Morning News: Tuesday, October 18, 2022

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• A new tax on addictive substances along with a more effective tax collecting might bring Czechia up to 15 billion crowns a year based on a draft anti-addiction plan for the next three years, national anti-drug coordinator Jindrich Voboril said at a press conference today. This would secure one billion crowns instead of the current 300 million for addiction prevention and treatment.

• Coal should be more used in the energy crisis and spontaneous development ideology is also to blame for the spread of the recent devastating fire in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park, President Milos Zeman said during his visit to the region today. Zeman went on to back his old idea of making the Elbe (Labe) River navigable.

• Only a few individuals with links to risk persons abroad had signs of Islamist radicalisation and approval of terrorist attacks and sharing Jihadist propaganda were also rare in the Czech Republic last year, the BIS civilian counter-intelligence service says in its annual report for 2021 released today. The BIS did not not confirm any person returning from Jihadist fighting to the Czech Republic.