Current Affairs | All stories

Dozens of people gathered around the remains of a rare 16th century wooden church in Třinec-Guty which was ravaged by fire last week for a Sunday mass out in the open. The destruction of the church, for which three youths have been charged with arson, has shocked the nation and plans are already underway to have it restored.

Letná stadium in Prague was packed on Thursday night with fans, most of who were hoping the home team could turn around their fortunes following their 2:0 first-leg qualifying round loss to Belgrade’s Crvena Zvezda. It didn’t happen: Red Star’s Boakye made it an even taller climb for Sparta when he scored in the 19th minute in what turned out to be the lone goal of the game.

The Czech central bank has taken a first step in raising interest rates with the big question now how fast the follow up hikes will follow.

A team of scientists from Brno University of Technology is getting ready for an upcoming expedition to monitor and record a total solar eclipse which will be visible across the continental United States on August 21. The team is particularly interested in studying the sun’s magnetic field and the distribution of ions in the solar corona.

Final preparations are underway for this year’s edition of the weeklong Prague Pride festival of LGBT culture, which starts on Monday. Over 100 events are planned for one the seventh edition of one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the region. This year the organisers of Prague Pride say they will place a special emphasis on the human rights of LGBT people in repressive Eastern states such as Chechnya and Armenia. Spokesperson Bohdana Rambousková told me more.

Two Czech nationals, Markéta Všelichová and Miroslav Farkas, have been sentenced to six years, three months, in prison by a Turkish court. The couple was accused of being part of the Kurdish militia YPG, which Turkey considers a terrorist group. The two had said they were humanitarian workers who had aimed to create a field hospital near the Turkish-Iraqi border.

Most of the Czech team for the World Athletics Championships in London left on Wednesday, two days before the start of one of the biggest events in global sport this year. Barbora Špotáková will be aiming to take javelin gold at the same stadium where she won the Olympics in 2012, but there are also a number of other Czech medal hopefuls to watch out for.

Use-It is a European network offering free alternative tourist maps, inviting visitors to get off the beaten path. A new map of the Czech capital is now available and as the saying goes, Use it or lose it.

Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman has announced an important breakthrough in the government’s efforts to secure the buy-out of an offensive pig farm in Lety, South Bohemia located on the site of a former concentration camp where hundreds of Roma died in inhumane conditions in WWII. The company that owns the farm has now agreed to sell it to the state, opening the way for a dignified memorial to the victims to be built on the grounds.

Just two months after a strict smoking ban came into effect in pubs and restaurants around the Czech Republic smokers are getting acquainted with a novel product on the market –heat-not-burn tobacco products which are said to be less detrimental to health and which might allow them to “smoke” in public places once again. The Czech authorities have yet to set the norms for these products which are something between a classic and electronic cigarette.