Czech morning news in brief: Top headlines for August 18, 2021

Third Czech evacuation flight heads for Kabul

A third Czech military evacuation plane left Prague for Afghanistan last night, landing in Baku at around four in the morning before taking off for Kabul. The first two evacuation missions carried a total of 133 people from Kabul to the Czech Republic, with the second flight landing at Prague-Kbely airport on Tuesday evening with 87 passengers on board including Czechs, Afghans and two Poles. Evacuated Afghans will have to spend ten days in quarantine in the Czech Republic while permits to remain in the country are secured. The Czech military tweeted that despite “chaos in Kabul”, the second flight was a success. Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek meanwhile described it as “immensely complicated” to get all of the required evacuees to the airport and onboard planes due to the tense situation in Kabul.

Poll shows over half of Czechs trust the EU, NATO and the UN

A new poll conducted by the CVVM polling institute in July has shown that over half of Czechs are trusting of international organisations such as the EU, NATO and the UN. 46 percent have a reasonable level of trust in the EU, and 6 percent have a strong level of trust. The EU is strongly mistrusted by 14 percent and quite mistrusted by 27 percent. The remaining 16 percent are ambivalent. The results indicate little change in levels of faith in the EU compared to a similar poll conducted a year ago. The situation is similar for NATO and the UN. NATO is trusted by 54 percent of the population, while the UN is trusted by 53 percent. The polling institute noted that those who trust the EU were also more likely to trust the UN and NATO.

Hygiene department may take action over Minister breaking Covid rules

Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch has said that the photo of the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Jana Maláčová sitting in larger group of people than regulations currently allow will be dealt with by the hygiene department. The ČSSD Vice President has become the subject of controversy after being photographed breaking Covid rules, and has already confirmed that she is ready to pay a fine for her mistake if instructed to do so by the hygiene department. Maláčová published the images from Prague’s Karlín district on Twitter on Monday night. Health Minister Vojtěch said Covid measures apply to everyone equally.

Eurowings launches new Prague base for the winter season

Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings will launch a flight schedule from the Czech capital for the first time in October, with routes to popular European holiday and business destinations. The airline will launch its Czech operations on October 31 with eleven direct connections from Prague to Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv, Athens, Birmingham, Bristol, Milan, Zagreb, Malaga, and Tenerife. The airline will initially station two Airbus A320s in Prague to serve these routes, with a third to be added by summer 2022. The launch will make Prague the tenth Eurowings base in Europe, creating more than a hundred jobs and providing a much-needed boost to the Czech aviation market.

Květná glassworks win prestigious Rolls-Royce contract

Květná glassworks, in the Uherskohradišťsko region, have won a prestigious contract to furnish a set of Rolls-Royce cars with bottles, bourbon glasses and champagne glasses. The contract, worth hundreds of thousands of crowns, will run for the rest of the year with about a hundred sets to be shipped each month. The glassworks last supplied drinking glass sets for Rolls-Royce 17 years ago. Handmade products from Květná will also appear at this year’s World Expo event in Dubai, featured in a restaurant in the Czech pavilion at the event. The centuries-old company recently launched e-shops in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and will this week open new online stores for Austria and Germany too. It exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide.