Czech National Bank intervenes on foreign exchange market

At an extraordinary meeting today, the Czech National Bank (CNB) has reacted to the sizeable depreciation of the Czech crown in recent days by launching foreign-exchange market interventions. In a statement issued on its website today, the CNB said its goal is to prevent a longer-term weakening of the crown in a high-inflation situation. According to a spokesperson Markéta Fišerová, the CNB has large reserves even by international comparison. Sales of part of the income on international reserves will be suspended during the intervention. The CNB said it will not publish further details about these operations.

A rare form of diphtheria has been diagnosed in a woman in the Vysočina region, who may have been infected by a domestic animal in her family. The disease was last registered in Czechia in 1995 and is part of the obligatory Czech vaccination schedule, the State Health Institute (SZU) wrote today. Vaccination against diphtheria has been obligatory in the country since 1946. Experts say the case is a rarity as the infected patient is taking immunity suppressing drugs and suffers from a chronic disease. The two last fatalities caused by diphtheria were recorded in then Czechoslovakia in 1969.

Three-quarters of Czechs believe that the spread of disinformation jeopardizes the Czech Republic's safety, and most of them consider it appropriate for the state to restrict or prevent the operation of media outlets spreading disinformation, according to a STEM public opinion poll. The restriction is mostly opposed by the people who trust Russia's official interpretation of the war in Ukraine, showed the poll conducted in late March and early April. After the February 24 start of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military, the Czech internet association CZ.NIC blocked several websites after consulting based on the government's recommendation, saying the sites threatened Czech national security in connection with the Russian aggression.

Dangerous malware called Flubot is spreading through Czech mobile networks via MMS and SMS messages. The virus targets users of Android smartphones. The virus takes the form of a missed voice message with a link to the installation of a fraudulent application, which then sends a large number of messages. On Wednesday alone, operators have recorded hundreds of thousands of such reports, according to the Association of Mobile Network Operators. The association recommends users avoid clicking on similar messages and delete them immediately. It also recommends installing apps exclusively from the official App Store and Google Play. 

Czechia's priority as a member of the UN Human Rights Council is the situation in Ukraine and also other cases of human rights violations in the world, Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Povejsil said at a meeting with UNHRC head Frederik Villegas. He said Czechia wants to deal with freedom of assembly and association, support for human rights in the digital space, and support for NGOs and civic society.

The UN General Assembly elected the Czech Republic to replace Russia on the council on Tuesday. The Czech government chose Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, head of the government committee for children’s rights, as its new commissioner for human rights.

The Czech Republic will send CZK 48 million from its Medevac medical and humanitarian program to Lebanon and Mali, the cabinet said Wednesday. Twenty-five million will go to Mali within the Aid in Place program and support projects for the protection and reintegration of child refugees. Eighteen million crowns will go to Lebanon for two projects that international organizations launched to support the livelihood of poor Lebanese and of Syrian refugees. The last five million will also go to Lebanon for the purchase of medical equipment.

In 2021, for the first time, more people studied medical fields at Czech universities than technical fields. While the number of students is increasing slightly, the number of graduates in the Czech Republic continues to decrease. At the end of 2021, a total of 304,100 people studied at universities in the Czech Republic. Most students attended Charles University in Prague (50,000), Masaryk University in Brno (32,000), and Palacky University in Olomouc (23,000). 

The number of university students in the Czech Republic has almost doubled, from about 200,000 in 2001 to almost 400,000 in 2010. In the last three years, a quarter (33,000) more women than men have studied at universities in the Czech Republic. In 2021, 52,109 foreigners with 165 different citizenships studied in Czechia Two-fifths were of Slovak nationality, 16% Russian, and 9% Ukrainian.