Latest news with #Polish
Hindustan Times
8 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Polish woman drops truth bombs about life in India after 2 years: ‘No sugarcoating, just real talk.'
It's been two years since a Polish woman moved to India, and she's not holding back. In a candid post filled with humour and honesty, she shares what it's really like adjusting to life here. She spoke about various things, from missing her native cuisine to navigating "Indian time". 'Two years deep in India, and here's the honest truth. No sugarcoating, just real talk. From my ongoing Hindi struggles to missing my Polish kitchen, navigating the chaos of Indian time, and those oh-so-frequent power cuts,' Agnes Mann wrote. 'Sharing my unfiltered experience because authenticity is everything! What are your 'unashamed' truths?' she continued. A video she shared opens with a text insert that reads, 'I've been living in India for 2 years & I'm not ashamed to admit THIS.' The video then shows her playing Holi, eating with her kids, cooking, and vacationing. In her video, she also lists the things she dislikes while living in India—the noise, the unavailability of Polish food, people being late, and her inability to speak Hindi. She also talked about "constant power cuts", which several social media users agreed with. A post shared by Agnes Mann | Mum Can Do It (@agnesmannyt) The post received a wave of mixed reactions. While some agreed with the Polish woman, others told her she could return to her own country. 'I travelled to a lot of countries, and India is the best place to live, " one individual posted. Another commented, 'You can always go back, in case you don't know.' A third said, 'Please return to Poland, where you can do everything. Make sure your child doesn't go out in public without you. I heard in Poland they are not that friendly with brown skin.' A fourth wrote, 'You left Poland for India?', adding a facepalm emoji. Agnes Mann manages a YouTube channel where her bio reads, 'I'm Agnes- a Polish national married to an Indian Mann (from Punjab). We live(d) in the UK with our 3 kids but from March 2023 we are 'trying it' in India. The plan is to travel through as much of India as possible for the next one or two years, and then we see.'
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Climate
- Straits Times
Chinese paraglider reaches near-record heights, over 8,500m, by accident
Paraglider Peng Yujiang's face and body are covered in frost and ice as a rapidly rose to nearly 8,600m above sea level. PHOTO: VISUALS_CHINA/INSTAGRAM BEIJING – A paraglider in China who intended to simply test some equipment instead ended up unwittingly reaching barely survivable heights last week. Mr Peng Yujiang, a 55-year-old paraglider in Gansu province, early on May 24 flew nearly 8,600m above sea level in the Qilian mountain range of north-west China's Qinghai and Gansu provinces, according to state media. The episode was captured on a camera attached to his equipment and showed the harrowing conditions he experienced. Mr Peng rose to a level almost on par with Mount Everest's summit and aviation flight paths. His face and body are covered in frost and ice in the video, which was originally posted to social media and later shared by Chinese state media. 'I felt the lack of oxygen. My hands were frozen outside. I kept trying to talk on the radio,' Mr Peng said in a video recorded after the incident, according to Sixth Tone, an English-language, Chinese state-owned outlet. According to local news media, Mr Peng was testing equipment as part of 'ground-handling training' – a step that paragliders say is critical to managing safe launches – at an altitude of 3,000m above sea level. But a strong wind suddenly lifted him into the sky. He could not control the glider or land as the draft grew stronger, and he was pulled up above the clouds. Mr Peng was apparently the victim of a potentially dangerous phenomenon that paragliders call 'cloud suck', in which a pilot is rapidly drawn upward into a cloud. At extreme altitudes, people risk hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, because of the thin air. Severe hypoxia can cause organ damage or death. Still, Mr Peng managed to land about 32km away from where he took off. In stable health and recovering from his surprise flight, he has since said, 'Thinking about it still makes me quite scared,' China Daily reported on May 29. The local sporting authority in Gansu province said on May 28 that Mr Peng, who is a licensed paraglider, would be barred from the sport for six months. It also noted that flying activities at sites in the area would be suspended for an unspecified period, local news media reported. But the association deemed Mr Peng's incident an accident, based on his statement that he did not have a flight planned and was doing ground-handling training, which does not require participants to register plans in advance, the reports said. A second pilot was also banned from flying for six months because he released footage of the incident without permission, the authority's report said, according to the South China Morning Post. Mr Peng was not the first paraglider to accidentally reach such extreme heights. In 2007, Ms Ewa Wisnierska, a champion Polish paraglider who competed on the German national team, reached around 10,000m, accidentally breaking the paragliding height record on a practice flight in Australia, just days before the World Paragliding Championships. Her ascent was treacherous, and she passed out in the air, eventually landing more than 80km away from where she took off, on a farm. Another paraglider who was caught in cloud suck that day did not survive. 'Today, I still fly – but just for pleasure and to give courses to the people who come to my paragliding school. Competing no longer makes any sense to me,' Ms Wisnierska told People magazine in 2024. 'This definitely changed a lot of priorities and made me realise that there are much more important things in life than championship cups and medals. I often ask myself why was it that I survived and this other pilot did not?' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Polish knife-edge presidential vote pits liberal mayor against conservative
