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Igor Stříž was unanimously approved as the new chief public prosecutor by the Czech government on Monday, the Czech News Agency reports. Mr Stříž has been in provisional charge of the office since July 1, replacing Pavel Zeman, who had held the office for 10 years and claimed he had resigned in part due to pressure from Justice Minister Marie Benešová. She denies that was the case.

Igor Stříž studied law at Charles University before becoming a prosecutor in the Czechoslovak Army. In 2011 he became deputy chief public prosecutor. Justice Minister Marie Benešová said that Stříž  is a professional with a good reputation who was also recommended by the Union of Public Prosecutors.

The Czech Defence Ministry has prepared a programme that is aimed at helping Afghans who worked with Czech soldiers during their mission in the country and to prevent them from being subject to retaliations from the advancing Taliban. What exactly the programme entails cannot be shared with the public for security reasons, but it will be brought up at the next government meeting, Defence Minister Lubomír Metnar told the Czech News Agency on Monday.

The statement was made by the defence minister after a meeting with President Miloš Zeman. In it, topics relating to the future of Afghanistan and to the fate of Afghans who worked with Czech soldiers were discussed. Both the Czech president and the prime minister have not welcomed the decision to withdraw NATO forces from Afghanistan at this time.

The Czech Republic sent its first soldiers to the NATO mission in Afghanistan in 2002. Fourteen Czech soldiers were killed during the NATO mission.

Czech striker Patrik Schick came in second on the final EURO 2021 European football championship goal scorers list, behind Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo. Both players scored 5 goals each, but Ronaldo received the golden boot due to also having one assist.

Schick, who played five games in total, one more than Ronaldo, had a goal-per-game average of 1.11. Meanwhile, Ronaldo scored an average of 1.25 goals-per-game. However, the Czech striker managed to net perhaps the most extraordinary goal of the tournament with his strike from the half-way line, during his country’s first match against Scotland which caught the opposing side’s goalkeeper by surprise.

France’s Karim Benzema came in third with four goals in four games, followed by Denmark’s Emil Forsberg, who holds the same ratio, and Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku who scored four goals in five games.

Czechs spent nearly CZK 3.5 billion on purchasing cryptocurrencies during the first half of 2021, more than double the amount spent last year, according to data collected by the country’s leading Bitcoin sales website Bit.plus. However, the frequency of purchases has slowed down in recent months.

The most significant interest among buyers is in Bitcoin, whose price surged by 270 percent in year-on-year terms, despite falling again in recent months.