News

Rivers across the Czech Republic fall to record lows. The majority of the country’s rivers are down to fifty percent of normal levels and in some cases, water levels have dropped to ten percent. The worst situation is on the river Lužnice in South Bohemia, which has recorded the lowest water level over the past 100 years. According to the Czech Hydrological Institute, the main reasons behind the current drought are the recent heatwave, low rainfall in recent months as well as mild winter, which has not brought enough snow.

The head of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Jean-Paul Paloméros met with Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces Josef Bečvář in Prague on Wednesday to discuss the defence budget and exercises of NATO rapid reaction forces. On the agenda was the Noble Jump exercise of these forces held in Poland in June, which Mr Paloméros called a great success. This year, Czech units are set to participate in several NATO joint defence exercises. Jean-Paul Paloméros, who heads one of the two strategic commands within the NATO structure, will continue his visit of the Czech Republic on Thursday.

Prague city hall has refused permission for a demonstration to be held on Saturday in Wenceslas Square in solidary with immigrants. The demonstration was scheduled to take place at 4 PM in the afternoon in the lower section of the square. Three other demonstrations have already been approved on the square on Saturday afternoon, two by groups opposing immigrants and one in favour. An anti-immigrant demonstration on July 1, which attracted 700 people, created controversy as a result of the mock gallows displayed and inflammatory slogans.

The Czech Republic will oppose a share out of refugees within the EU if it is not allowed to vet those immigrants it is willing to accept from Greece and Italy, the head of immigration and asylum issues at the Ministry of Interior, Tomáš Haišman, said on Wednesday. Haišman said that neither the European Commission or European Council appeared ready to wrap up an across the board agreement on the issue soon and that the issue did not like being raised at a meeting of interior ministers on July 20 either. The government agreed last week in what it described as a gesture of solidarity to accept up to 1500 refugees by 2017, mostly those who are already in Greece and Italy.