Poles will vote for a new president on Sunday in a tight election that will have major consequences for the future of the country's pro-EU government. Opinion polls say Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and national conservative historian Karol Nawrocki are running neck and neck. Poland's president is a largely ceremonial role, but it does come with significant negative power. The president has the right to veto legislation, and the coalition government lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn it. Karol Nawrocki is a staunch opponent of Donald Tusk's coalition, and he is expected to use the veto as much if not more frequently than the incumbent conservative President Andrzej Duda, who cannot run for a third consecutive term. Tusk has been unable to deliver many of his campaign promises since taking office 18 months ago due to Duda's veto and divisions within his coalition which includes conservatives, centrists and leftists. Tusk promised Polish women legal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy and voters he would repair the rule of law in the judiciary. Many critics say Poland's top courts were politicised under the previous Law and Justice-led (PiS) government that lost power in late 2023. On both issues, Tusk has made little headway. After narrowly winning the election's first round on 18 May, Rafal Trzaskowski pledged to co-operate with the government to accomplish both. Whichever candidate mobilises their voters in Sunday's second round run-off will be key to who becomes the next president. Another significant factor is who can attract the votes of two far-right candidates who placed third and fourth in the first round. The anti-establishment candidates received three times as many votes as they did in the last presidential election in 2020. While those voters support Nawrocki's socially conservative views, some libertarians disagree with his support for generous state benefits for the less well-off. Both candidates led large, rival patriotic marches in Warsaw last Sunday to show who had the biggest support. Almost all the participants at Nawrocki's rally carried the red-and-white Polish flag. No-one had the blue EU flag. One banner read "Enough of Tusk's [demolition] of democracy". Magdalena and her sister Marta said Nawrocki's patriotism was important. "We care first for our family, then the nation and after that the world," Magdalena told me. "A lot of politicians say, 'Oh, we can't do that because what will the Germans think about us?' Sorry, I don't care what they think," she said. Karol Nawrocki, 42, is head of the Institute of National Remembrance, a state body that investigates crimes dating back to the communist era and World War Two. He was relatively unknown nationally before he was picked by PiS to run. According to the CBOS polling company, voters view him as someone who supports traditional Catholic values and stands up for average Poles, including small farmers who consider themselves threatened by the EU's Green Deal limiting the use of chemicals and greenhouse gases. His typical voter is seen as aged over 40, conservative and family-oriented and living in the countryside or small towns and cities. Previously he was director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk where he changed the exhibition to emphasise Polish heroism and suffering during the conflict. A keen amateur footballer and boxer, he likes to publish images of himself working out on social media. His strongman image has been pushed by Polish and foreign politicians alike. Ex-PM Mateusz Morawiecki posting a mock-up of Nawrocki as a Polish Captain America on social media. Supporter Magdalena said he wasn't particularly charismatic, but Poland needed "a strong man who will be stable when he's pushed by the world". Earlier this week, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem flew to a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Poland to endorse him as a "strong leader" like President Donald Trump. "I just had the opportunity to meet with Karol and listen, he needs to be the next president of Poland," she said five days ahead of the vote. Noem said his rival Trzaskowski was "an absolute train wreck of a leader". Nawrocki's campaign has been bedevilled by revelations from his relatively unknown past, although so far the allegations appear not to have damaged his support. He does not deny taking part in football hooligan brawls, and has called them "noble fights". But in that he is not alone, as several years ago Donald Tusk spoke of taking part in similar fights as a young man. However he has strongly denied a series of other allegations - that he had links with gangsters and neo-Nazis; that he took advantage of an ill senior citizen to acquire his council flat at a huge discount; and that he helped arrange prostitutes for guests at the luxury Grand Hotel in the seaside resort of Sopot when he worked there as a security guard. Nawrocki has said he will donate the flat to charity and threatened to sue the news website that published the prostitute story because it was a "pack of lies". Many of his supporters think the the stories were made up by the mainstream media, which they see as largely pro-Trzaskowski. Shaking off the revelations, Nawrocki posted a video on social media set to an old Chumbawamba song, with the chorus, "I get knocked down, but I get up again". Trzaskowski's supporters have been more inclined to believe the allegations, with one man in Warsaw holding a banner reading: "No to the gangster". The son of a famous jazz pianist, the 53-year-old mayor of Warsaw is deputy leader of Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Platform party. He is also speaks multiple languages who once served as Europe minister. He was joined in last Sunday's march in Warsaw by another liberal mayor who won the Romanian presidency earlier this month. Nicusur Dan told supporters they shared the same values of a united and strong European Union. According to CBOS, Trzaskowski's typical voter is in his 30s, fairly well-off and lives in a city. Voters see him as having left-liberal views supporting LGBT and migrants' rights. While his opponents see Trzaskowski as part of Poland's privileged elite, supporter Malgorzata, a statistician, told me he was "an intelligent, professional European. That's enough to be a president of Poland". Against a backdrop of war in neighbouring Ukraine and the Tusk government's tough stance against illegal migration, Trzaskowski has portrayed himself, artificially according to some voters, as a man who believes in a strong nation state and patriotism. Another supporter, Bartosz, said he wanted Poland to remain safely anchored in Europe. "We know history. In 1939, we counted on Britain and France, but nobody came. If we are partners with Europe politically and economically, then it's in their interests to support us," he said. Warsaw's liberal mayor narrowly wins Polish presidential vote Polish voters set for tight presidential race after 10 years of Duda Polish presidential candidate ridiculed for donning disguise to promote book
The Star
3 hours ago
- General
- The Star
QuickCheck: Did a composer who died in France have his heart buried in Poland?
