Current Affairs | All stories

Nowhere in the entire European Union was a person fleeing their homeland less likely to be granted safe harbour last year than in the Czech Republic. Fresh data from Eurostat show that in 2018 the Czech Ministry of Interior granted international protection to only 1 in 10 applicants – while not a single refugee was resettled here.

Celebrations marking the liberation of Plzeň by General Patton’s Army on May 6th 1945 took place in the West Bohemian city at the weekend. Despite the cold, thousands of people lined the streets of the city to greet the war veterans who rode at the head of the Convoy of Liberty organized in remembrance of the event.

Personal items belonging to the second Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš and his wife Hana, including the late president’s shaving kit and walking stick, have become part of the collection of the Czech National Museum in Prague. The items were donated to the museum by Hana Benešová’s relatives, who live in the United States.

Leading experts on cybersecurity from 32 countries are meeting in Prague at the 5G Security Conference held under the auspices of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. It is hoped that the meeting can produce a series of consensual recommendations on how to approach future cyber threats emerging from the 5G network.

The majority of the methamphetamine seized by the Czech police last year was produced by Vietnamese crime gangs. Indeed, almost 70 percent of the illegal drug impounded last year was Vietnamese- produced. Police say cultural differences and the language barrier make it harder to combat these activities.

On her first day in office as the new Czech justice minister, Marie Benešová, unveiled her plans for reforming the Czech judiciary. In an interview for the daily Lidové noviny, Benešová said she would like to introduce a three-tier court system, which would make the country’s two high courts and their state attorneys redundant.

A plaque to the previously little-known Doreen Warriner has just been unveiled in Prague. The Englishwoman saved the lives of hundreds of people by helping them escape to the UK just before WWII. Czech and British officials – as well as people rescued by a number of courageous souls like Warriner 80 years ago – were in attendance at Monday’s ceremony.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Prague and other big cities on Monday to protest against the appointment of a new justice minister shortly after the police proposed pressing charges of EU subsidy fraud against Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. The change-of-guard is seen as an attempt to sweep the results of the investigation under the carpet.

The legendary runner Emil Zátopek and his wife Dana, a javelin thrower, made history at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, when they won altogether four gold medals for Czechoslovakia. The story of one of the world’s most famous sporting couples is the focus of a new film by David Ondříček, which has just started shooting.

The Czech Republic on Monday entered its fifth day without crude oil deliveries from Russia, suspended due to contamination. The oil-refinery in Litvínov which had reserves for seven days has already asked to be able to tap the country’s national material reserves.