• 09/22/2023

    Police officers in South Moravia detained a van carrying 33 refugees from Syria on Thursday evening during a random road check near the Slovak border. Among them were ten children. The driver has been charged with people smuggling. It is the fifth such incident this month. Last weekend the police detained a van with 27 migrants from Syria near Hodonín and a few days prior to that eight migrants were detained on a road near Prostějov after the smuggler’s car broke down.

  • 09/22/2023

    Czech Railways is planning to increase ticket prices by around ten percent as of December, with the onset of a new timetable, the news site Novinky reported. The discount for students and seniors will remain. Just a year ago the largest domestic railway carrier increased the price of tickets by 15 percent. The state-owned company managed to return to profit last year after three years of losses.

  • 09/22/2023

    The Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a ceramic statuette of a naked woman believed to be 29,000 years old and considered one of the oldest artefacts of its kind in the world, has been transported to Prague under tight security. This priceless item of prehistoric art was found at a Stone Age settlement in the Moravian basin south of Brno, and is rarely displayed in public. It will be shown at a joint exhibition of the National Museum and the Museum of Moravia which opens on Friday, September 22 and will run until the end of February.

  • 09/22/2023

    Czech President Petr Pavel will end his working visit to the United States, where he attended a meeting of the UN General Assembly, with a trip to the arms factory Colt CZ in Hartford, Connecticut on Friday.  Colt, an American arms manufacturer whose tradition dates back to the mid-19th century, was bought by the CZG - Česká zbrojovka Group in 2021. The company later changed its name to Colt CZ Group.

    On Thursday President Pavel met with Czech expats in New York, visited an exhibition at the Czech Center and the One Vanderbildt skyscraper. At the exhibition, which was prepared to mark 30 years since the break-up of Czechoslovakia, the president met with its curator, Charlotte Kotíková, the great-granddaughter of the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

    In the 2020 census, 1.4 million people in the United States claimed Czech roots or identity.

  • 09/22/2023

    The leading Czech screenwriter and dramaturge Václav Šašek has died at the age of 89. As a dramaturge he worked on such well-known films as Behold Homolka, My Sweet Little Village and the Oscar-winning Kolya, as well as Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball by Miloš Forman.

    Šašek’s movie scripts included Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia and Oil Lamps and he was one of the writers of Ivan Passer’s Czechoslovak New Wave classic Intimate Lighting.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 09/22/2023

    Czech football teams got off to winning starts in European competitions on Thursday evening. Slavia Prague overcame the Swiss side Servette 2:0 away in the Europa League, while Sparta Prague beat Aris Limassol of Cyprus 3:2 at home in the continent’s second-tier competition.

    In the third-tier Conference League Viktoria Plzeň beat Ballkani of Kosovo 1:0.

    Group games in the two competitions continue in two weeks’ time.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 09/21/2023

    Almost 20,000 gymnasts will take place in an All-Sokol Slet at Prague’s Eden Stadium in July next year, representatives of Sokol said on Thursday. The budget for the event – which was last held in 2012 and 2018 – will be over CZK 150 million, with some funding coming from the National Sports Agency.

    The slet, or meeting, will be the 17th since the Sokol gymnastics and sports organisation was established during the 19th century Czech National Revival.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 09/21/2023

    One person died when a house was destroyed by an explosion in the village of Otinoves in the Olomouc Region, the local police force said. The blast on Thursday also damaged several other houses nearby.

    Police said they were working to establish the cause of the explosion and had sealed off the area.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 09/21/2023

    There are differences in the five-party Czech government coalition over who should be Czechia’s next European commissioner, Novinky.cz reported on Thursday. The country’s current member of the Commission, Věra Jourová is due to step down next year after two terms.

    The Mayors say they have the right to choose a successor under the coalition deal. However, the Pirate Party, who ran with them in an electoral alliance, say they should also have a say. However, Tomáš Zdechovský, an MEP for the Christian Democrats, does not recognise any such agreement, Novinky.cz said.

    The Mayors want to put forward one-time presidential candidate Danuše Nerudová for the post, the news site said.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 09/21/2023

    Czechia’s public finances are markedly imbalanced, the Czech Fiscal Council said on Thursday. In a report on the long-term sustainability of the public finances, the independent expert body said the government’s previously announced austerity measures, including pension reform, could have a positive impact – however, they will need to be followed by increased consolidation in future.

    The council said the imbalance in the public finances was in part due to irresponsible steps taken during the pandemic and measures in response to the rise in fuel and energy prices caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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