Angela Merkel said could not remain mum about what EU leaders, activists and opposition politicians in Poland says is a lurch towards authoritarianism in Warsaw under the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS).

Activists climbed trees and blocked felling machines in Poland's primeval Bialowieza Forest on Tuesday in a bid to stop what they say is an illegal logging operation authorised by the government.

Poland said on Monday that the legislative process overhauling its judiciary is in line with European standards and called the European Commission's concerns about rule of law in the country groundless.

Grzegorz Miecugow, our fellow journalist and colleague, has passed away at the age of 61. He worked for TVN since it was first established. He was the co-editor of the "Fakty" news service, and since 2005 he hosted "Szkło kontaktowe" on TVN24.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday Poland was isolating itself within the European Union and Polish citizens "deserve better" than a government at odds with the bloc's democratic values and economic reform plans.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday the alliance would closely watch Russian military exercises in western Russia and Belarus next month, urging Moscow to be transparent about the drills.

A police car escorting the motorcade with the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, collided with a van on Thursday around 8 p.m. Four people were injured: two policemen, van driver and a pedestrian hit by the police car pushed to the pavement. The woman aged around 70 has been already dismissed from the hospital.

Over four thousand servicemen, including soldiers from Poland, marched on Thursday along the streets of Kyiv in a festive parade on the Independence Day of Ukraine, celebrated on the 26th anniversary of the state’s Declaration of Independence.

Poland has asked the European Commission to withdraw its legal proceedings against Warsaw over its migrant relocation quotas and said it was ready to fight its case in court, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

“I never collaborated with any security service of the Communist regime in Poland. I never was on the side of the Communists,” stressed former President Lech Wałęsa, commenting on the initiation of a criminal proceedings by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), in connection with his false testimony.

Poland will allocate an additional 200 billion zlotys ($55 billion) on defence over the next 15 years to modernise its army amid signs of growing aggression from Russia, a deputy defence minister said.

Poland will allocate an additional 200 billion zlotys ($55 billion) on defence by 2032 to modernise its army amid signs of growing aggression from Russia, a deputy defence minister said.

Poland's government-affiliated history institute said it is investigating allegations of perjury by Lech Walesa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader of the Solidarity movement that helped bring down communist rule.

“I consider these words as motivated by the willingness to defend the image and to capitalise politically at the expense of the victims of the storm,” Jolanta Fierek, the mayor of Czersk, wrote in an emotional letter to TVN24. In this way she referred to the statements by the prime minister Beata Szydło and the government spokesperson in which local governments had been accused of insufficient reaction to the last week’s fierce storm.

“It is just blather and yet I think that he will not be offended by this comparison, although Mr. Biedroń is not a patch on the great fable author bishop Ignacy Krasicki,” this is how Ryszard Czarnecki (PiS) commented on the words of the mayor of Słupsk. Robert Biedroń said on Monday in the “Fakty po Faktach" show on TVN24 that he had been blackmailed by the members of parliament from the governing party.

The court in Szczecin twice rejected prosecutors’ requests for arrest in the so-called Police scandal. Now the same prosecutor’s office initiates proceedings against the judges in relations to negligence. “What country do we live in,” asks Włodzimierz Łyczywek, the dean of the District Bar Council in Szczecin.

“There is absolutely no disagreement between President Andrzej Duda and Minister of National Defence, Antoni Macierewicz,” said PiS MEP, Ryszard Czarnecki. “Clearly, there is a conflict,” insist opposition MPs. Politicians reacted to the President's speech delivered during yesterday's celebrations of the Armed Forces Day.

“Immediately after Minister Antoni Macierewicz's decision, the operational commander issued the appropriate orders,” Michał Dworczyk, deputy head of the Ministry of Defence, told reporters on Wednesday, answering questions as to why troops were sent to areas affected by heavy storms only on Monday.

I am confident that in the process of modernization of the armed forces, we will maintain unity as politicians and that we will also be able to maintain unity within the Polish army,” said President Andrzej Duda during Armed Forces Day celebrations. “There is only one Polish army and it must not be split,” he stressed.

Five people, including two teenage girl scouts, died and more than 30 were injured as a result of falling trees in a series of severe storms that hit Poland overnight.