• 03/11/2024

    Several Czech universities received an email on Monday morning from an anonymous blackmailer who threatened another mass shooting unless he was paid a sum of money. The location where the shooting was supposed to take place was not specified. A total of 6 universities received the email.

    The police have said they are looking for the perpetrator but that there is no immediate danger and the evacuation of Charles University buildings is not necessary at present.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/11/2024

    Year-on-year inflation decreased to 2 percent in February, the Czech National Bank's target inflation rate, the Czech Statistics Office announced on Monday. This is the lowest inflation rate Czechia has seen since December 2018. The central bank's forecast expects inflation to hover around the two percent target for the rest of the year, with an average inflation rate of 2.6 percent.

    Year-on-year inflation has been gradually decreasing over the last year, with the exception of October when it rose again slightly. Last February, inflation was at 16.7 percent.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/11/2024

    Former US President Bill Clinton, who arrived in Prague on Saturday evening for a security conference later in the week, spent an informal evening at Reduta Jazz Club on Sunday, the same club he went to with Václav Havel in 1994 and made famous by playing an impromptu performance on the saxophone. This time he was accompanied by the current Czech president, Petr Pavel. The foreign and interior ministers, Jan Lipavský and Vít Rakušan, were also in attendance, as well as the former First Lady, Václav Havel's second wife Dagmar Havlová, and the speaker of the lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

    On Monday, Clinton is due to meet with Prime Minister Petr Fiala at the prime minister's official Prague residence, Kramář's Villa. On Tuesday he will be speaking at the conference 'Our Security Cannot Be Taken For Granted' at Prague Castle, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Czech Republic joining NATO.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    An unused block of the world's first adhesive postage stamps used in a public postal system, the Penny Black, was sold at a Prague auction house for CZK 9.1 million over the weekend, making it the most expensive item from abroad ever to be sold at a Czech auction. The rare block of 12 stamps, one of the largest unused sets of this type of stamp on the market, was sold by a Czech collector and will continue to remain in the country.

    The Penny Black was first issued in the United Kingdom in 1840 and features a picture of Queen Victoria in profile.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    Andrej Babiš's ANO party scored an unprecedented win in the latest election poll conducted by the Kantar agency, with an all-time record of 38.5 percent of the vote. This is an increase of 12 percentage points from their result in the last parliamentary elections.

    Prime Minister Petr Fiala's Civic Democrats finished a long way behind in second place with a 14.5 percent share of the vote, the Pirates were third with 9.5 percent, the opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy party fourth with 9 percent, the Mayors and Independents fifth with 7 percent, and TOP 09 sixth with 5 percent.

    In recent months, ANO has been polling at around 33 to 35 percent of the vote. According to Kantar, the key factor behind ANO's even bigger success in this survey is that they managed to woo voters from other opposition parties such as the Social Democrats and the Communist Party, which both lost support in this poll.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    Monday is expected to be overcast with a chance of rain in the afternoon and evening. Daytime temperatures should range between 8 and 13 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    Former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is starting to pose a security threat to Czechia, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said on Sunday in the Czech Television talk show Otázky Václava Moravce. He accused the ANO party leader of undermining the country's defence capability and its international standing politically, and of knowing nothing about foreign policy.

    Mr. Babiš responded by saying that Mr. Lipavský's Pirate party poses a threat to Czech security and sovereignty due to their approach to migration, their support of abolishing the right of veto at the EU level, and the Pirates' "fraternization" with the leader of the Slovak opposition, Michal Šimečka, who held a number of meetings with coalition politicians in Prague on Thursday and Friday.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    Cities and towns across Czechia joined many of their European neighbours on Sunday in hoisting the Tibetan National Flag to observe the 65th anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day on 10 March. The flag is raised not only to express solidarity with Tibet, but also as a reminder that freedom cannot be taken for granted and that human rights are still being violated today in many places around the world.

    This gesture of solidarity takes place in several countries every year on March 10 to commemorate the over 80,000 Tibetans who died in the 1959 uprising and the hundreds of thousands more who died in the following years in prisons, labour camps or from famine. The Czech Republic has regularly taken part since 1996.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    Crowds of people came to Prague Castle on Sunday for Open House Day to see parts of the complex that are usually not open to the public. The first arrivals had already been waiting to enter since 7 a.m. and by the time the gates opened at 9 a.m., a long queue had already formed. President Petr Pavel and First Lady Eva Pavlová welcomed the visitors in the castle's Rothmayer Hall. These otherwise inaccessible areas of the castle complex were open to the public for free until 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 03/10/2024

    Former US President Bill Clinton arrived in Prague late on Saturday evening, natoaktual.cz reported on social media site X. He is due to speak at the conference 'Our Security Cannot Be Taken For Granted' on Tuesday at Prague Castle, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Czech Republic joining NATO. He came to Prague at the invitation of Czech President Petr Pavel. As well as Clinton, former NATO Secretary General George Robertson is also scheduled to speak at the conference.

    Author: Anna Fodor

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