The Czech Republic’s state budget ended 2022 with a deficit of CZK 360.4 billion, the third worst result in the country’s history, Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura said on Tuesday.

Around five percent of the roughly five million hens in Czechia will be culled due to the bird flu outbreak at a chicken farm in the Plzeň region. According to the Czech-Moravian Poultry Breeders’ Union, this shouldn’t affect the quantity of eggs on the market or the price for the time being.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala will represent Czechia at the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday. The Czech head of government made the announcement at a press conference on Tuesday.

Half of Czech people consider the split of Czechoslovakia 30 years ago as the right step, according to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center (CVVM). 39% of Czechs say it was wrong and the rest are undecided.  The poll also found that those who remember the so-called “Velvet Divorce” are slightly more critical of it.

The record for the highest-ever January temperature in Czechia was broken on New Year’s Day. A balmy 19.6 degrees Celsius was recorded in Javorník in the Olomouc region in the morning, breaking the previous record of 18.8 degrees, recorded in Vaňov in the Ústí nad Labem region on January 29, 2002.