News

People in Czechia had the chance to observe a partial solar eclipse around noon on Saturday, although visibility was limited by cloud cover. Experts said it was one of the best eclipses in recent years, as the Sun was high in the sky at its peak.

Observers were urged to wear special glasses or filters to protect their eyes, as conventional telescopes were not safe for viewing. Public viewing events were hosted by observatories, offering safe viewing through specialized equipment.

The eclipse, during which the Moon covered up to 22 percent of the solar disk, began around 11:29 a.m. and lasted about an hour and a half. The duration varied slightly across different parts of the country.

A constitutional amendment submitted this week by senators from all factions aims to expand the authority of the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) to audit the finances of public television and radio. The Senate may discuss the proposal in two weeks, simultaneously with the amendment on increasing fees for Czech Television and Czech Radio.

The amendment, signed by thirty-seven senators, almost half of the members of the upper chamber of parliament, is to entrust the SAO with ”auditing the finances of legal entities established by law that provide a public service in the field of television and radio broadcasting”. The upper chamber of the Czech parliament will decide whether the fee for Czech Television will be increased by fifteen crowns to 150 crowns per month and for Czech Radio by ten crowns to 55 crowns per month. The amendment also includes expanding the circle of taxpayers to households whose residents use a smartphone or have an internet connection.

The police have accused three former State Security (StB) officers of causing the expulsion of a student from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University and his internment in a psychiatric hospital at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, Chief Commissioner Iveta Kořínková reported on the police website on Friday. Criminal investigators are currently prosecuting them for the crime of abuse of official authority, which carries a penalty of up to ten years in prison if convicted.

According to the police, the trio targeted the twenty-year-old young man who was a signatory of Charter 77 and a collaborator of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted. They opened a file against him and because of their measures, the university expelled the young man from his studies between 1978 and 1981. According to Ms. Kořínková, the young man ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Czech firefighters are ready to help after the major earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday. If the countries request help, the Urban Search and Rescue team is able to set off within six hours of acceptance, according to Lucie Pipiš, a spokeswoman for the Czech Fire Rescue Service. The emergency team has thirty-six members, including a structural engineer and a doctor, and five dogs. The team specialises in search and rescue in the rubble of populated areas.

The strong earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand at 07:20 on Friday morning (Czech time), with a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale. At least 144 people have been killed and more than 730 injured, the head of the country's military junta has stated, warning that the death toll could rise. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has had no reports that Czech citizens are among those affected.