Polish Connection

🇵🇱 Poland’s main opposition party, Law and Justice, has announced a major citizenship reform if it wins next year’s parliamentary elections. The permanent residence requirement would be increased from 3 to 10 years. Given that permanent residence already takes a minimum of 5 years to obtain, this would mean that the total residency requirement for Polish citizenship becomes at least 15 years (more realistically 17–18 years, given administrative delays in processing residence and citizenship applications). The language requirement would also be increased from B1 to C1 level. C1 is an academic level of Polish—the same level required by universities in Poland for students who want to study courses conducted in the Polish language. Other requirements would include a mandatory state exam on Polish history and culture, proof of a clean criminal record from the applicant’s country of origin, and proof of paying taxes in Poland for an extended period of time. These changes were announced by Przemysław Czarnek, the Law and Justice party’s candidate for Prime Minister. In 2024, Poland granted 16,342 citizenships. More than 50% of those went to Ukrainians, many of whom became eligible due to having Polish ancestry.

Shifting Baseline Syndrom. Eins der großen Probleme in der Wahrnehmung des Artensterbens. Kurz gesagt: Das was wir als Heranwachsender kennen, wird als der Normalzustand empfunden. Damit verschiebt sich aber die Baseline von Generation zu Generation, und viel Information geht verloren… der tatsächliche Verlust an Vielfalt ist viel dramatischer als wir ihn wahrnehmen.

A 48-year-old French Catholic nun was assaulted in the Old City of Jerusalem (Mount Zion area) by a 36-year-old man, who pushed her to the ground and beat her, causing injuries. Police arrested the suspect and are investigating the case as a possible religiously motivated assault.

Wealth permits a morality to exist that would be incomprehensible to our ancestors. E.g. Germany yesterday finally captured the stranded whale whose story had gripped the nation, and is now escorting him via barge back to the deeper Atlantic. An enormous, multiday operation.