• 03/13/2026

    Former Prague mayor Pavel Bém may run for the post again in elections this autumn, as a candidate of the ruling ANO party, the news website Aktualne.cz reported on Friday. Mr. Bém was recently appointed national coordinator for drug policy by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

    The 62-year-old served as mayor of the Czech capital between 2002 and 2010, as a representative of the Civic Democrats.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/13/2026

    Sigma Olomouc drew 0:0 at home with Mainz in the first leg of the round of 16 in European football’s Conference League on Thursday evening. The Czech side will travel to Germany for the second leg next week.

    It was Olomouc’s sixth undefeated game in a row. However, it was also the 11th time in succession that a Czech team had failed to beat a Bundesliga club in a cup competition.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/13/2026

    It should be mainly overcast in Czechia on Saturday, with an average high temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. The following days are also expected to be cloudy.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/13/2026

    The Czech government plans to digitise all state services within one year, in order to comply with a law on the right to digital services, a deputy minister of the interior, Lukáš Klučka, said on Friday at a conference entitled Digital Czechia 2026.

    Mr. Klučka said that this plan, as well as digitising Czech healthcare, were the cabinet’s priorities in this area.

    A Government Council for the Information Society has been established and will next week address 22 strategic projects and programs.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/13/2026

    Czech MP Jan Bartošek (KDU-ČSL) says the Czech Republic should ban Chinese-made cars from entering strategic and military facilities for security reasons. He plans to raise the issue with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš as head of the State Security Council and wants the parliamentary security committee to discuss it.

    The move follows a decision by Orlen Unipetrol to block Chinese-made vehicles from entering its sites in Litvínov, Kralupy nad Vltavou, Pardubice and Neratovice. The company cited concerns that modern cars contain advanced data-collection systems that could pose risks in critical infrastructure.

    Bartošek warned that vehicles equipped with technologies such as LiDAR could map strategic locations and might be misused for espionage, noting that Chinese companies are required by law to cooperate with state intelligence services.

  • 03/13/2026

    Planned mandatory registration of non-governmental organizations with foreign ties would apply to those attempting to influence politics, according to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). It would not apply to organizations such as beekeepers’ associations, Babiš stated. He again rejected claims by critics that the planned coalition proposal was inspired by Russia’s law on foreign agents.

    “This is not any law about foreign agents, but about making funding transparent,” Babiš said. According to him, the aim of the planned amendment is for NGOs with a political agenda to regularly report their financing — that is, who funds them and for what purposes the money is used. According to the prime minister, it is not acceptable for NGOs funded from abroad to engage in political struggle in the Czech Republic.

    A working version from the end of February proposes fines of up to 15 million crowns or up to ten percent of income or turnover for failure to comply with the obligation. Babiš said these sanctions are not final.

  • 03/13/2026

    The Czech Republic is ending repatriation flights from the Middle East for people whose return home was complicated by the war involving Iran. Thursday’s repatriation flight was the last one, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in the early evening on the social network X. In total, more than 1,500 Czech citizens returned from areas affected by the conflict on these flights, it added.

    The state launched repatriation flights using military aircraft and planes operated by the company Smartwings after Israel and the United States carried out a military attack on Iran at the end of February.

    “At the moment, the crisis hotline of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not record any Czech citizens in the region who would be in an urgent situation. Therefore this is the last government-organized repatriation flight in this crisis,” the ministry said.

  • 03/12/2026

    Clear to partly cloudy, with patchy fog at first, occasionally freezing. In western Bohemia, cloudiness will increase toward evening. Highest daytime temperatures will range between 13–17 °C.

  • 03/12/2026

    The opposition party Mayors and Independents (STAN) criticizes the government for failing to present concrete plans on how it would respond if fuel prices continue to rise. The first deputy chairman of STAN, Lukáš Vlček, told journalists that due to the conflict in the Middle East, which is unlikely to end soon, prices of gas or agricultural fertilizers may also increase, potentially causing inflation to rise. He said he would welcome the government placing a discussion on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, and he does not rule out calling an extraordinary session.

    In response to rising gasoline and diesel prices in the Czech Republic, the government is monitoring the margins of fuel retailers. In connection with the military conflict in the Middle East, which is pushing up oil prices, the cabinet is not currently planning additional measures.

    Vlček criticized the government for repeatedly refusing to include a debate about its plan for further steps on the agenda of the Chamber’s plenary session.

  • 03/12/2026

    Artists from the National Theatre Brno will perform at a prestigious festival in Hong Kong. They will present the opera Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Requiem by Antonín Dvořák. They will also offer the local audience a chamber concert featuring gems of Czech music.

    The Hong Kong Arts Festival hosts leading ensembles from around the world every year.

    This will be the fourth collaboration between the National Theatre Brno and the festival. In the past, the theatre presented The Makropulos Affair directed by David Radok. During the COVID pandemic, the online version of the festival featured Jenůfa and The Cunning Little Vixen. A recording of The Greek Passion was created specifically for the festival.

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