• 03/27/2024

    Doctors report a growing interest in vaccination as whooping cough numbers continue to rise in Czechia. The country is now battling an epidemic which is expected to culminate at the end of April. Over 4,200 cases of whooping cough have been recorded this year alone, and doctors say the actual number of infected people could be higher since not all have symptoms of the disease. Ondřej Jakob, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said 12,000 adults have been vaccinated so far and a  further 18,000 vaccines are available at vaccination centres and GPs offices. Other European countries are also facing outbreaks of whooping cough.

  • 03/26/2024

    Wednesday should be partly cloudy to overcast with rain in south-west Bohemia and day temperatures between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius.

  • 03/26/2024

    A new overnight train connection from Prague to Brussels was launched this week. The new direct line connects the metropolises of the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium on one route. The journey takes 15 hours. European Sleeper will use its trains to connect the route from Prague via Ústí nad Labem, Děčín, Dresden, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp to Brussels and back three times a week. From Prague, the train departs from the main railway station every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 6pm and is scheduled to arrive in Brussels the following day at 10:27 am.

  • 03/26/2024

    Bohumil Hrabal's newly-renovated cottage in Kersko in the Nymburk region will open to the public on May 18, on the occasion of the Hrabal Kersko Festival, the Czech Press Agency reported. The Central Bohemian Region and the Polabské Museum, who jointly manage the property, announced that it is in the final stage of reconstruction. The cottage is being restored to its original state when the late Czech author spent his summers there. Earlier this year the local authorities asked the public to help furnish the interiors by donating specific period objects from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hrabal bought the cottage, where he wrote most of his books, in 1965. He died on February 3, 1997.

  • 03/26/2024

    Slovenia will support the Czech initiative to purchase shells for Ukraine from outside the European Union, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said on Tuesday during a working visit to Ljubljana. According to the Slovenian news agency, the government will allocate one million euros in support of the project.

    Later today, the Czech foreign minister will hold talks in Ljubljana with his counterparts from Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria and Hungary. The C5 meeting of Central European states will cover EU enlargement and decision-making processes, aid to Ukraine and measures to curb illegal migration.

    There are divides among the five countries on continued military support for Ukraine and also the decision making mechanisms in the EU, with Slovakia and Hungary refusing to provide Ukraine with further military aid and insisting that EU member states retain the right of veto in foreign-policy decision making. Regardless of the differences, Minister Lipavsky recently stressed that it is important to maintain dialogue.

  • 03/26/2024

    The current security situation is the worst since World War II, the head of the Czech Counter Intelligence Service (BIS) Michal Koudelka said following a meeting with President Pavel on Tuesday. He said Russian expansionism and the possible return of Islamic terrorism to Europe are major threats to European democracies. "We cannot underestimate the risk, although we do not have any concrete information about a direct security threat to the Czech Republic," Koudelka said. President Pavel said it was likely that the security situation would become even more complicated in the months to come. He praised the work of Czechia’s intelligence services saying they provide objective information and analyses unencumbered by political bias.

  • 03/26/2024

    The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised Czechs travelling to France to exercise heightened caution and inform the police about any suspicious incidents. Shortly after the terrorist attack on a concert hall in Moscow, the French administration issued a high terror alert and increased security across the country to the highest level. In a message spread within the Drozd travel system, the Czech foreign ministry warned Czechs in France to take the warnings seriously, keep a close eye on their luggage and report anything deemed suspicious.

  • 03/26/2024

    The Constitutional Court has upheld a ruling by the Supreme Court in a dispute between the Vsetín town council and a group of Romanies who were evicted from their homes several years ago and relocated to another part of the town. The court ordered the town administration to apologize to the families in question and pay them compensation. The town of Vsetín evicted the families from a house that was in poor condition and had it demolished. The Roma ended up either in container houses in Vsetín or in old houses on the outskirts of town. The procedure drew criticism from the Roma community and human rights activists. The Supreme Court awarded the four families a total of CZK 1.825 million in compensation, which the Vsetín town hall considers unfair.

  • 03/26/2024

    Basketball player Vít Krejčí made a splash in the NBA on Monday evening, helping the Atlanta Hawks to a sensational 120–118 comeback win over the top seed in the league’s Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics.

    The Czech notched up 16 points to equal his own personal best so far in the NBA. Krejčí, who is 23, started playing for Atlanta last year.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 03/25/2024

    The ruins of a demolished section of the village of Lednice in South Moravia were uncovered during research in the gardens of the famous Lednice Castle. The discovery was made by archeologists from the firm Archaia Brno.

    The head of the dig, Miroslav Dejmal, said it was widely known that part of today’s castle gardens were located on the site of former sections of the village that were destroyed.

    Johann II, Prince of Lichtenstein purchased that area in the 1880s before having the gardens expanded.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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