Deaths, including those of two children, occured in three separate incidents, two in Zakopane and one in Rabka-Zdrój

Five people have been killed by falling trees as strong winds battered southern Poland on Monday, reaching a speed of 96mph (155km/h) in the highest parts of the Tatra mountains.

In the town of Rabka-Zdrój, two women and a six-year-old died after a tree crushed them, firefighters said.

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Victims of Pegasus hacking will be notified and criminal proceedings could be brought against former officials

Poland has launched an investigation into its previous government’s use of the controversial spyware Pegasus, with a parliamentary inquiry under way and the possibility of criminal charges being brought against former government officials in future.

Adam Bodnar, Poland’s new justice minister , told the Guardian that in coming months the government would notify people who were targeted with Pegasus. Under Polish law, they would then have the possibility of seeking financial compensation, and becoming party to potential criminal proceedings.

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Polish prime minister urges countries to step up defence spending after Russian missile bound for Ukraine breaches airspace

The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, says Europe is entering a “prewar” era, cautioning that the continent is not ready and urging European countries to step up defence investment.

In an interview with a group of European newspapers reported by the BBC , Tusk said: “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It’s real and it started over two years ago.”

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Donald Tusk is working hard and fast on a great transformation, but travel the country and it’s clear what a difficult task that is

My formative journalistic years were spent reporting on the final freeze of the cold war – days of hard times and soft currencies. When I return to those countries now, I test myself on how well I guessed what would follow in the three decades since. On Poland in particular, I would have been hard pressed to predict the giddy zigzag of power still featuring a generation who marched to topple communism, but whose protagonists feud bitterly about how to govern the country in the 21st century.

We talk a lot about places that have recently bought a one-way ticket towards authoritarian politics – Russia and Turkey for the full-fat versions, and Hungary’s democratic backsliding and stifling of independent institutions.

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This was an exercise in slow-burn dread right from the start – two and a half hours of relentlessly draining Euro 2024 qualifying playoff football

Well, that’s something new at least. And don’t worry. It only takes about 30 years, a little bit of scar tissue, and perhaps a mournful novelty song to get over it. Poland had five shots on target all night at the Cardiff City Stadium. Unfortunately for Wales all five came in the penalty shoot out at the end of two and a half hours of relentlessly draining Euro 2024 qualifying playoff football.

In the process a first ever competitive shootout for Wales became also a first ever defeat by that most knuckle-biting of margins. It fell to Dan James to contribute the decisive miss at 5-4 down, always the worst way to lose in this self-contained theatre of pain. The kick felt wrong from the moment James lined it up. The run was too short. There is that feeling, in these moments, of a footballer suddenly cramped in their own space, the radar starting to bleep, the dials whirring, the day starting to slide the wrong way.

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The Wales supporters sang with increased vigour and a, by now hoarse, stadium announcer pleaded with added desperation but after a penalty shootout, the dream of reaching a fourth major tournament in five was over in the most agonising of circumstances.

A set of flawless penalties from Poland and a Daniel James spot-kick, saved by Wojciech Szczesny, instead earned Poland a passage to the Euro 2024 finals in Germany this summer.

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• Euro 2024 playoff final updates from the 7.45pm GMT kick-off
• Live scoreboard | Andi Thomas on Wales’s Admiral ‘76 classic

The other playoffs

Ukraine v Iceland also kicks off in just over an hour. Georgia v Greece is 83 minutes old: it’s goalless but Georgia are down to 11 substitutes. Giorgi Loria, one of their sub keepers, was sent off at half-time after a rumble involving both benches.

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• Wales manager a ‘proud man’ if Poland beaten in Euros playoff
• Page: ‘It’s about us imposing ourselves on them’

Rob Page is confident the power of collectivism can not only subdue the individual brilliance of Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and transport Wales to Euro 2024 but prove there really is life after Gareth Bale.

Tuesday night’s playoff in Cardiff will dictate whether Wales qualify for a third successive European Championship and a fourth major tournament in five attempts and quite possibly determine Page’s chances of remaining in the role. Leading his country to Germany this summer without the now retired Bale around to destabilise opponents would certainly be a feather in the head coach’s cap.

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Poland says Russian missile targeting Ukraine’s Lviv region violated its airspace while Kyiv suffers third pre-dawn attack in four days

Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv and the western region of Lviv have come under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials have said, and Polish forces have also been placed on heightened readiness.

Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with Sunday’s early morning strikes also coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske west of Bakhmut.

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