News

Temperatures in some parts of Czechia reached 30 degrees Celsius on Sunday, making it the country’s first tropical day this year, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has informed.

The warmest temperature, 30.3 degrees Celsius, was recorded at the Bolevec station in the west Bohemian city of Plzeň. Last year, Czechia saw its first tropical day almost a month earlier, on May 20.

According to meteorologists, high temperatures accompanied by occasional storms are expected to last until Friday.

The toll on Czech motorways could increase by 10 to 15 percent from next March, Transport Minister Martin Kupka said in an interview for Czech Television on Sunday, adding that the increase is needed to cover the investments in transport infrastructure.

More than 100 kilometers of motorways should open in Czechia next year. According to Mr. Kupka, the toll increase should bring up an extra two billion crowns to the state budget, At the moment, the toll brings some CZK 14 billion into state coffers.

Mr Kupka says the increase is made possible by a change in the European directive and that the toll can be increased by emission charges. The government has previously announced that the price of the annual motorway vignette will increase next year to CZK 2,300 from the current CZK 1,500.

A newborn girl was placed in a babybox in Vsetín in eastern Moravia on Sunday morning. The girl, who was given the name Jindřiška, had an untreated umbilical cord but was otherwise in a good condition.

The newborn girl is the sixth baby to be placed in a babybox this year and the 252nd since the first babybox was established in Czechia in June 2005. There are currently 85 such facilities, monitored by doctors, located across the country.

A commemorative event to honour the memory of the Czechoslovak paratroopers who assassinated Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich was held on Sunday at Prague’s Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, where they died after an SS siege 81 years ago today.

The event was attended by several hundred people,  including the Speaker of the Czech lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, and Senator Pavel Fischer.

Another event commemorating the brave act of resistance took place at the memorial of Czechoslovak Army’s paratroopers at Prague’s district of Dejvice.