5 Things First: The Top Czech and World News Headlines

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CZECH REPUBLIC

• Aides to Czech President Milos Zeman on Thursday showed a video of him signing a decree to convene a new parliament while in hospital a week ago, seeking to defend their handling of his hospitalization against accusations of secrecy.

• The ceremony at which state decorations are awarded will be postponed from the national holiday on October 28 to a later date. The head of the Presidential Office protocol department, Vladimir Krulis, told CTK on Wednesday that it was up to President Milos Zeman to decide on the ceremony.

• Over 7,000 homes are still without power due to the gale-force winds that hit the Czech Republic on Thursday. A spokesperson for the state-controlled utility ČEZ said the majority of affected households are located in Central Bohemia.

WORLD

• Slovakia’s gross national income (GNI) amounted to 91.05 billion in 2020, down by 1.5 percent from the figure reported in 2019, the Slovak Statistics Office reported on Thursday. Since 2010, GNI data have been adjusted according to international methodology in a range between -0.3 percent and +0.4 percent of GNI, noted the office.