• Football: Czech team captain Vladimír Darida steps down
    07/04/2021

    Following the Czech Republic’s loss to Denmark in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals on Saturday, team captain Vladimír Darida unexpectedly announced his retirement. The 30-year-old midfielder for German club Hertha BSC said he wants to spend more time with his family.

    Darida was first included in the Czech squad for the Euro 2012 tournament. In the quarter-final match against Portugal, he earned his second cap, his first in an official tournament, starting in place of the injured Tomáš Rosický.

    Born in Plzeň, Darida came through at Viktoria Plzeň, also spending time on loan at FK Baník Sokolov in 2011. He joined Freiburg in 2013. Darida signed for Hertha BSC from relegated Freiburg ahead of the 2015-16 season.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Weather
    07/04/2021

    Monday should be cloudy with a chance of light rain and average daytime highs of around 23 degrees Celsius.

  • Deloitte: prices of flats in big Czech cities up 19 pct on average
    07/04/2021

    Prices of flats in large Czech regional cities increased by an average of 19 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 77,800 crowns per square metre, according to the consultancy Deloitte. The growth rate was the highest in the last five years.

    A Prague flat cost on average 100,000 crowns per square metre. Since the end of 2015, prices in the Czech Republic have increased by an average of 86 percent, according to Deloitte, which compares sales prices from purchase contracts registered in the real estate cadastre.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Banat Festival in Czech-Romanian community to resume
    07/04/2021

    After a one-year break, the Banat Festival supporting the ethnic Czech community in Romania will resume. A train with 1,200 musicians and visitors will set off for Oršava on August 17, then head to Eibental, where the main part of the festival takes place.

    Among the bands taking part are Zrní, PSH, Vasilův Rubáš, Švihadlo, Timudej, Pio Squad and the surprise winner of this year's Anděl Music Awards singer 7krát3 (Štěpán Hebík).
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Covid cases rise slightly, testing soars ahead of holidays
    07/04/2021

    Czech labs detected 124 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, up from 67 a week earlier. However, some 21,000 more tests were administered, likely because people need them before leaving for holidays.

    Over the past seven days, there were about nine people infected per 100,000 inhabitants. The reproduction number rose slightly to just over 1.3, the highest since the early January, Ministry of Health data show.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Football: Czechs lose to Danes 1:2 in Euro quarter-finals
    07/03/2021

    The Czech Republic lost 1:2 to Denmark in the quarter-finals of the European Football Championship on Saturday in Baku.

    The Danes scored both goals in the first half (a header by Thomas Delaney at 5’ and a cross Kasper Dolberg at 42’) with Patrik Schick answering at 49’ with his  fifth goal of the tournament, taking him level with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

    The Czech Republic, a team of few big names, had only won one game in their group at the Euros and made it into the knockout stage as one of the best-placed runners-up. They staged an impressive 2:0 victory against the Dutch – perhaps the biggest upset of Euro 2020 – to make the quarterfinals.

    Denmark will face either England or Ukraine, who play each other in Rome on Saturday evening.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Grant Agency chairman, scientist Jaroslav Koča dies at age 65
    07/03/2021

    Jaroslav Koča, a prominent chemist, structural biologist who led the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, has died at the age of 65, Masaryk University in Brno announced. Koča was founder of the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) and a long-term director of the university’s National Centre for Biomolecular Research.

    According to Masaryk University, Koča published more than 200 original scientific papers in international journals and led dozens of doctoral students during his career, which included fellowship and research stints in Norway, France and the United States.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Weather
    07/03/2021

    Sunday should be clear to partly cloudy with some isolated showers or thunderstorms, mainly in the evening. Daytime highs should range from 23 to 27 degrees Celsius.

  • Senate approves amendment to let women to remove -ová suffix from surname
    07/03/2021

    Senators have approved an amendment to allow women to remove the suffix -ová, , which denotes the grammatical gender, from their surname. Currently, Czech law allows women to give up the suffix only under certain conditions, for example if they have a foreign nationality.

    The amendment to the Law on Registers of Births, First Names and Surnames was proposed by the government Commissioner for Human Rights, Helena Válková, and Pirate Party deputy Ondřej Profant.

    If signed into law by President Miloš Zeman, parents could also decide to keep the masculine form (thus without the suffix –ová) of their daughters’ surname.

    Most Czech linguists support the current practice, arguing that the ending -ová as an essential part of Czech grammar and ditching the suffix may lead to confusion in communication.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Prague hotel summer booking levels remains weak
    07/03/2021

    Prague hotel bookings and occupancy levels remains weak, with people booking last-minute stays, sometimes upon arrival, according to a ČTK poll. Hoteliers expect roughly the same number of guests as last summer, in the midst of the pandemic year.

    Some operators are concerned that tourism levels will not recover despite the issuance of covid certificates due to new coronavirus variants and consequent restrictions.
    Author: Brian Kenety

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