The Salvation Army’s annual collection in aid of the needy, primarily single parents, elderly citizens and homeless people, starts on December 4. How can you contribute? People can contribute to the cause by donating money to the organisation’s volunteers in the streets of Prague, Brno, Ostrava and other cities, as well as online. The collection will run until December 22. You can donate money through the Darujme.cz portal, by transferring it to an account, or physically on the streets of selected cities. The individuals collecting the money are referred to as “bell ringers”. You can contribute by placing your donation into the red kettle carried by the bell ringers. Who does the collection help? The funds will support initiatives for children, youth, families, and the elderly. For children, donations will primarily go towards organizing camps, clubs, or music and dance groups. For the elderly, money from the kettle collection will contribute to self-development and memory training clubs, reading clubs, as well as education in foreign languages, mobile literacy, and computer work. “The funds will also be utilized to assist the needy, individuals whom the Salvation Army Church will aid in challenging life situations and connect with social services. Last...
Electric Cars Will No Longer be Able to Park in Prague for Free
Thousands flocked to Santon Hill for the annual reenactment of the Battle of Austerlitz. Commemorated every year, this year’s edition is the largest since 2015, using 1200 history enthusiasts from 15 different countries. Over 10,000 spectators braved the cold and snow near the village of Tvarožná in the Brno region to watch the annual reenactment of the historic battle of Austerlitz. Also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, the nine-hour fight saw Napoleon’s army of 60,000 famously defeat the much stronger armies of Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Emperor Francis of Austria in 1805. For the locals, the recreation of one of Napoleon’s most famous and successful battles is not meant to celebrate the controversial figure – it is meant to commemorate and promote knowledge of a common European history, particularly in light of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. An annual tradition coinciding with a controversial film This reenactment attracted many more spectators than usual, in part due to the release of the latest Ridley Scott film centered around the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte. The movie has been met with waves of negative reviews from French historians and film critics and some local Czech historians have joined them in expressing their reservations...
Did you know that you can break your mortgage fixation, sell your property, and refinance anytime, even if you fixed with the bank for three, five, or eight years or so? The bank must allow you to close the mortgage prematurely… for a cost. And there is a big change from January. Let us start from the beginning. What is fixation: When you take your mortgage for let’s say 20 or 30 years, the interest rate will not stay the same for the whole time. When taking out the mortgage, you choose a “fixation period”, which means that for the next X amount of years, the rate will be fixed at for example 5.39%, which is the best rate we can get today (end of November 2023). With this in mind, you might be tempted to go for a shorter fixation and hope the rates go down. But, if you can refinance anytime anyway, why not choose 10 years and simply break the fixation whenever it suits you? How much did it to break fixation? Depending on when you signed your mortgage or renewed your fixation period (which, for the sake of working out these costs, is considered a reset...
Heavy snowfall is causing problems around Czechia. Many smaller roads are impassable and a heightened number of accidents are complicating traffic along the country’s main highways. A state of emergency is in place in the South Bohemia region which had 75 centimeters of fresh snow overnight. Power outages have left thousands of people without heating. Train services were halted in various parts of the Czech Republic, mainly due to trees falling on tracks or switches breaking down. The South Bohemia region experienced most of the reported issues, affecting sections like Tábor – Pelhřimov and Ražice – České Budějovice. Snowfall also disrupted several fast train connections. The Vysočina region also reports severe complications and drivers have been advised not to set out for the mountain regions if possible. Although road maintenance workers are out in force, the situation is complicated by fresh snow which should continue falling throughout the day. Between 30 and 40 centimeters of fresh snow are expected to fall in southern Bohemia and Moravia, Prague should see between 15 and 30 centimeters of fresh snow on Saturday. A truck accident on D1 towards Brno caused a 20-kilometer traffic jam. Radek Mátl, director general of the Czech Roads and...
Life expectancy in the Czech Republic could reach 77 years for men and 83 years for women this year, exceeding the pre-pandemic record from 2019, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU), told in a press conference. CSU published a projection of demographic development until 2101, predicting that life expectancy in the Czech Republic could be extended by almost 12.5 years for men and more than 9.5 years for women by the end of the century. According to the development of life expectancy, the retirement age for people in their fifties should be recalculated every year, as foreseen in the draft pension reform. The gradual increase in life expectancy in the Czech Republic was reversed during COVID-19, as mortality rates rose in the epidemic. While in 2019, life expectancy was 76.3 years for men and 82.1 for women, it dropped by 1 year for men and 0.7 for women in the first COVID year of 2020. The year before last, life expectancy fell to 74.1 years for men and 80.5 years for women. Last year, however, it started to increase again. The figure has thus returned to 2018 levels, but still has not matched pre-COVID highs. The projection assumes three scenarios: a...
