• 05/19/2024

    Top officials, WWII veterans and foreign diplomats attended a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Terezín ghetto on Sunday. Among the participants were President Petr Pavel, Senate chair Miloš Vystrčil and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

    In her address, the speaker of the lower house said it is the moral duty of people to remember what happened at Terezín and to consistently fight against those who want to forget, distort history, belittle  or even deny the horrors of the Holocaust.

    Also known as Theresienstadt, the 200-year-old fortress town was transformed by the Nazis into a camp where Jews from across Europe were massed until they could be transported to extermination camps. Between 1940 and 1945 over 155,000 prisoners entered its gates. Around 117,000 of them did not survive the war. Some 35,000 died in the camp itself of stress, hunger and atrocious living conditions.

  • 05/19/2024

    The Czech hockey team beat Great Britain 4:1 on Saturday night and moved to the top of Group A in the World Hockey Championship in Prague. Czechia is now one point ahead of Switzerland and Canada, who have played one game less, and will not drop below third place. The Czech team will play its last group game on Tuesday at 4.20pm against Canada.

  • 05/18/2024

    Public broadcaster Czech Radio opened its doors to thousands of visitors on Saturday, within celebrations marking 101 years since the start of regular radio broadcasting. People were given tours of the radio’s main building on Vinohradska street, getting a peek into the studios where their favourite programs are made and the chance to meet and chat with popular radio personalities. Regional studios around the country also opened their doors to the public.

  • 05/18/2024

    Bohumil Hrabal's newly-renovated cottage in Kersko in the Nymburk region opened to the public on Saturday within celebrations marking the 110th anniversary of the writer’s birth. The cottage has been  restored to its original state when Hrabal spent his summers there. This is where Hrabal wrote most of his books, which have been translated into 28 languages. Among his most successful novels are Closely Watched Trains, the film version of which received an Oscar in 1968, and I Served the King of England which was also made into a movie in 2006. In the 1970s, when he was banned by the communist regime, his novels were copied by hand to be passed from reader to reader. He died on February 3, 1997.

  • 05/18/2024

    Two giant butterflies made from Spitfire aircraft fuselages are being installed on the Máj department store in the centre of Prague, which will soon reopen to the public after a 2-year-reconstruction. The giant art sculptures are the work of artist David Černý, who has many unusual art pieces around Prague. His latest work has come under fire from the Club for Old Prague which claims that the purple-and-turquoise butterflies are kitsch. Černý has fiercely defended them, countering that Spitfires are the most beautiful symbol of the fight for freedom and it is symbolic that they will appear on a building on Narodni trida where communist police cracked down on a student demonstration in 1989 sparking the Velvet Revolution which brought down the communist regime. The unveiling of the art work is highly anticipated.

  • 05/18/2024

    Sunday should be partly cloudy to overcast with rain and storms around the country and day temperatures between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius.

  • 05/18/2024

    Prague is struggling with capacity problems at secondary schools, Czech Education Minister Mikuláš Bek told Czech Television. He said 16 % of children in the capital failed to get admitted to a secondary school in the first round of admissions, while in other regions the failure rate was around 6 %. The minister said negotiations were underway between the Central Bohemia Region and Prague about building secondary school campuses. According to the minister the metropolis needs to address the problem quickly so as to enable children in Prague to receive the type of education they seek.

  • 05/18/2024

    A campaign aimed at recruiting more foster parents in Prague has produced results, but has not still not covered the city’s needs, Deputy Mayor Alexandra Udženija told the Czech Press Agency. She said the child welfare authorities were struggling with a lack of short-term foster parents who would look after a child for several months only. While there are more than 1,200 long-term foster parents on the Prague register, there are only 86 foster couples willing to take in a child on a short-term basis. There is also a sever lack of foster parents ready to take in siblings, children over the age of three or children with health disabilities," Alexandra Udženija said. Prague is now organizing Fostering Days events for those interested in fostering which should run until 20 June.

  • 05/18/2024

    Czech farmers have postponed a protest that was due to take place in Prague next Wednesday. Jan Doležal, President of the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, said the decision was made in view of the assassination attempt on the prime minister in neighbouring Slovakia and the need to diffuse tension in the society. The protest action against government policy and restrictions linked to the Green Deal has been rescheduled to June 4. Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný welcomed the decision to call off Wednesday's protest.

    The umbrella trade union organization of Bohemia and Moravia has also called off a planned protest against the government's pension reform and changes to the Labour Code, saying it would return to the negotiating table with government representatives.

  • 05/18/2024

    Czechia defeated Austria 4:0 at the World Hockey Championship in Prague and moved to the top of Group A with 12 points from five games, securing a place in the quarter-finals. Forwards Dominik Kubalík and David Tomášek contributed with two points, for a goal and an assist. The Czechs’ next game is on Saturday against Great Britain at 8.20 pm CET.

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