Govt. is preparing a special energy tariff to help households

The interest rate for newly granted mortgages fell from 4.64% in May to 5% in June. The average rate is thus the highest since the middle of 2010. Banks granted mortgage loans for 19.3 billion Czech crowns, a drop of 8% compared to May. The year-over-year decline accelerated to 65%. “The mortgage market has weakened in recent months due to the level of interest rates. However, we are still seeing more interest from customers for smaller loans for reconstruction or improvement of the energy efficiency of their own homes,” said the chairman of the Association of Czech Building Societies Libor Vošický.

President Miloš Zeman sent his condolences to the three children of the late Ivana Trump, of Czech origin, first wife of former US President Donald Trump. Ivana Trump died Thursday in New York. She was 73 years old.

Zeman said Ivana Trump, whom he had met several times in the past, was an excellent athlete, a capable businesswoman and a proud Czech who never forgot her homeland. He said he respected her very much and remembered her as a kind and cordial woman.

The Chamber of Deputies approved a proposal for an economic tariff, intended to help households reduce their electricity and gas bills. Compared to the government’s initial proposal, the version adopted by the lower house of parliament has expanded the possibility of a contribution from the state budget also for the supply of heating to apartments. The government will decide on the specific form of the tariff, i.e. who will receive it and how much the state contribution will be. The government will likely determine the details around the turn of July and August.

Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Síkela said the amount of the contribution will be fixed, so it is not a percentage aid. The government could set aside more than CZK 30 billion for the cost-cutting tariff. The upper limit of the state contribution for electricity and gas was increased by the lower house, just like for heating, to 30,000 CZK, whereas the government initially proposed 20,000 CZK.

Czech ultramarathoner Dan Polman won the world’s longest cycling race, from the North Cape in Norway to Tarifa in Spain, by a huge lead. He covered a distance of 7,400 kilometers in 25 days. Despite the fall and injury, he remained at the helm throughout.

Veteran Josef Kaufman died Monday at the age of 95. He was born in Volhynia, a Czech enclave that is now part of Ukraine. He participated in the battles of World War II on the Eastern Front with the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. According to data from the Memory of Nations Project, Kaufman was born in the village of Leduchowka in Volhynia near the city of Lutsk which belonged to Poland before the war, then it was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939 and two years later. later, by Nazi Germany. .

The headquarters of the European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) will be transferred from the Holešovice district to Palmovka in Prague in the next three years on the basis of the letter of intent signed by the Prague City Hall and the Ministry finances. The city hall of Prague will prepare the premises of the agency in the still unfinished center of New Palmovka. EUSPA, established in its current form in 2021 and originally established as the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Supervisory Authority (GSA) in 2004, has been based in Prague for 10 years. It combines the management of the operation of the EU space programme, including European satellite and navigation projects.

About 20 mayors of Czech towns have asked Vít Rakušan, the president of the Movement of Mayors and Independents (STAN), to change the name of the political group, which they consider misleading and misleading. STAN spokeswoman Sára Beránková told ČTK that the movement does not plan to change its name. The name refers to the fact that the vast majority of STAN representatives have experience in municipal politics, she added. The 20 mayors in a letter claim that STAN does not have proportionately more mayors than other political parties. STAN has recently been hit by scandals and mayors say he gives them a bad name by association.

The European Commission said the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 2.7% this year and 1.5% next year. The EC also significantly raised its inflation estimate to 8.3% for this year and 4.6% next year. The Czech economy is expected to grow by 2.3% this year and 2.0% next year. Czech inflation is estimated at 13.9% this year and 5.8% next year. The EC said supply chain disruptions due to the conflict in Ukraine and rising energy prices were to blame for the inflation.

There will be strong storms with wind gusts of around 70 kilometers per hour, possibly with hail, in the Czech Republic this afternoon and evening. Overnight it will change to rain, which will gradually stop from the northwest, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ) said. A wavy cold front will pass over the country, separating warm southern air from cold northern air. Behind it, colder, drier air from the northwest will flow towards the Czech Republic. In the afternoon, local thunderstorms will begin to form in the Czech Republic, and in the evening they will spread to the whole country, ČHMÚ reported.

Temperatures will vary significantly in different parts of the Czech Republic today. In South Moravia, due to the current heat and drought, a fire warning is in effect until further notice.

The summer wave of Covid is reaching its peak. It will accelerate over the next week to 10 days followed by a gradual decline. The numbers may still remain quite high, director of the Institute for Health Information and Statistics (ÚZIS), Ladislav Dušek, told Czech radio. Over the past three days, the daily number of new confirmed infections was around 2,000. Dušek said the actual number of infected people could be up to five times higher. He says that despite the current surge getting off to a quick start in early June, the decline will be rather slow. Currently, the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron now account for more than 89% of cases in the Czech Republic. Find out more in our Covid update.

Police solved around a quarter of cybercrimes last year. At the same time, their share in total crime has increased over the past 10 years, from 0.5% to 6.2% last year, according to police chief Martin Vondrášek. Last year, the total number of cyber crimes increased by 18% to 9,518 cases. The most common cyber crimes were fraud at 42%, followed by unauthorized access and destruction of computer records at 17%.

The Sudeten Germans want the closest possible relations between Bavaria and the Czech Republic, the head of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft (SL), Bernd Posselt, wrote in a press release on the occasion of the visit of the Minister- Bavarian President Markus Soder in Prague today. He also said that the Sudeten Germans were determined to maintain the role of a natural bridge between the Czech Republic and Germany. Posselt mentioned that although Soder’s meeting with Fiala today has a rather introductory character, it is important that the neighbors know and trust each other, especially in the complex period of the Russian invasion.