• 04/03/2024

    More finances are needed to fund the Czech initiative to buy ammunition for Ukraine from outside the EU, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday. According to Czech government sources around 20 countries have promised to contribute money for the purchase of ammunition to far. Prague has thus collected funds to pay for 300,000 artillery shells and is negotiating the purchase of another half a million.

  • 04/03/2024

    Police have proposed filing charges against the former head of the presidential office, Vratislav Mynář, on suspicion of subsidy fraud linked to his property in Osvětimany, Czech Television reported  on Wednesday citing a spokesperson for the State Prosecutor's Office in Brno. The prosecutor on the case will now decide whether to file charges, return the case to the police for further investigation, or drop it altogether due to lack of substantial evidence. A decision is expected within the next few months. Vratislav Mynář headed the president’s office during the tenure of the former head of state Miloš Zeman.

  • 04/03/2024

    The Dvůr Králové Safari Park is the first zoo in Czechia to have successfully bred the rare aardwolf or earthwolf  - a breed of small hyena. The three cubs were born on Sunday and are reportedly doing well. Only three zoos in the world have managed to breed this particular hyena, which is only about half a metre tall. A litter of three aardwolf cubs is a triumph in itself and it has been hailed as one of the most important breeding successes in the zoo’s close to eighty year history.

  • 04/03/2024

    Prague’s Astronomical Clock was momentarily stopped at 10 am on Wednesday to mark a nationwide No Rush Day initiative aimed at highlighting the dangers of rushing, especially on the road. When the clock stopped, the Grim Reaper struck the hour 138 times for every life lost last year due to speeding.

    No Rush Day was initiated by the Czech Association of Insurance Companies and dozens of institutions and companies have supported it.

  • 04/03/2024

    The Czech Ministry of Health has proposed adding seven more psychoactive substances derived from HHC and THCP to the list of banned addictive substances, the Czech Press Agency reported. The proposal is still open to debate by expert groups and will be presented to the government for approval around mid-April. The government earlier banned the psychoactive substances HHC, HHC-O and THCP after dozens of children ended up in hospital after overdosing on sweets containing them. The ban on the sale and possession of these substances came into effect at the beginning of March. Possession of the banned substances means a fine of up to CZK 15,000, with larger amounts also punishable by prison.

  • 04/03/2024

    A total of 30 parties and coalitions have submitted their candidate lists for the 2024 European elections to the Czech Ministry of Interior, the ministry announced on its website. The deadline for submitting entries ended on Tuesday. All of the parliamentary parties are running in the elections, which will take place in  June 7-8, with only the opposition ANO and the Pirate Party of the ruling coalition running separately. The ministry will decide by April 20 which parties and coalitions have fulfilled all the requirements required by law and will thus be allowed to run in the elections.

  • 04/03/2024

    Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has called for a transparent investigation into the incident in Gaza where seven members of a team delivering humanitarian aid to civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Monday. Writing on social media site X, the foreign minister expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and said that ensuring the safety of aid workers in Gaza was of paramount importance.

    The seven people were workers for the non-profit NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), which provides meals to civilians in the wake of natural disasters and war. The victims were citizens of Australia, Poland, the UK, the US, Canada and Palestine. The WCK said it had coordinated its operations in advance with the Israeli army and that the vehicles were clearly marked with the WCK logo. The WCK has now suspended its activities in Gaza following the incident.

    The UK has summoned its Israeli ambassador over the matter and Australia has called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The European Union condemned the incident and called for its thorough investigation. EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said it was further proof of the need for an immediate ceasefire.

    Israel has apologised for the killings, saying they were unintentional, and has promised to carry out an independent and thorough investigation.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 04/03/2024

    One of the two new people recently placed on Czechia's national sanctions list, 35-year-old Artem Marchevsky, has said that he intends to legally challenge the decision to put him on the list. Speaking to Czech daily Deník N through his lawyer, he said that he did not pay off any politicians and that his lawyers are already preparing a lawsuit to defend him against the claims that he tried to influence the upcoming European Parliament elections.

    The Czech government added three new names to its sanctions list last week — as well as Artem Marchevsky, his close associate Viktor Medvedchuk, another Ukrainian politician and businessman with close ties to Russia, and the pro-Kremlin Prague-based news website Voice of Europe were also placed on the list — following the uncovering of a Russian-organised network that was attempting to influence the European Parliament elections in various countries. The Czech counterintelligence agency, BIS, discovered that cash was being handed over to anti-establishment politicians from countries such as Germany, Belgium and France by the Prague-based pro-Russian network.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 04/02/2024

    Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský met with his Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna in Prague on Tuesday to discuss support for Ukraine and economic and security cooperation between their two countries. At a press conference after the meeting, Mr Lipavský said he welcomed Estonia's interest in the Czech initiative to source ammunition for Ukraine from outside the EU. Mr Tsahkna did not reveal the precise amount of money that Estonia plans to contribute, but he did say that the Estonian government are preparing another military support package for Ukraine worth EUR 20 million that is mainly intended for the purchase of ammunition.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 04/02/2024

    Some 5,297 cases of whooping cough have been recorded so far this year in Czechia up to the end of March, the most in a single calendar year since 1960, shortly after the whooping cough vaccine was introduced. There were 1,044 new cases last week, a slight decrease from the previous week, which the State Health Institute attributes to the Easter holidays when children were off from school.

    Two elderly people infected with whooping cough have died this year. A third of those infected are young people aged 15 to 19. Some 85 children under one year of age, who constitute a very high-risk group, have also been infected.

    Author: Anna Fodor

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