• 05/16/2024

    Friday will be mostly overcast with rain and occasional storms. Temperatures will range between 13 and 18 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 05/16/2024

    Czech Ambassador to Germany, Tomáš Kafka, will represent Czechia at the Sudeten German Congress due to take place in Augsburg, Bavaria, this weekend, the Czech News Agency announced on Thursday.

    The moto of this year’s congress, which is being held three weeks before the European Parliament elections, is Sudeten Germans and Czechs - Together for Europe.

    The Czech ambassador will hold a speech at the assembly on Sunday, along with Bernd Posselt, chairman of the Sudeten German Regional Association and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 05/16/2024

    President Petr Pavel appointed TOP 09 MP Marek Ženíšek as minister for science, research and innovation on Thursday. He replaces Helena Langšádlová, who recently said she was standing down from the cabinet post.

    TOP 09 previously put forward another name for the position, Pavel Tuleja, but he dropped out following questioning of his academic achievements.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 05/16/2024

    Police have tracked down a man who sold fake tickets for the Ice Hockey World Championships. The 34-year-old suspect from the Pelhřimov region sold counterfeit tickets worth CZK 600,000 to five people. According to detectives, there are likely many more people who bought fake tickets, but haven’t yet found out.

    The Ice Hockey World Championship got underway in Czechia on Friday, May 10, and will conclude with the medal matches on Sunday, May 26.

    Author: Ruth Fraňková
  • 05/16/2024

    The 37th edition of the Jiří Orten Prize for writers under the age of 30 has been won by Marek Torčík. The writer took the gong for his debut novel Rozložíš paměť (You Will Destroy Memory), which had already won in the prose category of the Magnesia litera literary awards.

    The book explores a young man’s experience of growing up surrounded by prejudices in a small Czech town.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 05/16/2024

    The well-known Czech dancer and actor Vlastimil Harapes has died at the age of 77, a spokesperson for the National Theatre announced. Mr. Harapes was a long-time soloist with the National Theatre Ballet and later led the company as artistic director.

    The dancer helped bring dance to a wider audience in Czechoslovakia and also appeared in films, such as the 1967 classic Marketa Lazarová.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 05/15/2024

    Czechia beat Denmark 7:4 in a group game at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Prague on Wednesday. The three points earned in the victory are an important step on the hosts’ route to the knockout stages of the tournament, which is being held in the Czech capital and Ostrava. It was the first time the Czechs had beaten the Danes in regular time in a major event for 12 years.

    The Czech Republic’s next Group A game is against Austria on Friday.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 05/15/2024

    Czech politicians have been responding to the news of the shooting of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Slovak town of Handlová on Wednesday afternoon. Czech PM Petr Fiala said that the news had been shocking and that he wished Mr. Fico a speedy recovery. Mr. Fiala said violence could not be tolerated and had no place in society.

    President Petr Pavel said the attack was reprehensible, whatever the motivation. He said it should be a warning about how far the deepening of hostility and aggression in society can lead.

    The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said he absolutely condemned violence in politics and also wished the Slovak leader a quick recovery.

    Czech opposition leader Andrej Babiš, who is from Slovakia, said the news from the country was terrible and that he was praying for Mr. Fico.

    Mr. Fico was reported to be conscious after the shooting, in which he was reportedly hit three or four times.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 05/15/2024

    Czech President Petr Pavel says supporting Ukraine militarily does not mean ruling out searching for a solution to the conflict. He said, however, that any potential peace settlement would necessarily presuppose Ukraine’s consent. This was one reason he had accepted an invitation to a peace conference in June hosted by Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky.

    Mr. Pavel made these comments a day after an interview he gave to television station Sky News in the UK led to speculation among Czech politicians regarding his position on the matter.

    In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Pavel said Russia alone had the power to immediately end the conflict but had no interest in doing so.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 05/15/2024

    Czech Post says it has abandoned plans to sell its iconic main post office on Prague’s Jindřišská St. after it received no bids for the second time. The mail service said it had taken the property, valued at CZK 1.54 billion, off the market and was now considering what to do with it. One possibility is to shut other branches and move the staff to Jindřišská, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

    The building, which dates from the 1870s, was declared a national cultural landmark in 1998.

    Czech Post last year announced it was closing around 300 branches and making redundancies, after suffering heavy losses.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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