Morning Briefing │ Monday, March 4th, 2024

* CLIMATE:

About a fifth of the weather stations that have been in operation for at least 30 years set temperature records on Sunday. Most of them were in Moravia and Silesia. The warmest registered temperature was 17.8 degrees in Dyjakovice in the Znojmo region.

* HEALTH:

Hundreds of people die each year in the Czech Republic of alcohol intoxication. In 2022, the figure was 504, national drug coordinator Jindrich Voboril told reporters after a meeting of the Government Council for Addiction Policy Coordination this week.

The Czech Republic is still among the highest countries in the world in terms of alcohol consumption.

* SURVEYS:

Some 47 percent of Czechs are satisfied with their country’s membership of the European Union, suggests a poll conducted by the Ipsos agency for the Czech News Agency.

The survey indicates that for Czechs, the most common reasons for dissatisfaction with the functioning of the EU are restrictions on the sovereignty of member states, EU migration policy and excessive regulation.

* ECONOMY:

Average wages in Czechia grew more slowly than consumer prices in the fourth quarter of last year, meaning that in real terms wages declined for the ninth consecutive quarter, according to economic analysts canvassed by the Czech News Agency. Wages also showed a real decline for the whole of 2023, they said.

* SPORT:

Czechia’s Ester Ledecká placed third in the super giant slalom World Cup in Kvitfjell, Norway on Sunday for her first appearance on the podium since returning from a collarbone injury sustained in 2022.

Ledecká, who is 28, is 11th overall in this year’s edition.