladimir Putin's spy chief in Turkey for the first known high-level, face-to-face U.S.-Russian contact since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Burns visited Kyiv as Russia attacked the city with missiles. Zelenskiy said the CIA head had spent time in a bomb shelter before the two men met. In Washington, a U.S. official said Burns had traveled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian intelligence counterparts and Zelenskiy following his meeting in Ankara. Polish President Andrzej Duda met Burns in Warsaw on Wednesday, the head of Poland's National Security Bureau said.

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