The Czech Republic is on the brink of an epidemic. Numbers of COVID, respiratory infections, and flu are rising. How to distinguish between them? As EuroZprávy.cz reported last week, the number of people with respiratory illnesses has increased by approximately 13 percent, while flu cases have risen by 125 percent. The Czech Republic’s Hygiene Service on the X network stated that the country is at the beginning of an unfavorable epidemiological situation. What are the most common respiratory diseases, and how can they be distinguished from each other? The number of people infected with COVID is also increasing. According to the Ministry of Health data, more than 2,800 cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Monday, the highest number in the last year and a half. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients is almost 650, with 38 of them requiring intensive care. According to the chairman of the Czech Vaccinology Society Roman Chlíbek, the number of infected people is likely to be about four to five times higher than the number of those who tested positive. Health officials noted that the current values correspond to the seasonal period, and the number of flu cases has reached the threshold of the beginning...
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Buying a property in another country is simply not as easy as ordering food delivery through a phone app. That is a fact. The Czech Republic might not be the simplest when it comes to bureaucracy, language, and banking so today I want to share the three biggest mistakes I see expats (but also Czechs) make when buying a property, so you do not have to go through the same again! Oh – and one really, really bad idea to end with, something you should NEVER EVER do… Mistake Number 1: Not using a lawyer when buying a property. This is something I cannot get my head around and usually Czechs are worse at this than expats. The story goes like: “No, why should I need the lawyer, I think the contract looks OK. I asked my friend who works in…” I am not speaking just of purchase contracts either, but even the first reservation contract, which you sign when you want to take the property off the market. Recently I heard a story “I need a lawyer, I signed a contract and now there is a problem since the seller is doing XYZ”. Better late than never, however, if...
Some traders began importing Russian gas into the Czech Republic in October, ending a hiatus that began at the start of this year, according to Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Josef Sikela, as reported by Novinky. Out of the total volume of deliveries from January to the end of October this year, Russian gas accounted for 79.6 million cubic meters or 1.2 percent. The specific importers’ information is considered a trade secret. Data from the transmission station in Lanžhot in the South Moravian Region also indicates the resumption of Russian gas flowing into the Czech Republic. “Since the beginning of October, gas at this border station no longer flows from the Czech Republic to Slovakia as before but from Slovakia to the Czech Republic. And this is in volumes of up to 100 gigawatt-hours per day,” said Lukáš Kovanda, Chief Economist at Trinity Bank, citing information from Bloomberg. According to him, up to 40 percent of the gas imported into the Czech Republic currently comes from Russia. Given that some countries still cannot do without Russian gas, its import into the EU is not subject to sanctions, noted Sikela. According to preliminary information from the ministry, Russian gas stopped...
Czechia is running low on suitable weapons to send to Ukraine, Defence Minister Jana Černochová admitted on Czech television on Sunday, the day after the speaker of the lower house had made arms promises in Kyiv. On Saturday, parliament speakers Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09) and Miloš Vystrčil (ODS) paid tribute to the victims of the Soviet-era Ukrainian famine in Kyiv. Last year, parliament officially recognised as “genocide” the 1930s starvation of millions in Ukraine under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, known as Holodomor. The speakers of both houses of the parliament also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the head of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk. Speaking to the Ukrainian MPs in Kyiv, lower house speaker Markéta Pekarová Adamová said her country will continue to supply weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine deserves further support because it is not only fighting for itself but also for other European democracies, the speaker of the upper house, Senate Speaker Miloš Vystrčil has said. But suitable material is running out. “The Czech Republic is one of the leaders in aid. But frankly, there are not many things we can send to Ukraine from military material,” Defence Minister Jana Černochová (ODS) admitted on Czech Television on...
The Czech authorities have announced that the country will extend its internal border control with Slovakia once again. According to the Minister of Interior of Czechia, Vit Rakusan, the border controls with Slovakia will remain in place until January 3, 2024. Commenting on the extension of the measure, Minister Rakusan said that by keeping stricter rules in place, the country wants to combat irregular migration into Czechia. He further stressed that border controls are necessary as there is a lack of common EU policies aimed at guarding the external borders of the EU and dealing with migration, Reuters explains. In addition, Minister Rakusan said that it only makes sense for Czechia to keep border controls in place as long as the neighbouring countries do the same. Czechia initially introduced internal border controls with Slovakia on October 4 after an increase in irregular border crossings and in an attempt to put an end to people smuggling activities. Since then, the country has continuously extended the measures and has stressed that apart from the Czech-Slovak border, random checks will also be carried out along the whole border section. Poland has also extended its internal border controls with Slovakia. However, unlike Czechia, Poland...
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