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Severe thunderstorms swept across Czechia overnight and into Tuesday morning, leaving around 20,000 households temporarily without electricity, disrupting rail services and bringing down trees across several regions. The worst outages affected eastern and central parts of the country, although power companies expect supplies to be fully restored later today. Six people, including five children, were injured when lightning struck a tree at a summer camp in South Bohemia, with a secondary electrical discharge reaching nearby tents. All remain in stable condition in hospital. The storms ended a week-long heatwave that culminated in a new Czech temperature record of 41.9 degrees Celsius.

The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a petition by 32 senators seeking to overturn the formula used to distribute shared tax revenues among the country’s 14 regions. The senators argued that the law does not allow regional shares to be updated to reflect demographic or other objective changes, leading to unequal funding and differences in public services. However, the court ruled that the current system is constitutional. Under the existing formula, the Central Bohemian Region receives the largest share of tax revenues, about 13.8%, while Prague receives the smallest, at roughly 3.2%. The Moravian-Silesian Region receives around 9.6%.

Six people needed medical attention on Tuesday when lightning hit a tree near a summer camp for children in the vicinity of Jindřichův Hradec, South Moravia. An adult was momentarily knocked unconscious and was transported to hospital by helicopter, a spokesperson for the emergency services said. Five minors affected by the lightning strike were also taken to hospital, where they were in a stable state.

Two women are set to serve 12 and nine years in prison, respectively, for the murder of the leader of a group known as the Kutná Hora sect. The Prague High Court on Tuesday reduced the women’s original sentences, thereby partly granting appeals they had filed.

The defendants had said that they were fulfilling the wishes of the cult leader to have his life ended. They said they were not of sound mind at the time of the crime due to psychological manipulation on his part.