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The Czech Republic risks ranking among the NATO countries with the lowest defence spending relative to gross domestic product, US Ambassador to Prague Nicholas Merrick said on Thursday.

Speaking at the conference Our Security Is Not a Given, Merrick warned that under the current draft state budget the country could also fail to meet its NATO commitments on developing military capabilities. He added that he did not need to remind anyone how important it is for allies to fulfil those commitments.

Reacting to Merrick’s remarks, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told Czech Television on Thursday that the defence spending proposed in this year’s draft budget is the maximum possible under current conditions. He added that the state must also address healthcare, social issues and the everyday lives of citizens.

NATO members agreed last year to raise defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035, with a further 1.5 percent for related investments. The previous government of Petr Fiala had planned to gradually increase Czech defence spending to three percent of GDP by 2030.

The Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature has acquired an authentic suitcase belonging to journalist, writer and translator Milena Jesenská, who died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1944. The institution announced the acquisition at a press conference on Thursday.

Other recent additions include the literary estates of poet Jiří Kuběna and poet Vladimíra Čerepková. Artistic acquisitions include the Japanese collection of Sigismund Bouška, literary works by artist Kateřina Černá, and illustrations by early 20th-century caricaturist Zdeněk Kratochvíl.

According to archivist Petr Kotyk, the suitcase was donated by Arno Pařík of a Prague Jewish family and has been in the family since 1940, when his mother Božena Paříková brought it home from prison at Prague’s Pankrác. Jesenská had exchanged her smaller suitcase for the larger one before being taken to Dresden for interrogation.

Czech video game developer Bohemia Interactive reported a sharp rise in profits last year. The studio, best known for the Arma series, said net profit increased by 85 percent to CZK 792 million. Revenue grew nearly a quarter to CZK 1.7 billion.

In 2025, the company sold more than five million copies of its games and downloadable content across PC and consoles. The best-selling title was Arma Reforger with 1.6 million copies sold, followed by the survival game DayZ and Arma 3.

The United States remained the company’s largest market, accounting for 42 percent of sales, followed by Europe with about a quarter.

Crime in the Czech capital fell by nearly 10 percent last year to its lowest level in 15 years, Prague police spokesman Jan Daněk said on Thursday. Officers recorded 34,853 offences in the Czech capital, down 9.3 percent year-on-year. About 27 percent of cases were solved, roughly the same rate as the previous year.

The most common crimes were theft and burglary, accounting for 43 percent of all offences. The share of pickpocketing fell slightly, while fraud cases increased, partly due to the spread of modern technologies.

Police recorded 23 murders last year, compared with 19 a year earlier, and investigators say they know the perpetrators in all of those cases.

Violent crime made up about 4.6 percent of all crime. Sexual offences, which have been rising in recent years, accounted for roughly two percent.