People have different ways of honouring the end of life. How we choose to be laid to rest often reflects personal and even spiritual beliefs. For some, it is about returning to nature, such as having their ashes scattered at sea, while others prefer a traditional burial. Legend has it that a famous composer was buried in Paris, but his heart lies forever in Poland. Is this true? Verdict: True The heart of the famous Polish composer Frederic Chopin does not reside in the city where he passed away, but in Warsaw, inside the Holy Cross Church. Chopin died in Paris, France, at the young age of 39 in 1849. While many believe tuberculosis was the cause of his death, some researchers speculate that he may have actually suffered from cystic fibrosis. Nevertheless, the exact cause of his death remains a mystery today. Chopin's last wish was for his heart to be returned to his homeland, even though his body was buried in Paris. His heart had to be smuggled past Russian authorities and kept hidden. Even decades later, during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, it continued to serve as a symbol of Polish national pride. During this time, the Nazis, who were occupying Poland, recognised Chopin's significance as a Polish national icon. As a result, they banned his music and removed his heart from the church. It was only after the war that the heart was returned and entombed in a pillar of the same church where it rests today. References: article/Secret-exhumation- leaves-mysteries-of-Chopin-s- 11/06/arts/chopin-heart-
New York Post
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Costco is teasing fans with a food court comeback — but there's an unwelcome twist
'That don't impress them much.' A new take on a beloved Costco food court item will soon be making an appearance — but fans of the wholesale giant aren't sure how they feel about it. Costco is notorious for adding and removing items from its food court menu. Remember the Polish hot dogs, the Carne Asada Bake or the cinnamon pretzels? May they all rest in peace. The bulk item store announced that the Combo Calzone — a new take on the OG Combo Pizza — will soon be available at its food court, but customers aren't jumping up and down over this news. 3 The response to this new Costco food court item is underwhelming. Instagram/Costco Buys According to Southern Living, the $6.99 food item is stuffed with pepperoni, sausage, cheese, onions, peppers, olives and mushrooms. Although it sounds delicious — in the r/Costco subreddit, most people aren't impressed by the cheesy concoction. 'I actually had it the other day (Lansing, Michigan). It's alright. It's kind of like a big slice folded on itself, so it has a 'crust' (which you can see in the photo). I felt like it was a little overcooked, but maybe it was just my location. I don't think it'd be something I would get very often, but I don't regret trying it. I think the regular pizza is better,' one user wrote. 'They don't look very good imo,' someone else wrote. 3 People online did not hold back when it came to their opinions on Costco and its food court offerings. Eduardo Barraza – 'Seems like Costco will do anything but bring back the combo pizza,' a grumpy customer wrote. 'I love calzones and I like pepperoni and sausage. That picture does not look enticing. I think the coloring is off and there is a distinct lack of cheese in the filling,' quipped another commenter. Yet some tried it and seemed to enjoy it. 'Had one today, it was delicious!' a positive comment read. 3 'They don't look very good imo,' a Reddit user wrote. Instagram/Costco Buys 'Yes! It was perfection…' wrote someone else. In other Costco food news, one TikTokker slammed the store's beloved rotisserie chicken, giving it a surprisingly low rating. Content creator Johnny Novo (@jnov__) made it a point to taste test rotisserie chickens from various grocery stores — including Whole Foods, Wegmans and Costco. Costco's $4.99 chicken came in 10th place. Novo said the chicken was moist, but that it was severely lacking in flavor. 'No one's going to eat this chicken and be blown away,' he concluded.
