Morning Briefing │ Tuesday, February 6th, 2024

* HEALTH:

The Czech health ministry has announced it is preparing to ban the sale of sweets containing the psychoactive substance HHC which is now freely available in vending machines.

There have been close to a dozen cases in the past fortnight of young people being rushed to hospital after overdosing on them. Some of the youngsters ended up in intensive care. The symptoms include vomiting, confusion and partial memory loss that may last for up to 48 hours.

* BUSINESS:

During the first month of this year, 59 bankruptcies of commercial companies were declared in the Czech Republic and 78 insolvency petitions were filed.

Most corporate bankruptcies were recorded in Prague in January. This is based on the analysis of data from the www.informaceofirmach.cz portal conducted by CRIF.

* ECONOMY:

Minister for European Affairs Martin Dvořák has appointed one of the country’s leading economists, Petr Zahradník, commissioner for joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) and adopting the euro.

The commissioner’s main task will be to engage in a public debate on euro adoption and explain why it is in the country’s best interests to fulfil the Maastricht criteria, as soon as possible.

* CRIME:

Last year, there were 181,417 criminal offenses committed in the Czech Republic, which is 574 (or 0.3%) less compared to 2022, according to statistics released by the Czech Police Presidium.

In 2023, Czech law enforcement solved 100,447 criminal offenses (of which 17,455 were committed in previous years). The overall clearance rate for all types of criminal cases increased by 2.5% in year-on-year comparison, reaching 55.4%.

* MUSIC:

David Koller, the drummer and vocalist from popular Czech band Lucie, is leaving the group to focus on his family and other projects, the band announced on their Facebook page. Koller wrote that he will still perform in all the concerts that the band has been contracted to play until the end of the summer.

The remaining members of the band said that they plan to carry on and are working on a new album.