Daily news summary

Czech MPs welcome ceasefire in Syria, but stress need to find long-term solution

Czech MPs have welcomed the five-day ceasefire in northern Syria, agreed between the US and Turkey, but are stressing the need to address the crisis in view of finding a long-term solution.

The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Ondřej Veselý, said the international community and Turkey’s NATO allies needed to put more pressure on Ankara so as to prevent fresh aggression after the five-day ceasefire ends.

The head of the Committee for European Affairs, Ondrej Benešík, said the European Union needed to get actively involved in the talks and urged the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, to drum up support for this in the European Council.

The Czech lower house of Parliament on Tuesday condemned Turkey’s military offensive in Syria as a violation of international law.

Czech PM regrets EU failed to launch accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has expressed disappointment that the EU did not launch accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia at its summit in Brussels.

Speaking to journalists early on Friday, the prime minister said he particularly regretted the fact that the EU had not opened talks with North Macedonia, since no other country had done so much to be considered eligible, including changing its name.

The Czech Republic, and indeed the whole Visegrad Four group, has advocated the EU’s expansion to the Western Balkans as a means of increasing security on the continent. The EU is to return to the debate on enlargement at one of its future summits.

Last Czech RAF pilot General Emil Boček hospitalized

WWII veteran and the last surviving Czech pilot who flew with the RAF Emil Boček has been hospitalized with heart problems.

The 96-year-old Boček, who is due to receive the country’s highest state distinction, the Order of the White Lion, from President Zeman on the occasion of Czechoslovak Independence Day, October 28th, was admitted to the cardio ward of the Brno faculty hospital on Friday.

He has previously received a lower order of the country’s highest state distinction and was promoted to the highest rank in the Czech Army during the end-of-war celebrations in May of this year.

On his 93rd birthday General Boček, took to the skies in a Spitfire more than seven decades after his last flight in the iconic plane.

The 93-year-old veteran took off from the Biggin Hill airport in Kent, and spent twenty-five minutes up in the air, piloting the aircraft himself for a short while once it was airborne.

Chinese national committed misdemeanour in skirmish with pro-Tibetan demonstrators in Prague

The Prague Municipal Court has ruled that the act of a Chinese national who tore the Tibetan flag from the hands of demonstrators and threw it into the Vltava River during a visit to Prague by the Chinese president two years ago, did not commit a crime.

The offense was classified as a misdemeanour, also in light of the material damage caused. The other person charged in the case, a Chinese woman, was cleared. The hearing was not public and the verdict is legally binding.

Prague City Council raises waste collection fees 30 percent

The Prague City Council has raised the cost of communal waste collection in the Czech capital by 30 percent. The city should gain an additional 220 million crowns annually, which will be used to subsidize the waste collection services.

Councillors have also introduced the collection of bio-waste, which should be considerably cheaper. The move is part of a long-term effort to lower the amount of waste produced by Prague citizens.

Last year, Prague inhabitants produced over 320,000 tonnes of waste, compared to 304, 000 in 2017.

FAMU student Daria Kascheeva receives student Oscar in Los Angeles

Daria Kascheeva from Prague FAMU's film school has received the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ student Oscar for best animated film from international schools.

The 33-year-old Russian student received the award at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Thursday night. She is only the third FAMU student to win the award after Marie Dvořáková and Jan Svěrák. Her winning film is a 15-minute long animated puppet movie called Daughter.

Weather forecast

Saturday should be partly cloudy to overcast with day temperatures between 11 and 17 degrees Celsius.