• 05/20/2024

    At a conference on nuclear safety in Vienna, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský praised the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. The Czech foreign minister said the occupation of the plant by Russia poses a high risk, and he criticized the fact that the agency's staff does not have full access to the plant and its surroundings. Lipavsky also pointed out the serious nuclear safety risks linked to Ukraine's three other nuclear power plants, such as the possibility of a drone or cyber-attack.

  • 05/20/2024

    President Petr Pavel has once again urged the Fiala government to consider setting a time frame for euro adoption and moving towards that goal. Speaking at a business conference in Prague on Monday, the head of state said the benefits of euro adoption were obvious considering Czechia’s export oriented economy and pointed out that it would also be useful for Czechs travelling abroad.

    The Fiala administration appears to be divided on the issue. While the Mayors and Independents and the Pirate Party have been leaning towards the euro in recent months, Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura of the Civic Democrats recently made it clear that the Fiala government would not be setting a time frame for euro adoption during this term in office and would leave the decision to the government that will emerge from the 2025 general elections.

  • 05/20/2024

    Tuesday should be partly cloudy with scattered showers and storms around the country and day temperatures between 19 and 23 degrees Celsius.

  • 05/20/2024

    The Museum in Jablonec nad Nisou is exhibiting an unusual series of fused glass portraits of personalities created by artist František Janák. Visitors will recognize the faces of  Charles IV, Rudolf II, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Winston Churchill and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. The portraits were created using the technique of fused glass sculpture. Also on display is the work of Alena Matějka, an internationally renowned Czech glass artist and sculptor, whose art pieces grace numerous public and private collections in Czechia and abroad.

  • 05/20/2024

    The state enterprise Lesy ČR saw its net profit drop by 24 percent from CZK 5.03 billion to CZK 3.84 billion in 2022, according to a financial report made public on Monday. The main reason for the drop in profit was a reduction in timber harvesting in the wake of a severe bark beetle calamity. The  company’s main goal now is reforestation. Lesy ČR, which has 3,800 employees, manages almost half of the forests in the Czech Republic.

  • 05/20/2024

    The vast majority of Czechs would be in favour of introducing a windfall tax on banks, according to the outcome of a poll conducted by the Kantar agency. Altogether 70 % of respondents said they would support the introduction of a sectoral tax, while only a quarter of respondents were against. Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said the coalition parties are discussing the possibility, but he himself is not in favour of such a move since in the end the burden of the tax would inevitably fall on clients. The proposal for such a tax to be introduced came from the Mayors and Independents and the Christian Democrats.

  • 05/20/2024

    The State Health Institute has warned of a sharp rise in tick-borne diseases, Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. According to data from the institute, 506 cases of Lyme disease were reported in the first four months of this year, while the number of people infected with encephalitis almost doubled compared to the same period last year. Hydro-meteorologists report exceptionally good conditions for tick activity throughout the country and a large number of the ticks are reported to be infected.

  • 05/20/2024

    The country’s national broadcasters, Czech Radio and Czech Television, will start airing the election spots of the thirty political parties, movements and coalitions that are running in the European elections, on Wednesday. By law, they can fill a total of 14 hours in each of these public service media. The appearance of election spots in the media traditionally marks the start of the hottest part of the election campaign. Czech Radio will broadcast the spots daily from May 22 to  June 4 on its news channels in the late evening and night hours.

  • 05/20/2024

    Two giant butterflies made from Spitfire aircraft fuselages have being installed on the Máj department store in the centre of Prague, which will soon reopen to the public after a 2-year-reconstruction. The giant art sculptures are the work of artist David Černý, who has many unusual art pieces around Prague.

    His latest work has come under fire from the Club for Old Prague which claims that the purple-and-turquoise butterflies are kitsch.

    Černý has vehemently defended the art work, saying that the butterflies made from Spitfire fuselages were created in honour of the fighter pilots who served in the RAF. He said the sculptures were originally planned for the NATO headquarters in Brussels. A similar fighter jet will be placed there sometime in the near future, he said.

  • 05/19/2024

    Monday should be partly cloudy with scattered showers and day temperatures between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius.

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