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The Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno will award an honorary doctorate to British scenographer and director Pamela Howard. The ceremony will take place in November.

Howard has taught at leading art schools and worked with major British and international theatres, including the Royal Shakespeare Company. She received the Order of the British Empire in 2008.

Howard has a long-standing connection to Czech theatre and has collaborated with the Prague Quadrennial and the National Theatre Brno, where she staged Bohuslav Martinů’s The Marriage and Janáček’s The Excursion of Mr Brouček to the Moon.

The number of antibiotic prescriptions in Czechia has risen by 16 percent over the past five years to 5.7 million, the General Health Insurance Company (VZP) said on Thursday. The country ranks among Europe’s biggest consumers of antibiotics.

Experts say antibiotics should be used only for bacterial infections such as pneumonia or strep throat, not for viral illnesses like colds or flu, as overuse increases bacterial resistance and can make common infections harder to treat.

VZP data show the insurer paid CZK 1 billion for antibiotics last year, up from CZK 794 million in 2020. The EU estimates about 35,000 deaths annually from antibiotic resistance; in Czechia, around 500 people died in 2020.

President Petr Pavel has a strong chance of winning a second term, according to a survey carried out by the STEM/MARK agency in October. The poll found that 58 percent of respondents would definitely or probably vote for him.

Among 40 well-known public figures included in the survey, 45 percent said they would choose actor and TV host Marek Eben, who has repeatedly ruled out running, and 40 percent said they would support ANO party leader and prime ministerial candidate Andrej Babiš.

The ideal future president, respondents said, should be politically experienced, assertive, pro-Western and non-partisan. The perceived importance of the presidency has also risen since the spring, the STEM/MARK poll suggests. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2028.

ANO party leader and likely future prime minister Andrej Babiš has repeated that he will not sell his Agrofert holding and will resolve his conflict of interest in line with Czech and European law. He made the statement in a video posted on social media on Thursday.

President Petr Pavel insists that Babiš should present his proposed solution publicly. Following their meeting on Wednesday, the presidential office said that if Babiš takes clear steps showing he intends to resolve the conflict of interest and act within the law, the president is ready to appoint him prime minister without delay.

In February 2017, Babiš placed his Agrofert shares into two trust funds to comply with the conflict of interest law, but he retained influence over them. In October this year, he confirmed that he had again become Agrofert’s sole owner and said he was taking steps to stay within the law.