Daily news summary

Poll puts ANO on virtually same support as in October elections

ANO would have won elections to the Chamber of Deputies if they were held last month with 29.5 percent of the vote, suggests an opinion poll by the Kantar TNS agency released on Sunday. That is two tenths of percentage point down on what the party achieved in October’s elections but a fall of three percent on the figure indicated in a Kantart TNS poll in February.

The survey suggests gains for the Civic Democrats, the Pirates and the Social Democrats compared to their results in October. By contrast, Freedom and Direct Democracy, the Communists and the Christian Democrats fared worse than in the last elections in the poll, which was conducted for Czech Television.

Oldest Czechoslovak female WWII veteran dies in UK

The oldest living female Czechoslovak World War II veteran, Anděla Haida, has died in the United Kingdom at the age of 104, the Czech Embassy in London has announced.

During the war Mrs. Haida served as a driver with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force after signing up as a volunteer in 1942.

In 2017 the North London resident received a medal for heroism from the Czech president, Miloš Zeman. She was born Anděla Beníčková in Uherský Brod in October 1913.

100,000 expected at Brno agricultural machinery trade fair

A major agricultural machinery trade fair got underway in Brno in Sunday. Techagro is the third biggest event of its kind in Europe and is held every two years. The current edition features 720 companies from 37 countries.

Organisers say they expect over 100,000 visitors for the trade fair, which continues until Thursday.

Above-average temperatures expected in coming month

The next month should see average to slightly above-average temperatures in the Czech Republic, according to a regular four-week forecast published by the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute. The coming week is expected to see daytime highs of up to 24 degrees Celsius, which is unusual for the time of year. The following week will be relatively cool before a return to warm weather, forecasters say.

Precipitation will be low for the time of year until the start of May, when showers are predicted.

Vrbata ends NHL career after 16 years

The Czech ice hockey player Radim Vrbata has called time on his career in the NHL. The right wing, who is 36, made his final appearance in the league for Florida Panthers on Saturday. He said he was returning to the Czech Republic in part so his children could go to Czech schools.

In his 16 years in the NHL Vrbata played over 1,000 regular season games, scored 284 goals and made 339 assists.

Koukalová rules out returning to biathlon before 2020

The Czech biathlon star Gabriela Koukalová says that injury will rule her out again next season. The 2017 biathlon sprint world champion and Czech sportsperson of the year missed the Winter Olympics in February due to problems with her calves and says she cannot at present imagine returning to competition.

Koukalová, who last competed in March last year, told the Sport.cz website that she didn’t want to rule out ever returning, saying she might miss it in a year or two.

Weather forecast

It should be sunny in the Czech Republic on Monday, with daytime highs of up to 21 degrees Celsius. Temperatures are expected to be in the high teens or more through the rest of the week.