Prague's Clementinum records warm start to the year

Prague's Clementinum recorded an average temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius in January, putting it among the top seven percent warmest first months of the year since 1775. Last month's average was 4.6 degrees higher than the average of the last two and a half centuries, and 2.2 degrees warmer than January 2021. The warmest January in 248 years of record-keeping was in 2007 when the monthly average temperature was 6.3 degrees Celsius. The coldest ever January was in 1799, with an average temperature of minus 9.3 degrees.

The Human Rights Without Borders association has held a happening in front of the Chinese Embassy in Prague to coincide with the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The event drew attention to human rights violations in the country, with two people dressed as Chinese hockey players oppressing five other athletes dressed in jerseys for Tibet, Uyghur Muslims, Christians, an Fa-lung Kung meditation practitioners. A candle-lit vigil will be held from 17:30 p.m. to commemorate the victims of China's communist regime.

Pražská energetika has announced price hikes for gas and electricity amid global energy shortages. Electricity prices will go up by a quarter on average from April, while in May gas prices will also increase by as much as 30 percent. Prices were last increased a year ago, before the current energy crisis began. The company managed to not raise prices throughout the winter months until now. The company noted that some other suppliers have already raised prices twice as a result of higher wholesale energy costs.

Police in South Bohemia have arrested a man and woman for their participation in a murder which saw a Slovak man's body left in a barrel filled with concrete. The murder took place ten years ago, but information about the location of the buried body in the barrel only reached police last year from a contact in the regional drug network. The search took officers to the basement of a house in Jindřichův Hradec, where the body was found wrapped in cloth and hidden in a plastic barrel placed under the concrete floor in the basement. Subsequent investigations led the police to a 34-year-old man from Slovakia and a woman from Jindřichův Hradec born in 1993. It's thought the murder was the result of a love triangle between the two men and the woman.

Czech Television reported a major cyberattack on its websites, apparently as a result of the screening of the Winter Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing today, although the broadcaster faced a similar attack at the weekend. The attack rendered videos unplayable on the ČT mobile app until around 09:30 this morning. The attack today was described as much stronger than the one seen at the weekend. Czech Television offered no explanation for why cyberattackers would time their attacks with the start of the Winter Olympics.

The company, founded by Hubert Palán and Daniel Hejl, provides applications that help companies better understand customer needs and tailor their digital products accordingly. Productboard is headquartered in Prague and San Francisco. The latest investment of $125 million in the company was made by groups who have previously invested in companies such as Spotfiy, Uber, LinkedIn and Airbnb. There has only been one other Czech “unicorn,” with the Rohlík company exceeding the $1 billion mark last year.