News

The regional court in Brno has upheld a 2022 ruling by the district court in Břeclav which rejected property claims by the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation pertaining to property in Moravia confiscated by the Czechoslovak state after 1945, on the basis of the Beneš Decrees. These include the castles in Lednice and Valtice and 10,000 hectares of forest land.

The fund had demanded the return of the property and compensation, arguing that the decrees should not have applied to the Liechtenstein noble family, as they were not German. Previous property claims by the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation have been rejected by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic.

President Petr Pavel is currently the most trusted politician in Czechia, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. The results suggest that Mr. Pavel, who took office in March of this year, is trusted by  55 percent of Czechs. Opposition ANO party leader Andrej Babiš placed second with a 42 percent trust rating, and the head of the opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy Party Tomio Okamura came third with a 35 percent trust rating. Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský both received a 19 percent trust rating from the public.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, has been detained by the Russian authorities on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent, her employer has said. Kurmasheva holds dual US and Russian citizenship and was in Russia for a family emergency. When she tried to leave the country to return to her home in Prague, she was detained, her passports were confiscated, and she received a fine for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has said it is deeply concerned by Kurmasheva’s detention and has called for her immediate release. “Journalism is not a crime and Kurmasheva’s detention is yet more proof that Russia is determined to stifle independent reporting” the CPJ said.

There is mounting evidence that the attack on the Al-Ahli Hospital was caused by a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has written on X, formerly Twitter. He added that the lesson to be learned is that jumping to conclusions can cause a lot of harm and that it is crucial not to share misinformation and always wait for the facts.

At least 500 people were killed in the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, according to news reports from several media organisations. Both Israel and Palestine have blamed each other, with the health ministry in Gaza saying the blast was caused by an Israeli air raid, while Israel attributed it to a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization formed in 1981.