News

Meteorologists have warned the public about an approaching heatwave in the coming days when temperatures are expected to hit 39 degrees Celsius at the start of next week. The rest of this week should see temperatures in the 30s and as high as 32 on Sunday. Night temperatures will not drop below 20 degrees Celsius.

People are being advised to stay out of the sun, avoid physical exertion and increase the intake of liquids. The ill and elderly are particularly at risk of overheating and dehydration, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute warned.

Miroslav Bernat, a war veteran and one of the last surviving participants in the 1944 Battle of the Dukla Pass has died at the age of 100. Bernat was a Volhynian Czech who joined the Czechoslovak foreign army in March 1944. He was wounded in the Battle of Dukla and later helped liberate Prešov a Liptovský Mikuláš in eastern Slovakia. He celebrated his 100th birthday on February 15, 2024.

A total of fourteen people and five companies have been charged with tender rigging, tax evasion and other offenses in a case of large-scale fraud. The criminal network  involved people from four regions, specifically Ústí nad Labem, Karlovy Vary, Central Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office among those charged are  the mayor of Chomutov, Marek Hrabáč, who could face up to twelve years in prison if found guilty, the director of the Chomutov Zoopark, Věra Fryčová and the CEO of the Ústí Region's Road Maintenance Administration Libor Tačner .

The Prague Municipal Court on Tuesday sentenced former Czech soldier Filip Siman to seven years in jail for looting during war operations in Ukraine.  Twenty-seven-year-old Siman said in his defense that he went to help Ukraine because his ancestors came from that country and argued that he took things from Ukrainian homes on the orders of his superiors. However the court had videos that he himself filmed of his looting expeditions in which he was excited and unbashed when stealing special forces berets, jewelry, money, sunglasses and weapons from dead people.  Siman previously spent two years as a professional soldier in the Czech army. He joined the Ukrainian volunteer battalion Carpathian Sich at the end of March 2022 without getting permission from the Czech president. The verdict is not binding.