• Weather forecast
    12/13/2023

    Thursday is expected to be overcast with a chance of showers throughout the day. Temperatures should range between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Aiko to represent Czechia at Eurovision
    12/13/2023

    The singer Aiko will be representing the Czech Republic in next year's Eurovision Song Contest, Czech Television announced on Wednesday. The singer beat fellow performers Elly, Gianna Lei, Tom Sean, Tomas Robin, Lenny, and the band MYDY in the competition to be the face of Czechia in Malmö, Sweden next May, in a vote decided by the public. The seven contenders presented their songs in a performance broadcast live from Prague's Roxy club last week. People then had seven days to vote for their favourite, either via the official Eurovision Song Contest app or Czech Television's website.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Health Ministry expects number of covid cases to increase but doesn't plan to take measures
    12/13/2023

    There are 1,000 people with covid-19 now in hospitals, with that number expected to increase again by Christmas and in the second half of January, Deputy Health Minister Josef Pavlovic said at a press conference on Wednesday. The number of cases and hospitalizations is currently at its highest since last October. However, the minister said that patients are primarily being hospitalised for other reasons, not because of covid, and added that the Ministry of Health is not planning to take any general measures against the spread of the virus.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Foreigners now make up one-tenth of Czech population
    12/13/2023

    Foreigners legally residing in the Czech Republic now constitute ten percent of the total population, according to the latest figures published by the Czech Statistical Office on Wednesday. The number of foreigners with legal residence at the end of last year rose by 455,305 year-on-year to 1.12 million people. Ukrainians were the nationality that saw the biggest increase in number, and they also make up over half of the total number of foreigners in Czechia, with over 630,000 registered in the country at the end of 2022. Slovak and Vietnamese citizens respectively make up the next largest groups.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Poll gives ANO 34 percent, Civic Democrats 13
    12/13/2023

    The biggest Czech opposition party, ANO, would have won general elections in November with 34 percent of the vote suggests a new poll by the Ipsos agency for Seznam Zprávy published on Wednesday. Government leaders the Civic Democrats would have come second on 13 percent, with the Pirate Party in third on 10.5 percent and Freedom and Direct Democracy fourth on 9 percent, the survey indicates.

    Another poll, by the Kantar CZ agency, published at the weekend gave ANO 34.5 percent.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czechs among 10 states to vote against UN General Assembly Gaza ceasefire resolution
    12/13/2023

    Czechia voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution on Tuesday calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. It was one of 10 states – including the US – which did not support the resolution, which was passed by 153 votes.

    The Czechs had sought, and failed, to have the text of the resolution include a passage condemning the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in October.

    The Czech ambassador to the UN, Jakub Kulhánek, said the country had voted against with a heavy heart.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Social Democrats chief: Euro elections leader Zaorálek will not be lost at that level
    12/12/2023

    The leader of the Social Democrats’ candidates list for next year’s European Parliament elections, Lubomír Zaorálek, has contacts all over Europe, the party’s leader, Michal Šmarda, said at a news conference in Prague on Tuesday.

    Mr. Zaorálek is a former foreign minister and arts minister and Mr. Šmarda said he would not be lost at European level, unlike the candidates of other parties.

    The party’s chairman said the Euro elections were the start of the Social Democrats’ battle to make a return in Czech politics. The grouping failed to make it back into the lower house in the last general elections.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech spy chief: Russia, China most active in disinformation
    12/12/2023

    Russia and China are the most active states when it comes to spreading disinformation in Czechia, says the head of the country’s counterintelligence service, BIS. Speaking at a conference focused on hybrid threats in Prague on Tuesday, Michal Koudelka said that Czechia had seen less impact of anti-Israel propaganda from Hamas or Iran than some other states.

    The BIS chief said that Czechia had greatly boosted its efforts to combat disinformation in recent times.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • 4,000 apply to army via virtual recruitment centre
    12/12/2023

    Over 4,000 people have applied to join the Czech Army since the launch of a virtual recruitment centre in September, the minister of defence, Jana Černochová, said on Tuesday. The minister said she had been surprised by the number of applications received to date.

    The Ministry of Defence will also seek to recruit soldiers online in 2024.

    In September the army had almost 28,000 professional soldiers and 4,300 members of the Active Reserve. By 2030 it hopes to have 30,000 soldiers and 10,000 reserves.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Šimáčková Laurenčíková presents inaugural human rights commissioner awards

    12/12/2023

    The Czech government’s commissioner for human rights, Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, presented her own awards in Prague on Monday evening. The official bestowed the newly created prize, for defending and promoting human rights, to 18 individuals and organisations in six categories.

    Among those honoured were Zdeněk Ryšavý of the organisation Romea, Jitka Poláková, director of proFem, evangelical pastor Mikuláš Vymětal, Viktor Heumann of the association Trans*parent, and Bohdan Rajčinec, who represents the Ukrainian minority.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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