An original date, an afternoon with friends or nostalgia for the older generation? The outdoor ice rink will impress all generations and kinds of ice skaters. The most important thing is to have fun! On December 1, one of the most popular ice skating rinks in Prague will reopen to the public. Like last year, the entrance is for free. There will be two skating rinks on the Letná Plain this year – a large one with a size of 40 x 20 meters and a smaller children’s rink size 22 x 10 meters. The ice-skating rink and the facilities will be illuminated after dark. The cooling unit retains the rink cool even in case of the outdoor temperature of +15 degrees. The skating rink facilities include a heated tent, refreshments, ice skates rental. Guests will also have access to fast food tents with heated benches and a skating school where experienced instructors will teach beginners to feel confident on the ice. The skating rink will operate until February 28, 2022 (daily from 09:00 to 21:00). How to get there: take trams 1, 2, 8, 12, 13, 14, 25, 26 to the Sparta stop. You can find it just across...
The Czech Health Ministry officially announced on Twitter that restaurants and organisers of mass events will not be able to accept antigen tests as proof of being negative for COVID-19. Only PCR tests would be accepted. In addition to PCR tests, confirmation of vaccination, as well as proof or recovery from COVID-19, will also be recognized. The new measures should be effective from 29 November. According to Vojtěch, the so-called “Austrian” model, ie that coronavirus tests would not be recognized at all, was rejected by representatives of the future government, who had already formed an AntiCovid team before the elections. “They do not want to go the way of fighting the epidemic as in Austria, but they agree to the abolition of self-tests and antigen tests,” wrote Vojtěch. “We call on the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic to maintain the OTN system by abolishing self-tests. It will retain antigenic assays only if PCR testing is not available. The PCR test would continue to be valid for 72 hours and the antigen test for 24 hours,” wrote the representatives of the AntiCovid team. Nechtějí jít cestou boje s epidemií jako v Rakousku, ale souhlasí se zrušením samotestů a antigenních...
The outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Babiš shared that President Miloš Zeman would like him to run for the presidential post. However, that is for the ANO movement, which Babiš is the leader of, to decide, the PM said in an interview with Blesk daily. “The president would like me to run for the post,” Babiš said, adding that the ANO movement wants to have a candidate for the presidential elections, which will be held in 2023. At the same time, Babiš confirmed that he did not plan to return to his business activities. When asked by the media, he said that the president’s wish was not new information. Zeman reportedly told him of his wishes on October 10, when they spoke after the elections. According to Babiš, the parliamentary elections were not an equal fight, as two big coalitions, consisting of five parties, opposed the ANO movement. “Five parties defeated us,” he said, naming the pandemic, the media and the Pandora Papers case as the decisive issues that led to the ANO’s defeat. The prime minister now wants to consolidate the movement he founded and, for example, establish a shadow government. “We will be in opposition, and we will see how we do,” Babiš...
On Wednesday evening, November 17, a flying drone show will take place in the center of Prague. November 17 is one of the landmark dates in modern Czech history. On October 28, 1918, an independent Czechoslovak state was declared just a few weeks before the end of World War I. On November 17, 1989, the state was, once again, independent – this time, free of Communist rule. Dozens of drones will rise into the air over the Vltava River to line up in various inscriptions and symbols of the Czech Republic. The show will start at 18:30. It will be best seen from the Bridge of the Legions (most Legií), along the embankment near the National Theater and the Jiráskův most. The main organizer is Česká spořitelna bank. In April, it already sponsored a similar show at the same location.
The Czech government is requiring children to get tested for COVID-19 as part of efforts to curtail a recent steep rise in cases. All elementary and high schools are required to test the 1.4 million students in two waves on Nov. 22 and Nov. 29, Education Minister Robert Plaga said. Medical experts recommended the mass testing. Firefighters will distribute rapid test kits across the country, officials said. Health Minister Adam Vojtech said the outgoing Czech government and members of the opposition that won an October parliamentary election and is forming a new government discussed additional coronavirus measures on Friday. “It’s essential for all of us to be united,” Vojtech said. He declined to detail the new measures, which the government is set to approve early next week. Vojtech said both teams agreed on the importance of vaccination as the rate in the Czech Republic is below the European Union average. “I’m glad that the government is listening to us,” Petr Smejkal, chief epidemiologist at Prague´s Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, told Czech public television. New confirmed cases jumped sharply this week, arousing concern they would continue rising to the daily record of 17,776 cases registered on Jan. 7. The...
On Thursday, November 11, sales of St. Martin’s wines began throughout the nation. These are the best Czech young wines of the season, chosen by professional tasters and specialists of the Wine Foundation of the Czech Republic. This organization owns the Svatomartinské víno trademark. Every year, hundreds of producers fight for the right to use it, sending samples of young wines for review. If the drink meets strict quality standards, then it is labeled a St. Martin’s wine for one year. The tradition of “tasting selection” and the name itself originated in the 18th century. During the reign of Emperor Joseph II, on St. Martin’s Day, vineyard owners approached winemakers for them to taste new wines. The winemakers would then decide whether to renew their contract for another year or to hire other specialists. In 2021, 328 wines from 80 producers were tested for quality. In total, about 2.2 million bottles entered the market. To avoid choosing the wrong wine and to avoid spoiling the tradition, residents should stop by the LÁHVE store: and buy St. Martin’s wine there. Twelve delicious items from four Moravian wineries were chosen for the season: Vinařství Škrobák, Vinařství Vajbar, Vinařství V&M Zborovský and Vinařství...
