News: Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024

GIBS investigating several cases of professional misconduct by high-ranking officers

The General Inspectorate of the Security Forces (GIBS) is investigating multiple cases of possible professional misconduct by officers from the protective service unit - an elite police body guarding politicians and strategic government buildings. According to media reports, some of the cases involve, for example, reporting overtime on shifts when the officers in question were actually at home, and security guards who were supposed to be protecting the American ambassador disappearing without permission. There are also witness reports of commanders abusing their position and using official cars for leisure purposes, such as their wives using them to get to the international film festival in Karlovy Vary. Czech news site Seznam Zprávy writes that some of these practices, such as the false reporting of overtime, thanks to which the officers managed to get up to CZK 40,000 extra per month added to their salaries, have been going on for years.

Sixteen people charged with large-scale subsidy fraud and tax evasion

Officers from the National Centre against Organized Crime have charged 16 people with subsidy fraud and tax evasion resulting in damage exceeding CZK 70 million. According to investigators, they used fictitious invoices to increase the turnover of companies, applied for loans and subsidies under false pretenses and wrongfully claimed tax deductions. According to the Centre’s spokesman, Jaroslav Ibehej, the police arrested 15 Czechs and one foreign national at the end of June and carried out more than ten raids on private homes and offices. They seized real estate and cash worth almost CZK 50 million.

Justice ministry employees to go on strike alert over low pay

Justice ministry employees are planning to go on strike alert on Wednesday July 3, in protest against low pay. The unions claim that wages at the ministry are significantly lower than those in other state institutions. They have warned that unless they receive  guarantees of pay increases by the end of August, the ministry’s employees will enter into a one-day strike. According to the unions the decline in real incomes of justice ministry employees reached 25 per cent in the years between 2021 to 2023 and has been deepening further in recent months.

Czech pavilion at 2025 Expo will be tallest wooden building in Japan

The first containers carrying building materials for the Czech National Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka were shipped to Japan from Veřovice in the Moravian-Silesian Region on Monday. The Czech pavilion at the 2025 Expo will be the tallest wooden building of its kind in Japan, and will be built almost entirely from wood and glass. The pavilion is circular with a spiralling exterior, which will take the form of a ramp winding up around a skylit atrium. It was designed by Apropos Architects.

In Japan there are strict standards and height restrictions for timber buildings due to the threat of earthquakes and  Czech designers had to convince the Japanese authorities that the spiral-shaped building could withstand possible natural disasters.

Jiří Mádl's film Waves about Czechoslovak Radio in 1968 invasion premieres to standing ovation at KVIFF

Director Jiří Mádl's new film Vlny (Waves) premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Monday night to a standing ovation that continued long after the credits had rolled.

The period drama set in Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1960s, the period of the Prague Spring and 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, tells the story of two brothers who have to make difficult decisions about what is important to them in life. The film is inspired by the true story of a group of journalists from Czechoslovak Radio’s foreign service section, the predecessor of today’s Radio Prague International, and their commitment to independent reporting in the face of mounting Soviet pressure. The main events take place in Czechoslovak Radio and its foreign service newsroom, which strove to bring listeners abroad the truth about what was happening in the country, despite censorship.

The film will be released in Czech cinemas on 15 August.

Fruit growers suffer huge losses due to frost damage

Fruit growers will lose around CZK 1.3 billion in revenues as a result of extreme frost-damage this year, which may threaten many farmers’ livelihood, Martin Ludvík, chairman of the Fruit Growers' Union told the ctk news agency. According to the latest estimates, 77 percent of the fruit harvest has been damaged and fruit growers are expected to harvest only around 31, 000 tons of fruit compared to the average 138, 900 tons. According to statistics the damage to the fruit is one of the worst in the last 100 years. Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný said earlier that the government would provide farmers with state aid to the tune of CZK 70 to 100 million. He said that while the state cannot afford to compensate farmers fully, it wants to help them survive.

Weather forecast

Wednesday should be partly cloudy to overcast with day temperatures between 17 and 21 degrees Celsius.