If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. Ukraine, the end of energy dependence on Russia, the build-up of defense capabilities, trade deals, support for civic society and free media as well as transatlantic links are Czech EU priorities, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told journalists on Tuesday. In connection with Ukraine, Lipavsky mentioned support for its territorial integrity, humanitarian and post-war rehabilitation as well as support for its EU candidate status. . The Prague Spring international music festival’s administrative board has appointed Pavel Trojan the festival’s new director effective August 1, when he will replace Roman Belor, who is leaving the post at his own request. Prague Spring has been a renowned festival of classical music with an almost 80-year history. The number of temporary protection visas the Czech Republic has issued to refugees from Ukraine since the start of its Russian invasion has reached 379,524, the Interior Ministry said on Twitter on Tuesday. On Monday, the visas were granted to 1,200 people, which was about 1,100 fewer than a week ago. The largest Czech construction business Metrostav, as well as...
International Yoga Day is celebrated around the world every year on the summer solstice on June 21. Four hundred yoga fans gathered on Charles Bridge in Prague on Tuesday morning. They spread out their mats and all started training together to celebrate International Yoga Day. The exercise began at five o’clock in the morning and lasted about an hour. “The whole sequence was a symbol of the solstice. It was based on Greetings to the Sun exercises and their variations. Each trainer received a yoga book and a candle as a gift,” the event organizer Adéla Porubská told TN.cz. The exercise was accompanied directly on the bridge by pianist Karel Havlíček. “The whole thing underlined Czech history. We were on Charles Bridge, we played Czech music on Czech piano,” added Porubská. The International Day of Yoga has been celebrated annually on June 21 since 2015, following its inception in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in his UN address in 2014, had suggested the date of June 21, as it is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and shares a special significance in many parts of the world. Importance of Yoga Practiced in India since the 5th century, Yoga has been...
From Monday to Thursday, from June 29 to September 10, 2020, Kinobus will screen 44 movies around 11 different locations in Prague.
After more than six months of reconstruction, Bílek’s villa in Prague’s Hradčany will reopen to visitors on Tuesday. The unusual building was built by the sculptor and graphic artist František Bílek (1872-1941) according to his own plans. Today it serves as a monument to his work, and houses exhibitions related to his projects. During this last reconstruction, non-original elements created during the previous renovation were removed from the house. Bílek’s villa has been managed by the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague since the 1960s. According to them, the creation of a new exhibition also serves to arrange the exhibits so that each space represents a specific theme of his work. “These are monumental works in Prague and the beginning of his work, while we tried to install the second part of his work in Chýnov and accentuate historical issues,” said Martin Krummholz, Ph.D. Bílek’s works from his peak creative period are presented in the permanent exhibition. According to Bílek, the Prague villa was supposed to express “Life as a field full of ripe ears of corn, providing nutrition for the brothers every day.” Many ears of corn are tied in sheaves–forming a pillar. Some of the columns are...
On June 21, 1991, the army of Soviet Union left Czechoslovakia after 23 years of “friendly help” which was actually a permanent occupation. The invasion by Warsaw Pact forces came on August 21, 1968, after the Czechoslovak Communist Party promoted “the change from within”, a reform guided by the regime and ruling party itself. When the Velvet Revolution swept the communists from power in late 1989, the first independent Czechoslovak government had several major issues to contend with—one of the most obvious being the 92 000 Soviet soldiers on Czechoslovak territory. They were here, along with over 44 000 of their family members from the Soviet Union, and military equipment that included 1120 tanks, 2505 combat vehicles, 103 aircraft, 173 helicopters, and several thousands of tonnes of ammunition. And by June 27th, 1991, the last of them was traveling back to Ukraine’s capital city. The last military transport left the country crossing the state border after a two-day drive from Milovice, Central Bohemia. The withdrawal itself came after long negotiations with the Soviet leadership, specifically President Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Affairs Minister Yuri Shevarnadze. From the Czechoslovak side, the negotiations were led by Slovak Alexander Dubček, former party leader and...
Geoffrey Rush and Benicio Del Toro will receive special awards at the 2022 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, KVIFF organizers announced on Tuesday. The two actors will both receive their awards during the closing ceremony on July 9 in the spa town of Karlovy Vary outside Prague in the Czech Republic. Rush will receive the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, an award that in the past has gone to Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Jude Law and Judi Dench. Three of Rush’s films – “The King’s Speech,” “Quills” and “Shine,” for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor – will be screened at the festival. Rush began his career in theater with the Queensland Theater Company. An important turning point in his cinematic career came in 1996, when he excelled in the role of composer and pianist David Helfgott in Scott Hick’s “Shine,” which won him an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Two years later, he was again nominated for an Oscar, this time for his role in the historical romance “Shakespeare in Love.” Despite his work in cinema, Rush never left stage acting behind. In 2009, he won a Tony Award for...
