• 09/21/2023

    It should be mainly overcast in Czechia on Friday, with an average high temperature of 21 degrees Celsius. Clear skies are expected to return early next week.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 09/21/2023

    The 28th International Festival of Organ Music comes to a close on Thursday with a concert by the French organist Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard in St. Jacob’s Basilica in Prague.

    Marle-Ouvrard, who serves as the organist at the famous Gothic Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris, will perform pieces by César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor.

    The organ in St. Jacob’s Basilica, with its four manuals, 91 sounding registers and 8,277 pipes, is the largest one in Prague.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/21/2023

    In his address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Czech President Petr Pavel again strongly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The Czech head of state said the defeat of Ukraine would be a victory for brutality and injustice, and therefore no country should remain neutral in this conflict.

    On the fourth day of his visit to New York, Mr. Pavel is scheduled to visit the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan and tour the city. Among other things, he will pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001.

    The Czech President will also hold bilateral meetings, including with Mongolian President Uchnágin Chürelsüch, the Prime Minister of Andorra, Xavier Espot Zamora, and the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    Germany has agreed with Czechia to set up a joint task force against migrant smugglers and discusses the involvement of Poland, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told members of the Bundestag on Wednesday.

    Germany has been facing a growing number of migrants in recent months who are entering the country via Poland and Czechia without the necessary documents.

    A number of regional politicians, as well as the head of the opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, have been calling for the reintroduction of permanent checks at the Czech and Polish borders, but Faeser rejects such a move, describing permanent border security as a last resort.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    Thursday will be mostly sunny with occasional clouds and day temperatures ranging between 23 and 27 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    The number of Alzheimer patients among the clients of Czechia’s main public health insurance company, VZP, has increased by 13 percent over the last five years, the Czech Statistics Office reported on Wednesday.

    In 2022, VZP, whose clients comprise 60 per cent of the population, recorded more than 50,000 clients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and their treatment exceeded CZK 1.74 billion.

    Overall, the country’s Institute of Health Information and Statistics estimates that there are currently about 100,000 people with Alzheimer's disease in Czechia. By 2030 their number is expected to reach 174,000.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    Health care spending in Czechia in 2021 increased by over 10 percent year-on-year to CZK 579.6 billion, according to data released by Czech Statistics Office on Wednesday.

    The increase, which was mainly driven by the Covid-19 epidemic, was not as high as in the previous year, when it reached a record 19.5 percent.

    Health insurance companies spent CZK 411.4 billion on healthcare in 2021, accounting for 71 percent of all healthcare spending in Czechia. The share of healthcare spending on GDP increased to 9.5 percent, a jump by around two percentage points on the previous years.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    The sixth edition of Serial Killer, an international competition festival of television and web series, got underway in Brno on Tuesday night. The annual event was launched with the screening of a new Czech comedy series called Bananas, based on the discovery of a haul of cocaine in crates of bananas in a Czech supermarket, produced by Prima TV.

    This year’s edition of Serial Killer focuses on series produced in Finland, bringing in more than three dozen Finnish TV professionals, along with key personalities of the local TV market.

    For the first time this year, a TV series from Slovakia – The Winner – directed by Czech director Jan Hřebejk for SkyShowtime will compete for the title of Best Series from Central and Eastern Europe.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    The Ukrainian national football team will play their next home match of the European Championship qualification against North Macedonia at the Sparta Stadium in Prague on October 14.

    Due to the Russian invasion of their country, Ukrainian footballers have to play their home matches abroad. The game at Sparta will be attended by families of war victims and by Ukrainian military personnel who are recovering from injuries in Czechia.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 09/20/2023

    The Senate Committee for Constitutional Law on Tuesday  failed to support ratification of the Istanbul Convention aimed at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The vote was scuppered by opponents of the convention who left the chamber ahead of the vote because they would have been in the minority. None of them proposed rejecting the document’s ratification. It is not yet certain whether the Senate will vote on the convention at its session starting October 18.

    Of the Senate committees, only the Human Rights Committee supported ratification of the convention, and only by a narrow majority of three of its five members. The Foreign Affairs Committee and the EU Affairs Committee both rejected it.

    Critics of the convention claim it would put the concept of the family as we know under threat, put traditional values at risk, and force unacceptable gender requirements into the Czech language and legislation.

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