Start of the Ample Strike military exercise in the Czech Republic with 900 NATO soldiers

Ample Strike 2022, one of the largest international military exercises in Czechia, begins today in Náměšť nad Oslavou, involving around 900 soldiers from Czechia and six other NATO countries, including the United States and Germany. It runs until September 16. The exercise is also taking place at the airports of Čáslav and Prague-Kbely, as well as at the training areas of Boletice, Libavá and in the vicinity of České Budějovice. Its main purpose is to coordinate the operation of forward air controllers with aircraft crews and ground headquarters. The Czech army will send Mi-35/24 and Mi-171 helicopters, L-159 combat aircraft and CASA C-295 transport aircraft.

Memorial bell #9801, cast in Austria in remembrance of the many church bells that were cast down by the Nazis during World War II, was unveiled yesterday on a pontoon at the Smetana quay in central Prague. After the official inauguration ceremony, the bell ringers of the Sanctus Castulus association, which initiated the project, rang the bell for the first time.

The bell will be on display there at least until the end of September, then it will be moved to the pontoon elsewhere. In the future, from around 2024, it should be permanently installed in a belfry on Rohansky Island.

This year’s Castle Night, which took place on Sunday evening and closed this year’s main tourist season at the monuments, was visited by more than 20,000 people. Some 80 monuments took part in the 13th edition of the event. Compared to previous years, attendance increased by an average of 3,500 people. The event featured costumed tours, a nighttime program, and knight tournaments. The center of this year’s events was in Český Krumlov.

In the first round of doubles at the US Open, tennis’ most famous doubles pair, the Williams sisters, will face Czech debutants Lucia Hradecká and Linda Nosková. Sisters Serena and Venus Williams will take to the court together in doubles after more than four years, and their first opponent will be the Czech pair in doubles.

Czech Republic’s debt growth rate was highest among EU countries last year, and budget deficit last year surpassed worst result of 2020, says Supreme Control Office (NKU) on the draft final state accounts of the Czech Republic for 2021.

The office also pointed out that Czechia was ranked among the countries with the lowest economic growth rate in the EU last year. On the other hand, the auditors assess the low unemployment rate positively.

Prague will say goodbye to popular Czech singer Hana Zagorová in a ceremony at the Divadlo Kalich on Wednesday August 31 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., her husband Štefan Margita wrote on social media. Zagorová, who won the Golden Nightengale for Czech’s most popular singer nine times, died on Friday at the age of 75.

“For those who loved and loved Hana and want to come and say goodbye to her in person, they will have the opportunity to do so on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at the Kalich Theater,” Margita wrote. In September, Divadlo Kalich will host the premiere of the musical Biograf láska, which features 24 of Zagorová’s songs.

Heavy storms that battered parts of the Czech Republic over the weekend led to a number of incidents in Moravia on Saturday evening. Firefighters responded to more than 100 incidents in South Moravia yesterday, the regional fire department reported on social media. Two-thirds of the incidents were a direct result of the storms and saw fallen trees, flooded roads and similar occurrences.

“We removed trees in six cases. Among other things, we also secured loose bags on the roof of the house,” said a fire department spokesperson. Trees were removed from roads and sidewalks in Brno and elsewhere.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia have agreed to jointly purchase Swedish CV90 tracked combat vehicles, Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová and her Slovak counterpart Jaroslav Nai announced on Saturday. The ministers said the joint purchase would help reduce overall costs and ensure the participation of Czech and Slovak companies in repairs and the manufacture of parts.

In July, the Czech Republic canceled a tender for the purchase of tracked combat vehicles for 50 billion crowns, preferring to deal directly with the Swedish producer. In June, Slovakia agreed to buy about 40 billion crowns worth of combat vehicles from Sweden.

The number of tourists visiting Prague’s biggest sights has increased significantly compared to 2021, but has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, according to a survey of local landmarks by ČTK. The sites generally visited by foreign tourists are particularly down on 2019 figures.

Prague Castle, for example, received around 260,000 visitors from early July to August 24. That’s more than double the number of visitors over the same period compared to 2021, but about half the number of visitors compared to 2019. Old Town Hall reports similar figures, with 93% visitors in more this year compared to 2021, but 43% less than in 2019.

Intense storms caused numerous incidents in cities in the western half of the Czech Republic on Friday evening. In Prague, firefighters responded to about two dozen storm-related cases, including clearing tram tracks and roads of fallen trees.

In Liberec, a cyclist was killed by a falling tree on a cycle path near the U Nisy football stadium. Due to heavy rain, a ceiling collapsed at the Forum Liberec shopping mall, with video of the incident shared on social media. The mall will remain closed until it can be assessed by structural engineers.

Four Czech tennis stars participating in this year’s US Open qualifying round have qualified for the tournament as Linda Nosková, Linda Fruhvirtová, Sára Bejlek and Tomáš Macháč each won their final qualifying match on Friday. Macháč will play his first-ever US Open this year after defeating Italian Flavio Cobolli in the final qualifying round 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-1.

The three qualified women will join Karolína Plíšková, Kateřina Siniaková, Tereza Martincová, Marie Bouzková, Petra Kvitová and Karolína Muchová for an impressive nine Czechs in this year’s women’s singles tournament in New York, which kicks off on Monday.

After about two hours, Prague 6 firefighters put out a fire on the roof of the Central Military Hospital which was reported around 9.30am this morning. The department where the fire was located was evacuated and no injuries were reported, fire department spokesman Martin Kavka wrote on Twitter.

Flames could be seen coming from the roof of the building and thick clouds of smoke were visible from nearby areas of Prague. “This is an attic fire, high altitude equipment and multiple water jets were deployed, including two from inside,” Kavka wrote. The affected area was a part-inpatient, part-outpatient neurology ward.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s approval ratings have hit their lowest point since he took office earlier this year, according to international polling firm Morning Consult. Of the 22 global politicians the company has compiled approval ratings for, only South Korea’s Yoon Seok-youl has lower ratings than Fiala.

According to the latest data from Morning Consult, collected from online surveys of a country’s population, only 22% of Czechs approve of Fiala, while 68% show disapproval. The figures show a sharp drop since March, when Fiala had an approval rating of 41% and a disapproval rating of 43%.

Italian police confiscated six kilograms of sand from two Czech tourists and fined them 1,000 euros (about 25,000 crowns), local media reported. It is illegal to take sand, shells and pebbles from beaches in the Sardinia region of Italy, where the Czechs were staying.

The tourists were surprised during a random security check at the airport when departing. In 2017, authorities in the region passed legislation banning the removal of sand, shells and other materials from its beaches. Between June 15 and July 15, police confiscated a total of 50 kilograms of sand and shells from tourists at airports in Sardinia.