Current Affairs | All stories

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.

A new project by Prague Zoo, together with the City of Prague, will allow for the creation of a new paddock for some of the zoo’s Przewalski horses. At one time the horse was extinct in the wild, but over decades the zoo played a major role in their breeding and their eventual return of the horses to their natural habitat.

The police have charged three former members of the Communist era secret police, the StB, for their role in Asanace, an infamous clearance campaign aimed at getting opponents of the regime to emigrate. Sixteen former members of the secret police have stood trial and been convicted for intimidating or using violence against dissidents, but the main organizer of the campaign, Jaromír Obzina died before he could be tried.

The new season in Czech football kicks off this weekend and anticipation is exceptionally high. Titleholders Slavia Prague and their main rivals Viktoria Plzeň and Sparta Prague have all spent an unprecedented amount on new players, including seasoned internationals from Portugal, Israel and Turkey, with Slavia and Plzeň hoping for an immediate return in the form of qualification for this season’s Champions League. But why are the top Czech clubs flashing the cash just now? That’s a question I put to soccer journalist Karel Häring.

Newly released Czech automobile production figures for the first half of 2017 point to a continued boom in an industry that has been driving the economy in recent years. After record output in 2016, the first six months of this year saw domestic auto manufacturing grow by a further 5.1 percent.

The country’s culture minister, Daniel Herman, has said that the government could buy out a controversial pig farm in Lety, South Bohemia, in a matter of weeks. If completed, it would mean the removal of a farm which has been an insult to victims of the Romani genocide for decades: the farm stands largely on the site of a former labour and WWII concentration camp where Roma citizens were interned and hundreds died.

Last week, a coalition pact between the Christian Democrats and Mayors and Independents parties appeared on the brink of collapse after the Christian Democrats invited their coalition partners to run on the Christian Democrat ballot in the autumn elections. But on Tuesday, the smaller party instead voted to go-it-alone.

Britain and the rest of the EU are at the start of the Brexit negotiations and in some sense both sides are still exploring where there are major differences and where there is agreement. Britain’s Brexit negotiator, David Davis, was in Prague on Tuesday for talks with the Czech foreign minister over its take on the talks so far and how they should proceed.

Around one hundred historical trains, including a mid-19th century steam locomotive, have been placed on display to the public at a locomotive depot in the northern Czech town of Chomutov. It is the first time the collection has been open to the public for an extended season.