When it comes to energy and the environment, the priorities of the Czech EU Presidency are clear: emphasis will be placed on energy security and breaking the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, an objective considered in Prague to be more pressing than the green transition. “We basically have a repeat of the 1973 oil shock,” said Vaclav Bartuška, the Czech Ambassador-at-Large for energy security. “If there is a gas cut out this winter, we will burn anything we can to keep our people warm and to make electricity,” he said. Bartuška was speaking to Brussels-based journalists ahead of the start of the Czech EU Presidency, which begins on 1 July for a duration of six months. The Czech Republic will take over the rotating EU Council leadership from France, whose six-month stint at the EU’s helm expires on 1 July. During its presidency, Prague intends to push the implementation of the European Commission’s REPowerEU plan presented in May, which seeks to reduce Russian gas imports by two-thirds before the end of the year. The plan also places the emphasis on energy savings and the acceleration of the transition to low-carbon and renewable energy sources in order to reduce the bloc’s reliance on Russian gas. In its...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. Fuel prices in the Czech Republic are at an all-time high, with a litre of the most popular Natural 95 petrol currently selling for an average of CZK 47.69 per litre, according to data from the company CCS. . People will no longer be able to buy a new car with an internal combustion engine from 2035; the European Parliament approved last week, on a proposal from the European Commission. There are objections from the Czech Republic, France, and Germany. Some 5,000 to 10,000 Ukrainian refugees could be moved from Prague to other regions within a motivation program to be launched by the government, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said on Czech Television. Archaeologists in the Břeclav region have uncovered an almost intact skeleton of a 6th century warrior and his two dogs. They came upon the remains while investigating one of the largest burial sites of the Germanic Langobards from the 6th century near the Nové Mlýny water reservoir. The head of the state-owned company Czech Post, Roman Knap, will leave office...
Prague 6 received a gift from Ukrainian citizens in the form of five red viburnum. The flowers serve as a thank you for accommodation, help, and support during the ongoing war. Mayor Ondřej Kolář (TOP 09) took over the planting of the trees together with the Ukrainian ambassador Yevhen Perebyjnis. Ukrainian women, who found asylum in the city district, accompanied the ceremony by singing the folk song Red Viburnum. Mayor Ondřej Kolář wished for the bushes to take root–thus far, they are doing well. He also hopes that they will find the right home in the territory of Prague 6, just like many people from Ukraine before them. The song is sad but optimistic and has become a symbol of Ukrainian pride and resistance during the war with Russia. The song Red Viburnum served as the anthem of the Ukrainian Voluntary Legion during World War I. There are several versions of this folk song with original adaptations. There are also many theories about who its original author is. It is most often attributed to Mikhail Hajvoronsky, but modern musicologists are unsure about its true origins. “The red viburnum has been a symbol of Ukraine for centuries and nowadays also a...
Sigur Rós, based out of Reykjavík, Iceland, are arguably one of the planet’s most intriguing bands. Their vocals are rarely, if ever, performed in English. They prefer Icelandic but have no qualms employing a fabricated language called “Vonlenska”. The band has consistently baffled critics. Over their twenty-plus years of existence numerous genres including “post-rock”, “dream pop”, “shoegaze” or “art rock” among many others, were utilized at some point whilst attempting to describe Sigur Rós’s sound. Phillipp Malý, co-founder of Selection Promotion and self-proclaimed fan, partly attributes their sound to the band’s geographic origins. He states, “I guess that the music of Sigur Rós can only come from Iceland or a country with a similar landscape. All the lonely corners in Iceland, the heaviness of the steeply rising fjords in a soft misty atmosphere is very present in the songs like “Glósóli”; from the album Takk… or “Varðeldur” from Valtari”. Ágætis byrjun is inarguably the place to begin with Sigur Rós. Its original release was restricted to Iceland before being picked up by labels in the United Kingdom (2000) and the United States (2001). Ágætis byrjun is the album that placed the band on a path that would lead to global...
This Sunday, June 26, will take place one of the most awaited festivals of the year, hosted by Karlin Market. The Street Food Festival will have a number of food vendors representing the best of what modern Czech street food has to offer. Beyond just food, however, there will be something for everyone. Many different beers will be available bottled and on tap. Two DJ’s–DJ Hlava and DJ Senor Victor–will be playing live music and creating a fun, family-friendly ambience. That’s not all for live music, however. The bands Neandrtal Project and United Heads will also be performing at the festival. Alongside the music, there will be a skateboard and BMX exhibition, with a big ramp and some of the best riders showing off their tricks. Marek Cejchan, one of the best skateboarders in the country will be there, along with Martin Masek who will show off his unique, aggressive BMX style with some mind-blowing stunts. On a similar theme, the Prague Breakin School–the best break dancing school in the Czech Republic–will be performing and teaching any interested children in some of the moves. The school is nearby in Karlin and has helped revitalize the post-industrial neighborhood into one of...
The June record for the highest single-day temperature was broken at ten stations measuring back at least 30 years on Sunday in Prague. The June record was broken at ten monitoring stations active for at least 30 years, with 60 stations rewriting the record for June 19. The oldest station in the country, the Prague Klementinum, where the thermometer showed 36.9 degrees, also set a new high for that day. The previous record from 2013 was more than two degrees lower, at 34.4 degrees Celsius. Klementinum in the center of Prague has been monitoring the weather continuously since 1775. Everywhere in Czechia had an extremely hot weekend. On Saturday, for the first time this year, temperatures in several places exceeded the limit of a supertropic day, i.e. 35 degrees. The temperature barely dropped overnight: in some places temperatures didn’t get below 20 degrees Celsius. Already in the morning, meteorologists estimated that today’s highs could jeopardize the current monthly record for June, which was 38.9 degrees Celsius. It was measured on June 26, 2019, in Doksany. Today, temperatures in most areas rose to 33 to 38 degrees Celsius, in eastern Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia to 28 to 33 degrees. Meteorologists have...
Don’t have an account? Register
[swpm_registration_form level=”6″]
Already have an account? Log In
How Would You Like to Promote Your Business? PR ArticleDisplay bannersVideo productionNewsletter adsJob ListingsInfluencer Marketing
Your Email
We will come back to you within 24 hours with our proporsal
