LECH WALESA

A spokesman for Poland’s communist-era government in the 1980s who masterminded state propaganda and censorship for a regime in the final years before its collapse has died.

He was called to aid an SUV with a flat on I-84 only to find that a passenger was former Polish President Lech Walesa.

A Connecticut state trooper who is a native of Poland got quite the surprise while responding to an SUV with a flat tire — a passenger in the vehicle happened to be former Polish President Lech Walesa.

A Connecticut state trooper who is a native of Poland got quite the surprise while responding to an SUV with a flat tire Wednesday — a passenger in the vehicle happened to be former Polish President Lech Walesa. State police said Trooper Lukasz Lipert arrived to the call in Tolland and was greeted by Walesa, who had spoken in Hartford on Tuesday as part of his U.S. tour advocating for aid for refugees who have fled Ukraine during the war with Russia. Lipert, 35, who came to the U.S. when he was 18, told The Hartford Courant that he spoke with Walesa in Polish about their homeland and the anti-communist movement Walesa helped lead.

President Joe Biden used his speech in Poland's capital to forcefully denounce Russia's Vladimir Putin, but Biden seemed to have a more subtle message for his Polish hosts.

Poland's former president and former Solidarity pro-democracy movement leader, Lech Walesa, says he has COVID-19.

Large protests are being held across Poland to show support for the country's membership in the European Union.

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)WARSAW – Central European leaders pushed Wednesday for faster deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines from every reliable manufacturer to speed up inoculations which they said is the way to conquer the pandemic and jump-start Europe’s economic recovery. The leaders of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland said they support purchasing vaccines from manufacturers regardless of “geopolitics” provided they are safe and effective. Hungary is the European Union's first and so far only member state to administer Russia's Sputnik V vaccine without waiting for approval from the European Medicines Agency. “There is no Eastern or Western vaccine, there is only a good or a bad vaccine,” Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a news conference in Krakow, Poland. European Council President Charles Michel, who attended the celebrations, said EU leaders will discuss next week ways of increasing vaccine production and of speeding up inoculations.

The group, also known as V4, often works out joint positions in international ties, especially within the European Union. Opening the ceremonial meeting, Duda said the V4 group has had a positive role in European and trans-Atlantic ties. “The group is an important, if not the key catalyst of the regional cooperation in all of Central Europe and contributes significantly to the cooperation and political processes regarding the EU and NATO," Duda said. Poland currently holds the group's 12-month rotating presidency, which it will hand over to Hungary on July 1. ___A previous version of this story corrected the spelling of the Slovakia president’s name to Zuzana Caputova, not Zuzanna Czaputova.

SPAINIn Spain, the Congress of Deputies elects the prime minister. In 1996, this led to an awkward situation for the would-be prime minister. As votes were being counted, Jose Maria Aznar's conservative Popular Party thought it won enough seats to make him prime minister. Then, the party that wins the largest number of the 650 constituencies generally takes power, with the party leader becoming prime minister. That means the prime minister must officially be approved by the Queen’s representative in New Zealand, the governor-general.

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2020 file photo, protesters carry an EU flag at an anti-government protest in Warsaw, Poland. Poland's conservative government denies that it has ever wanted to leave the 27-member bloc and popular support for EU membership runs very high. The fears of a hypothetical Polexit are fueled by Brexit, Britain's messy divorce from the EU, which is seen as accidental. “I cannot imagine Poland outside of the European Union remaining a democratic and liberal country,” Buras said. Poland's three living former presidents, noting their own long efforts to build a democratic nation, asked the government in a joint appeal this week “to stop blackmailing other European Union countries."

Poland on Monday, Aug. 31, 2020 celebrated 40 years since it took a crucial step toward democracy with the creation of the Soviet bloc's first free trade union, Solidarity, which changed the course of the nation's history. (Bjoern Elgstrand/Reportagebild via AP, file)WARSAW Poland on Monday celebrated 40 years since it took a crucial step toward democracy with the creation of the Soviet bloc's first free trade union, Solidarity, which changed the course of the nation's history. He was speaking at a place symbolic for Solidarity the gate of the Gdansk Shipyard where 40 years ago he signed the agreement alongside a government representative. Poland is now drawing international attention to the developments in Belarus that resemble its own struggle for independence. The road to Polands freedom, that started 40 years ago, was difficult, rough and tragic but the Poles never lost hope, Mosbacher said in her tweet.

Milliken was known for working both sides of the aisle and his focus on helping Detroit and then- Mayor Coleman A. The roundtable discussed the University of Michigan being chosen to host one of the three U.S. Presidential Debates next year and its significance. Also appearing on Michigan Matters was Margaret Trimer, of Delta Dentals Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, as she discussed the nonprofits growing imprint in healthcare and the community. Trimer discussed the importance of oral health to children which impacts so much in their lives not only today but tomorrow. Watch MICHIGAN MATTERS Sunday at 11:30am on CBS 62