Daily news summary

Three soldiers killed in Afganistan to be buried with military honours

The three Czech soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on Sunday will be buried with military honours, Defence Ministry spokesman Jan Pejšek said on Monday.

Sirens will sound nationwide in their memory at midday on Wednesday, the day on which their remains will be brought home on a special army plane.

President Miloš Zeman, the head of the Czech Armed forces, and leading political representatives will be present at the ceremony at the airport.

Since 2002 more than 9,000 Czech soldiers have served in Afghanistan. Thirteen of them were killed.

PM sceptical regarding compensation for H-system clients

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said he is sceptical with regard to the possibility of the state compensating the clients of the bankrupt construction company H-system.

The prime minister commented on the case in a Tweet on Monday, saying that providing such compensation to one group of clients would be unfair to all the others who had lost money in other dubious investments.

Supreme Court Judge Pavel Šámal, who dealt with the case and who came under fire for ordering 60 families of the construction company out of their homes in order to protect the rights of all other clients in the case, said that there was no way to resolve this case which would be fair to everyone and suggested that the state should get involved and provide some form of compensation.

LGBT festival Prague Pride kicks off in Czech capital

The 8th annual festival of LGBT culture Prague Pride kicks off in the Czech capital on Monday with a concert on Střelecký Island.

The week-long festival offers over a hundred events, including debates, film screenings and exhibitions, and will culminate with a colourful parade through the city centre on Saturday.

The main theme of the festival this year is the family and the main focus is on a bill, due to be debated in Parliament in the autumn, that would allow gays and lesbians to enter into regular marriages, which would give them the same rights as heterosexuals. At present they can only enter into so-called registered partnerships.

Czech Radio screening New Wave films

Czech Radio has organized a week-long film screening of New Wave films in Prague's Karlin district starting Monday 6th to mark the 50th anniversary of the crushing of the Prague Spring. It will screen one film a day starting with the 1967 psychological drama The Cremator.

Czech Radio will be at the center of a series of commemorative events marking 50 years since the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. It is cooperating closely with the National Museum, the National Film Archive and the Institute for Study of Totalitarian Regimes to produce a video-mapping of the August events, including a 13-hour special starting late on August 20th which will follow the events of that night and the early hours of August 21st when Russian tanks rolled into the country to crush the democratic reforms of the Prague Spring movement.

Brexit dampens interest in setting up new British companies in Czech Republic

Interest in setting up new British firms in the Czech Republic has slowed down since the decision on Brexit, according to statistics provided by Bisnode. At present there are a record number of British companies operating in the Czech Republic, but interest in setting up new ones is at its lowest since 2014.

The biggest number of British companies established in the Czech Republic was in the period leading up to the referendum on Brixit and immediately in its wake, according to the report.

There are currently close to 5,000 companies with British capital operating on Czech soil.

Prague Castle still biggest tourist attraction in Prague

The most popular tourist destination in Prague last year was traditionally Prague Castle with 2.3 million visitors, a 13 percent increase year-on-year.

The Petrín funicular with 2 million visitors came second and Prague Zoo was the third most popular tourist destination, according to data made available by Czech Tourism.

The city hall on Old Town Square saw a drop in the number of visitors, most likely due to renovation work on Prague’s famous Astronomical Clock.

Weather forecast

Tuesday should bring clear to partly cloudy skies with day temperatures between 30 and 34 degrees Celsius.