News: Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Putin dismisses claims Russia would attack NATO as “nonsense”

Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic, President Vladimir Putin said late on Wednesday. According to a Kremlin transcript of the speech, Putin said that if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, but that NATO states themselves are not targets. "We have no aggressive intentions towards  Poland, the Baltic States or the Czechs – that is complete nonsense. It's just another way to deceive their population and extract more money from the people to carry the burden of armament on their shoulders," the Kremlin chief said.

President striving to achieve broad consensus on pension reform

President Petr Pavel on Thursday mediated talks between the ruling parties and the opposition on the government’s pension reform plans so as to try to pave the ground for a broad consensus. He said the talks had been constructive and the two sides were in agreement that a pension reform is inevitable and that the retirement age will have to be gradually increased. The debate on how pensions should be calculated and the possibility of early retirement for people working in hazardous professions remains open. President Pavel entered the dispute as a mediator after the opposition slammed the government’s proposals as asocial and said they would cancel some of the measures if they win the 2025 elections.

Elite tax evasion unit Cobra preventing huge tax losses

The country’s elite tax evasion unit, Cobra, has prevented tax losses to the tune of CZK 16 billion in its ten year existence. Last year alone it detected tax fraud to the tune of CZK 1 billion, Customs Administration head Marek Šimandl told reporters on Thursday. The elite tax evasion unit enables various branches of the state administration to combine tax expertise with criminal procedures and better intervene against tax crime. The project does not create special teams or departments, but uses existing capacities without additional financial requirements, Šimandl said.

President Zeman improving, but will remain hospitalized

Former president Miloš Zeman (79) who is recovering at Prague’s Motol Hospital after undergoing surgery to deal with a blood clot in his leg is reported to be improving. Doctors say Mr. Zeman is recovering as well as can be expected and is rehabilitating, although his condition remains serious due to the risk of further blood clots. His condition is linked to diabetes. A hospital spokesperson said it is not clear for how long Zeman will need to be hospitalized.

Tourist season gets underway in Czechia

The new tourist season officially gets underway in Czechia on Thursday, with castles, chateaux and other national monuments administered by the National Heritage Institute opening their doors to the public. Most of the privately owned monuments that still belong to their original aristocratic owners also open ahead of the Easter holidays.

Czechia’s rich architectural and cultural heritage traditionally draws millions of domestic and foreign visitors every year. In 2022, some 4.2 million visited the Czechia’s chateau and castles. However, the number is still short of the pre-Covid season of 2019, which saw over 5,000 visitors.

Fire on Prague’s Wenceslas Square quickly contained

Firefighters were called to a fire at the lower end of Prague’s Wenceslas Square on around midday on Thursday. The fire originated on the roof of a construction site where work was underway at the time. The building was evacuated and the fire was quickly contained. No one was reported injured. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Rail traffic in Prague disrupted by vandals

Rail traffic between Prague’s main railway station and Libeň was disrupted for close to an hour late on Wednesday afternoon by a group of youngsters who were throwing stones at passing trains. Fortunately they did not cause any significant damage and fled the scene when someone alerted the police. Traffic was fully restored at 6pm. Police are still looking for the culprits. There have been previous incidents of teenagers throwing stones or objects from bridges at cars passing below them.

Record high temperatures seen around Czechia

Record temperatures for March 27 were seen at 20 out of 166 stations around Czechia keeping records for 30 years or more on Tuesday. The highest temperature, 22.1 degrees Celsius, was registered in České Budějovice – Rožnov in South Bohemia.

According to meteorologists, Easter should be very warm temperatures ranging between 17 and 23 degrees Celsius on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but possibly reaching up to 25 degrees Celsius.

Weather forecast

Friday should be clear to partly cloudy and mostly dry with day temperatures between 17 and 22 degrees Celsius.