• 11/16/2024

    The leadership of the Communists decided on Saturday that the party will run in next year’s parliamentary elections as part of the Stačilo! (Enough!) coalition, party spokesman Roman Roun told ČTK. The party will publicise their programme priorities and other pre-election preparations in the coming weeks, he added.

    The Stačilo! coalition was created a year ago. The Communists will try to return to the Chamber of Deputies next autumn after five years. Public opinion polls now show that the party is close to the five percent needed to enter the Chamber of Deputies. The date of the election has not yet been announced by the president.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 11/16/2024

    The Union of Security Forces will go ahead with a planned protest on November 21st in front of the Ministry of Interior building, even after the promise of Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan to increase the salaries of police officers and firefighters by 2,500 crowns, chairman Aleš Lehký told ČTK on Saturday. According to a statement on their website, the unions want to continue to draw attention to the low salaries of police officers, firefighters and other employees of security units.

    Rakušan said earlier this week, after meeting with union representatives, that next year policemen and firefighters are to receive a contribution to salary stabilisation of 1,000 crowns, in addition to the already-promised 1,500 crowns for workers' pay grades. According to a statement by Lehký on Thursday, the unions expected the amount to be much higher.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 11/16/2024

    An outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu has been confirmed at a turkey farm in the Moravian town of Medlov, south of Brno, Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný reported on Saturday on the X network. It will be necessary to cull 12,000 turkeys. Firefighters and prisoners will help with the destruction of the farm’s livestock.

    This is the tenth outbreak of bird flu in commercial breeding in Czechia this year. On Friday, bird flu was also confirmed at a farm in Nalžovské Hory in the Klatovy area, where it will be necessary to destroy 18,000 domestic and wild ducks, pheasants and partridges.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 11/16/2024

    A Czechoslovak 5000-crown banknote from 1919 was auctioned on Saturday in Prague for 25.68 million crowns, becoming the most expensive Czech paper currency sold at a domestic auction, according to a press release by Bankovky.com, which auctioned the note for its client.

    The note, which neither the Czech National Bank nor the National Museum owns, had a starting price of 2.5 million crowns. The banknote was in circulation for less than two years, and its uniqueness lies in the fact that only two such notes are known to survive today, both in private hands.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 11/16/2024

    The army has now built nineteen bridges and two footbridges in the regions affected by the September floods, with four more bridges and two footbridges currently under construction, Karel Čapek from the Department of Communications of the Ministry of Defense told ČTK on Friday.

    Up to a thousand soldiers have been assigned to help with the consequences of the floods until the end of November. The government estimates the total damage at 45 to 50 billion crowns, with the Moravian-Silesian region (where the damage is tentatively estimated at 20 to 30 billion crowns) and the Olomouc region (15 to 20 billion crowns) the worst affected.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 11/15/2024

    Mostly foggy and overcast. Temperatures will be around 2 to 6 °C during the day and 2 to -4 °C during the night.

  • 11/15/2024

    The number of secondary school students in Czechia has grown by 8% over the past decade to nearly 485,000, with the largest increases in the Central Bohemian Region and Prague.

    Of the 484,758 students, 99% were Czech residents, with 5,412 registered abroad, including 3,951 from Ukraine. Over the decade, student numbers rose by 24% in the Central Bohemian Region, 20% in Prague, and declined by 4% in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Non-matriculation programs accounted for 21% of students, with the highest enrollment in regions like Karlovy Vary and Ústí nad Labem and the lowest in Prague at 12%.

  • 11/15/2024

    The European Commission (EC) in its new forecast downgraded the estimate of this year's growth of the Czech economy to 1 percent from 1.2 percent in the spring forecast. The Czech economy will expand by 2.4 percent next year, the EC said. In the spring, it predicted a 2.8 percent expansion.

    The Commission also forecast today that GDP growth would reach 2.7 percent in 2026. Household spending to be supported by real wage growth coupled with a fall in inflation should be the main driver of GDP growth, the EC said.

    The Commission expects inflation to be 2.7 percent this year and to fall to 2.4 percent next year. It should drop to 2 percent, the Czech National Bank's (CNB) target, in 2026.

  • 11/15/2024

    In October, over 33,000 Czechs and Slovaks participated in the Together Forward challenge, a free initiative by coach Václav Tomanec to promote mental health care. The challenge provided practical tools to manage stress, build healthy habits, and enhance overall well-being.

    With a study by the National Institute of Mental Health revealing that 20% of Czechs face depression or anxiety symptoms, the challenge offered timely support. Tomanec emphasized that accessible guidance and community connection are vital to addressing the growing mental health crisis.

  • 11/15/2024

    The District Court for Prague 8 has found psychiatrist Jan Cimický guilty of rape and extortion. It remains unclear whether the verdict addresses all 39 counts in the indictment, as Judge Petr Novák is still delivering the ruling. The sentence and legal classification of the crimes have yet to be announced. The verdict is not final, as both parties can appeal to the Municipal Court in Prague.

    The 76-year-old psychiatrist, absent from today’s hearing, had only attended the initial session, where he denied the charges. Prosecutor Martina Adámková requested a five-year prison sentence, while Cimický’s lawyer, Miroslav Kučerka, sought acquittal.

    The prosecution alleges that between 1979 and 2019, Cimický committed nearly 40 acts, including groping and kissing, often targeting patients at the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital and the Blue Lagoon Mental Health Center. Victims included interns, some under 18. Thirty-five acts were classified as extortion under the old Criminal Code, while the remaining four, post-2010, were defined as rape.

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