WARSAW: Poland’s government will on Wednesday suspend the right to seek asylum, the prime minister said, as the European Union member faces irregular migrant arrivals from neighboring Belarus.
Poland and other EU states along the bloc’s eastern edge have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of orchestrating a campaign of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years.
“This evening the government will adopt a decree suspending the right to apply for asylum. Just as I announced — without delay,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on social media platform X.
The announcement came after Poland’s President Andrzej Duda — allied with the right-wing opposition — announced he signed into law a bill allowing the government to temporarily limit asylum rights.
The Polish senate voted through the bill earlier this month.
The legislation also provided for the possibility of extending the restriction with parliament’s approval.
The European Union last year said member states bordering Russia and Belarus were allowed to limit the right of asylum for migrants in the event of their “weaponization” by Moscow and Minsk.
In December, Tusk called the bill a move to take back “control of Poland’s borders.”
But the measures were met with outrage from human rights groups.
Last month, Human Rights Watch urged the Polish parliament to reject the bill that it said “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations.”
Poland to adopt decree suspending right to seek asylum
https://arab.news/c3f45
Poland to adopt decree suspending right to seek asylum
- “This evening the government will adopt a decree suspending the right to apply for asylum,” Tusk said
- The Polish senate voted through the bill earlier this month
Trump announces plans for new Navy ‘battleship’
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has announced a bold plan for the Navy to build a new, large warship that he is calling a “battleship” as part of a larger vision to create a “Golden Fleet.”
“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump claimed during the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The ship, according to Trump, will be longer and larger than the World War II-era Iowa-class battleships and will be armed with hypersonic missiles, rail guns, and high-powered lasers — all technologies that are still being developed by the Navy.
Just a month ago, the Navy scrapped its plans to build a new, small warship, citing growing delays and cost overruns, deciding instead to go with a modified version of a Coast Guard cutter that was being produced until recently. The sea service has also failed to build its other newly designed ships, like the new Ford-class aircraft carrier and Columbia-class submarines, on time and on budget.
Historically, the term battleship has referred to a very specific type of ship — a large, heavily armored vessel armed with massive guns designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore. This type of ship was at the height of prominence during World War II, and the largest of the US battleships, the Iowa-class, were roughly 60,000 tons.
After World War II, the battleship’s role in modern fleets diminished rapidly in favor of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. The US Navy did modernize four Iowa-class battleships in the 1980s by adding cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles, along with modern radars, but by the 1990s all four were decommissioned.
Trump has long held strong opinions on specific aspects of the Navy’s fleet, sometimes with a view toward keeping older technology instead of modernizing.
During his first term, he unsuccessfully called for the return to steam-powered catapults to launch jets from the Navy’s newest aircraft carriers instead of the more modern electromagnetic system.
He has also complained to Phelan about the look of the Navy’s destroyers and decried Navy ships being covered in rust.
Phelan told senators at his confirmation hearing that Trump “has texted me numerous times very late at night, sometimes after one in the morning” about “rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me what am I doing about it.”
On a visit to a shipyard that was working on the now-canceled Constellation-class frigate in 2020, Trump said he personally changed the design of the ship.
“I looked at it, I said, ‘That’s a terrible-looking ship, let’s make it beautiful,’” Trump said at the time.
He said Monday he will have a direct role in designing this new warship as well.
“The US Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said.
