• New university security measures could include luggage restrictions but metal detectors unlikely
    01/03/2024

    Czech universities will be stepping up their security measures using EU money, Education Minister Mikuláš Bek said after meeting with the Czech Rectors' Conference on Wednesday. These could include new rules on bringing luggage into university buildings and staff and students receiving security training.

    Mr. Bek said that the measures would be adapted to each particular building. However, he said that he doubted that metal detector frames would be a widespread solution, although he could not rule it out in some cases. A new working group will discuss what precise steps are to be taken and will meet for the first time next Wednesday.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Czech firefighters send equipment and personnel to help France with floods
    01/03/2024

    An 18-member team of Czech firefighters set off at noon on Wednesday for France, which is experiencing floods in the north of the country. They are bringing 15 pieces of firefighting equipment with them, including two large-capacity pumps, an amphibious firefighting vehicle and a rescue boat, to the French city of Saint-Omer, where they are expected to stay for two weeks. In doing so, Czechia is responding to France's request for help with the floods at the EU level.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Weather forecast
    01/03/2024

    Thursday is expected to be overcast and rainy with strong winds. Some patches of sun may appear amid the rain in the afternoon. Daytime temperatures should hover around 5 to 8 degrees Celsius.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Heavy rain raises water levels again, flood alerts in 50 places
    01/03/2024

    Tuesday's heavy rain has once again raised water levels in many Czech rivers, with first or second-degree flood alerts reported at around 50 measuring stations at 9:00 am on Wednesday. Earlier in the morning, water levels in the Elbe River in the village of Vestřev and the Otava River in the town of Rejštejn reached the third and highest degree flood alert level, but have since receded, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute.

    Heavy rain is expected in the Šumava, Krkonoše and Jizera Mountains until Thursday morning. A flood warning is in place until further notice.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Daily Mail: Former BBC Czechoslovak section head was Cold War spy
    01/03/2024

    The UK's Daily Mail newspaper has unearthed information from newly declassified archive files revealing that Terézia Javorská, the London-based director of the BBC World Service's Slovak section until 2005, was a Cold War spy for the notorious communist-era Czechoslovak StB or State Security Service. According to the files, she was recruited by an StB agent posted to London who met her at a cocktail party in the mid-1980s. The Daily Mail writes that security experts believe it to be the first known case of an agent from a foreign intelligence agency infiltrating the BBC since the start of the Cold War.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Ministers to discuss allowing postal voting from abroad
    01/03/2024

    At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the government is expected to discuss a parliamentary proposal to allow Czech citizens abroad to vote by post in elections. The Czech Republic is one of only four EU countries that currently do not allow postal voting, the others being France, Croatia, and Malta. However, France has allowed its citizens to vote online from abroad since 2020, while Czechia doesn't currently allow this option either. Czechia's neighbour, Slovakia, has allowed citizens abroad to vote by post in parliamentary elections and nationwide referendums since 2006.
    Author: Anna Fodor

  • Charles University prepares security measures after mass shooting
    01/03/2024

    Prague’s Charles University is preparing a list of possible security measures for its buildings following a mass shooting at the Faculty of Arts last month that left 14 dead. Deans of individual faculties will receive a list of measures tailored to their faculties, the rector of the university, Milena Králíčková, said on Tuesday evening.

    Regarding the coming semester at the Faculty of Arts, the rector said teaching would take place in alternative classrooms at other faculties and other institutions, as well as online.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Significant rise in number of unoccupied apartments in Czechia
    01/03/2024

    There were 200,000 unoccupied flats in apartment buildings in Czechia at the start of 2021, a rise of 40 percent on the number a decade earlier, according to a Ministry for Regional Development study cited by the Czech News Agency. The report is based on data on national censuses carried out in 2021 and 2011.

    The study suggests some of the apartments may have been bought as investments and used for other purposes or for short-term accommodation. The poor state of properties may have been another factor.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czechs beat Canada to make semi-finals at ice hockey World Junior Championship
    01/02/2024

    Czechia have reached the semi-finals of ice hockey’s World Junior Championship in Sweden. The Czechs overcame the favourites Canada 3:2 on Tuesday after Oliver Bonk turned a strike by Jakub Štancl into his own net with only 11 seconds of the game remaining.

    Czechia had taken a 2:0 lead earlier in the match only to see a determined Canadian turn on the pressure and peg them back to 2:2.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Spanish police buying more Czech made weapons
    01/02/2024

    The Spanish police force have signed a contract to buy Czech made Scorpion machineguns, according to a Spanish defence website.

    It is the third deal made between the Spanish police and the company Česká zbrojovka in two years and will see the delivery of at least 1,250 Scorpion EVO 3 guns at a cost of over EUR 2 million.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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