• Ministry to provide financial aid to Faculty of Arts following tragic shooting
    01/18/2024

    The Ministry of Education will provide up to CZK 20 million to Charles University’s Faculty of Arts to repair the material damage caused by the tragic shooting incident, the ministry wrote on X on Thursday. The incident, in which 14 people were killed and 25 injured, took place on December 21 at the faculty's main building on Jan Palach Square.

    The dean of the Faculty of Arts, Eva Lehečková, said in the past that more than 130 doors were destroyed during the police raid on the building. Their repair or replacement is expected to cost several million crowns.

    The faculty building has been closed since the tragic event and will remain close at least until the end of January.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Weather forecast
    01/18/2024

    Friday will be mostly sunny with day temperatures ranging between -3 and 1 degrees Celsius.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Czech arms exports at record high levels
    01/18/2024

    Last year's exports of arms and security material from Czechia are likely to reach the record from 2022, amounting to around CZK 30 billion, Jiří Hynek, president of the Association of Defence and Security Industry said on Thursday, adding that full data will be available later this year.

    While in 2022, a significant part of exports consisted of material from long-term stocks, last year new production was predominant.

    In the long term, Hynek said, weapons and other security materials are most often exported to the United States, EU countries, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, but exports to Africa also strengthened last year.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Prague Airport records growing number of passengers
    01/18/2024

    Prague’s Václav Havel Airport last year handled 13.8 million passengers, the Czech Air Traffic Control said in a press release on Thursday. Year-on-year, the number of passengers increased by 29 percent, reaching 78 percent of pre-Covid numbers.

    In 2023, Prague Airport dispatched flights to 167 destinations involving 69 carriers. The airport also offered more than 30 new or renewed routes last year. Traffic in Czech airspace increased by 13 per cent year-on-year.
    Author: Ruth Fraňková

  • Lehečka knocked out of Australian Open, Nosková through to 3rd round
    01/18/2024

    Czech tennis player Jiří Lehečka was knocked out of the Australian open in the second round. The 22-year-old Czech, who recently won his first ATP title in Adelaide, was defeated by Alex Michelsen of the US 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 4-6.

    In the women’s singles, Linda Nosková, advanced to the third round of the Grand Slam for the first time in her career after beating McCartney Kessler of the US 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. She will next face world number one Iga Swiatek of Poland.

  • Jakub Hrůša and Vienna Philharmonic win ICMA Award
    01/18/2024

    The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra led by Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša has won the prestigious International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in the Opera Video category. The awards are handed out by the editors-in-chief of music magazines and representatives of cultural institutions.

    The orchestra received the award for their recording of Leoš Janáček's opera Katya Kabanova from the 2022 Salzburg Festival, directed by Barrie Kosky and starring American soprano Corinne Winters in the title role.

    According to the jury, the performance of Katya Kabanova, often unjustly overshadowed by Jenufa, “unfolds all the energy and beauty of it and both the orchestra and the staging are excellent – it grabs and keeps our attention throughout the work.”

  • MPs debating postal voting for second day
    01/18/2024

    MPs on Thursday morning continued a debate on introducing postal voting for Czechs living abroad. After a session lasting over 13 hours the matter was adjourned at midnight on Wednesday. Opposition ANO leader Andrej Babiš spoke at great length in the Chamber of Deputies, with his party and Freedom and Direct Democracy, another opposition grouping, seen as standing to lose out if postal voting is allowed.

    The Czech News Agency said the debate could run on into Friday.

    Czechia is one of the only states in the EU not to allow for such a form of voting.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Babiš condemned for Austrian “lunatics” comment
    01/18/2024

    ANO chief Andrej Babiš has come in for criticism after referring to Austrians as “those lunatics” for having the Greens in government in a speech in the Czech lower house. The opposition leader later said his words were aimed at the Greens, not Austrians. However, the comment was covered in the Austrian media and condemned by Czech government party politicians.

    Mr. Babiš spoke for hours in the lower house on Wednesday, helping ensure that a debate on postal voting, which ANO are against, carried on into the following day.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Pavel in Qatar: Some form of statehood for Palestinians needed
    01/17/2024

    Czech President Petr Pavel says there should be some form of statehood for the Palestinians. Speaking in Qatar on Wednesday after a two-day visit to Israel, he said he had agreed with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that the security situation in Gaza needed to be addressed with a comprehensive package that included such statehood.

    Mr. Pavel said that without the Palestinians achieving this goal there would be no stability in the region and unrest would recur periodically.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Flood alert ends in Český Krumlov after month
    01/17/2024

    The level of the Vltava River in Český Krumlov fell below flood alert for the first in four weeks on Wednesday. The change followed a reduced outflow from South Bohemia’s Lipno Dam.

    The river level in Český Krumlov on Wednesday morning stood at 183 centimetres, 40 centimetres below a recent peak caused by rain and thawing snow, according to data from the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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