• European Heritage Days get underway in Poděbrady
    09/09/2023

    More than 700 heritage sites in Czechia opened to the public free of charge within the European Heritage Days on Saturday.

    Between now and September 17, people can visit hundreds of official heritage sites, but also many private and public buildings, such as town halls, churches, schools and residential houses, which are normally not accessible to the public.

    The official opening of the European Heritage Days took place in the spa town of Poděbrady in central Bohemia, which is celebrating 800 years since its foundation.

    Czechia joined the European Heritage Days, held at the initiative of the Council of Europe, in 1991.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Weather forecast
    09/08/2023

    It should be sunny in Czechia on Saturday, with an average high temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. Temperatures are expected to fall in the middle of next week.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Office of Labour: Czech unemployment rises slightly to 3.6%
    09/08/2023

    Unemployment in Czechia rose by a 10th of a percentage point to 3.6 percent in August compared to the previous month, according to data released by the national Office of Labour on Friday.

    While the number of people out of work rose to over 260,000, there were fewer jobs available; some 281,000 positions were on offer at the end of August, around 4,400 fewer than a month earlier.

    Experts say the month-on-month rise in unemployment was solely caused by seasonal factors and that the economic stagnation the country is facing is not affecting the labour market. Analysts do not expect unemployment to surpass four per cent by the end of 2023.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czechia weighs sending new ambassador to Moscow despite war
    09/08/2023

    The Czech government is considering sending a new ambassador to Moscow, despite Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, Novinky.cz reported. The current official ambassador, Vítězslav Pivoňka, has been in Prague for some time. He could be replaced by analyst Daniel Koštoval, the news site said.

    In an interview this week President Petr Pavel said he was in favour of sending a new ambassador to Moscow, as states such as Germany and the UK have done in recent times. Such appointees must present their credentials to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

    However there are splits in the Czech government over the matter, with the Civic Democrats for and TOP 09 and the Christian Democrats against, said Novinky.cz.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Officials say penicillin access situation result of panic, supplies to rise
    09/08/2023

    Czechia should receive 300,000 packages of penicillin by the second half of November and that should mean there is an adequate supply, the Ministry of Health said on Friday. Some Czechs have recently been having trouble acquiring penicillin but ministry officials and distributors say that this has in part been caused by panic among the public. They recommend that people reserve the drug at their pharmacy in advance.

    The minister of health, Vlastimil Válek, said on Friday that the problem was not a lack of penicillin but rather the fact that not all pharmacies possess stocks at present.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Škoda Auto suspends production after Slovenia floods cause shortage
    09/08/2023

    Carmaker Škoda Auto will suspend production at its plant in Kvasiny in Northeast Bohemia for at least a week from Monday after production at an engine parts supplier in Slovenia was hit by flooding, a spokesperson for Škoda Auto said on Friday.

    The firm will probably also partially limit production in Mladá Boleslav due to the situation, which has hit the whole Volkswagen group. A union representative said the restrictions pertained to all models except the all-electric Enyaq.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czechs draw with Albania in home Euro qualifier
    09/08/2023

    The Czech national soccer team drew 1:1 with Albania in a European Championship qualifier in Prague on Thursday evening. The hosts were favourites in the game and went ahead on 56 minutes through Václav Černý, only to concede an equaliser nine minutes later.

    Despite the setback, after four games the Czechs still head their group on eight points, ahead of Albania on seven. Poland are third on six points.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Muchová beaten by Gauff in semi-finals of US Open

    09/08/2023

    Karolína Muchová has been knocked out in the semi-finals of tennis’s US Open, after reaching that stage of the tournament for the first time in her career. The Czech, seeded 10th, lost 4-6 5-7 to the world number six, 19-year-old Coco Gauff of the US, despite turning around a poor start in the first set and returning five match balls in Thursday’s clash.

    Muchová, who is 27, reached the final of the French Open earlier this season but only has one WTA title to her name, from the Korean Open in 2019.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Cardinal Duka sparks outrage by claiming Catholic Church faces same pressure as under Nazism
    09/07/2023

    Cardinal Dominik Duka, former archbishop of Prague, has sparked outrage with a post on social networks in which he compared efforts to legalize marriage for all to the war in Ukraine and claimed that both Christians and Jews now "face the same pressure as they did under Nazism". The cardinal wrote that the human being most at threat is not the Ukrainian soldier, but the unborn child who needs a union between a man and a woman. "Yes, the war in Ukraine is terrible, but the war in the West is just as terrible," Duka said. Rabbi David Maxa published an open letter in response to Duka's post, in which he said that the cardinal’s stance was a "massive distortion of the facts" and asked him not to speak for the Jewish community.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Weather forecast
    09/07/2023

    Friday should be bright and sunny with daytime highs between 25 and 29 degrees Celsius.

Pages