Early bird: Poland has a new president. Fire is spreading in France
New Polish President is a Complication for Prime Minister Tusk
Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian and supporter of Donald Trump's MAGA movement, took the oath of office as Poland's president on Wednesday, setting the stage for a clash with the centrist government and a potential cooling of relations with Ukraine. Nawrocki took the presidential oath at a ceremonial event in the Polish Parliament.
The electoral victory of Nawrocki, backed by the nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), struck a blow to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's hopes of cementing a pro-European course, which he set for the biggest Eastern member of the bloc, reported CNN.
France battles fire
The biggest forest fire in France in recent years was rapidly spreading on Wednesday in the Mediterranean region near Spain, according to authorities it claimed one dead and several injured. The fire is burning an area larger than Paris and the army has been called in to help the region. French Prime Minister François Bayrou expressed regret about a "disaster of unprecedented scale".
More than 2,100 firefighters and several planes fought with the fire, which broke out on Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region, a rural forested area where there is a winery. The fire, which burned 16,000 hectares, remained "very active" on Wednesday and with the arrival of night it advanced further, said the local administration. The weather was hot, dry, and windy, which made it difficult for firefighters to control the fire, according to the agency AP.
Interest rates on mortgages are slightly increasing
The decline in the level of interest rates has stopped, and there has even been a slight increase in the average interest rate on a month-on-month basis. The rate increased by 0.02 percentage points to 5.05%. The height reflects a surge in a loan to 80% of the property value.
However, rates vary among individual banks and some can even offer interest rates slightly above four percent. "The offer is changing quickly though, and customers need to act quickly and be prepared. Banks also assess the risk profile of clients differently, which further deepens the differences in their offers," warned for CTK analyst Swiss Life Select Jiří Sýkora.