The mix of parties now working to form the next Czech government spans the spectrum from conservative to liberal, but all appear to share a commitment to the democratic principles espoused by founding President Vaclav Havel. And that, says a former Havel aide, could be bad news for China and Russia. Havel, the erudite playwright whose writings and dissident activities helped undermine communism in Europe, “would be quite pleased” with the state of his country following last month’s parliamentary election, said Jiri Pehe, who advised the former Czech president in the late 1990s. Havel died in 2011. The election unseated populist billionaire Andrej Babis as prime minister and left his coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Communist Party, out of parliament altogether. Babis formally submitted his resignation to President Milos Zeman on Thursday, clearing the way for Petr Fiala, head of the Civic Democratic Party and a leading figure in the winning five-party coalition, to begin forming a new government. Pehe says he expects the incoming coalition, despite its philosophical differences, to adopt a foreign policy that aligns with the strongly pro-human rights, pro-democratic ideals of his former boss. “At least for the next four years,” Beijing and Moscow...
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. Seventy percent of the adult population in the Czech Republic have already received at least one COVID vaccine dose, while 68 percent are fully vaccinated, the data of the Smart Quarantine team and the Health Ministry showed today. Czech President Milos Zeman wants outgoing PM Andrej Babis to run for president, but the decision is up to the ANO movement, Babis said in an interview for Blesk tabloid today, adding that he himself wants to focus on his opposition role in the Chamber of Deputies. The Czech Republic’s foreign trade balance slipped into deficit in the third quarter of 2021, as imports rose by 12.7%, compared to a 2.8% drop in exports. The main factor was the CZK 20.6 billion year-on-year decline in the trade surplus in motor vehicles. Avengers star Chris Hemsworth will be heading to Prague at the end of the month for the filming of Extraction 2, the sequel to Netflix’s blockbuster action movie. Czech headline inflation jumped to 5.8% in October, the highest since October 2008, backing expectations...
This Saturday: British pianist Sam Haywood presents a fascinating program called “Musical Liaisons”. The recital will take place at Rudolfinum Hall. Haywood has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philharmonie de Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus and the Wigmore Hall. He embraces a wide spectrum of the piano repertoire and is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician or working with singers. As a chamber musician he is a regular duo partner of Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, and performs with many leading chamber ensembles. His latest CD ‘Composers in Love’ brings together both well-loved and lesser known music inspired by composers’ muses. He recently made a Hyperion recording of piano works by Russian pianist-composer Julius Isserlis, grandfather of cellist Steven Isserlis. He has given private performances for Princess Diana, HRHs Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Michael Portillo, Hillary Clinton and Xi Jingping, President of China. Alongside his busy solo and chamber music career, he composes and is a Founder and Artistic Director of the Solent Music Festival. Sam is also passionate about his work with young people. He is an ambassador to the West Lakes Academy, has written a children’s...
faUSt, also better known as Faust, was ahead of its time as a West German rock group (in the early to mid-1970s. They released only four albums, each experimental and distinct from the other, but their last release “Faust IV” is considered for alternative or indie rock musicians and fans their masterpiece. The 80s-90s alt-rock, psych-rock and post-punk groups that are influenced by Faust, and were proud to say so include Sonic Youth, Pavement, and Nirvana to name a few. Matching only early experimental Velvet Underground for dissonance and melody, juggled with verve, fragility, and accidental brilliance is one way to describe “Faust IV” released in 1973 on Virgin Records, meaning it was recorded only two years into the Faust experiment. Song lyrics are spoken not sung, and mostly in English with selective German or French songs adding intrigue and helpful for their overall international appeal. In a wider context, the German music scene in the early 1970s was prophetic in ways beyond the most obvious example, Kraftwerk, which formed in 1969 and is now a more influential group in pop music than the Beatles. Faust was part of a movement known as “Krautrock” with groups from West Germany,...
The government is set to tighten coronavirus measures on Friday morning. The so-called Austrian model, which would mean a ban on access to restaurants, stadiums or other public places for the unvaccinated is one of the options considered by the Czech government. According to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), the changes will be substantial. There is speculation that only those who have been vaccinated or who have had a covid will be allowed to go into restaurants. Thus, no negative PCR or antigen test would be enough to enter a public space. “The evolution is exceptional and the occupancies of intensive-care beds are increasing significantly faster than we had expected,” Health Minister Adam Vojtech told a news conference on Thursday. Babis called again on unvaccinated Czechs to get the vaccine, calling it a “moral responsibility.” Tests confirmed 13,502 new COVID-19 infection cases in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, nearly 50 percent more than a week ago, the public Czech Television (CT) reported today, referring to Health Ministry spokesman Daniel Koppl. Nearly 3,500 coronavirus patients are currently hospitalised in the Czech Republic, of which 524 are in serious condition.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his government have resigned in a formal step required by the Constitution following last month´s parliamentary election. Babis said Thursday he sent the resignation letter to President Milos Zeman. The head of state is expected to ask Babis to stay in office until a new government is appointed. Babis´ government had to resign after the first session of the new lower house of Parliament was over, which happened on Wednesday. A three-party, liberal-conservative coalition known as Together won the Oct 8-9 election with a 27.8% share of the vote. Together teamed up with a center-left liberal coalition made up of the Pirate Party and a group of mayors and independent candidates, which came in third place with 15.6% of votes. The new partnership will hold 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house of Parliament, relegating Babis, a populist billionaire, and his centrist ANO (YES) movement to the opposition. Zeman has already asked Petr Fiala, the candidate of the winning coalition, to form a new government. The five parties of the coalition signed a deal this week to rule together. It´s not immediately clear when the president, who is currently hospitalized, will swear in the...
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