News

Czech painter Juliana Jirousová has passed away of natural causes just a few weeks shy of her 80th birthday. The writer and columnist Petr Placák announced her death on Facebook in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Jirousová was a signatory of Charter 77 and the wife of poet and dissident Ivan Magor Jirous, who was best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the communist regime's "normalisation" period. He passed away in 2011.

The 14th annual Castle Night begins on Saturday 26 August, with 79 castles, chateaus and national heritage sites across the country staying open after dark. Guided by the light of candles, lamps and fireworks, visitors can look forward to special costumed and themed tours, spaces not normally accessible to the public, music, theatre and dance performances, and light shows. Details of the sites participating in the programme this year can be found on the National Heritage Institute's website.

American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed Czechia's credit rating of AA minus, but says that the outlook for the country remains negative. This means that the agency could lower Czechia's rating later. In a press release, Fitch criticised the country's increased public debt, tax cuts, and the significant deterioration in public finance indicators.

Thirty Czech firefighters are helping Greek units to fight the blaze in Dadia National Park near the Turkish border, close to the town of Alexandrupoli. The past week has seen fresh outbreaks of wildfires in several places in Greece. The situation is reported to have improved in the Parnitha mountains near Athens, but firefighters are said to be fighting the hardest battle in Dadia, where 18 migrants burned to death in the blaze.