Czech morning news in brief: top stories for Aug. 2, 2021

The 2021 edition of the Prague Pride festival kicks off today, with more than a hundred events including concerts, exhibitions, queer art openings, cinema screenings, picnics, and debates scheduled to take place throughout the week. This morning, Prague City Hall will fly a rainbow flag as a symbol of support for the community. The annual Prague Pride parade through the center of the city will not take place this year due to ongoing Covid-19 concerns; organizers have prepared more outdoor events than usual this year due to the pandemic. The theme of the 2021 edition of the festival is coming out.

After rain showers over much of Sunday, more storms are forecast to hit the Czech Republic week before temperatures rise for the weekend. "More than 20 millimeters fell in Central Bohemia, in southwestern Bohemia and especially during storms in the eastern half of Moravia and Silesia," the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute's Pavel Borovička said of Sunday's showers. "In the coming days, the weather will follow a daily routine. During the morning there will be less precipitation and clouds, but in the afternoon and evening expect the possibility of rain or thunderstorms. The heaviest showers and thunderstorms can be expected in the middle of the week." Despite the expected rain, daily high temperatures from the mid to high 20s (Celsius) are forecast throughout the week.

The Czech Republic will offer a visa to Belarusian runner Kryscina Tsimanouskaya so she can avoid a forced return to Belarus, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek told journalists. A critic of the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, Tsimanouskaya has accused Belarusian Olympic Committee officials of trying to force her to return home after the Olympic Games in Tokyo. On Monday, Tsimanouskaya was to take part in the 200 metres race, but the Belarusian team instead drove her to the airport. She managed to alert Japanese police and did not board the aircraft bound for Istanbul. Representatives of the Japanese Foreign Ministry came to the airport after the incident, and she was driven to a safe place. Kulhánek said the Czech Republic would grant a visa to her so that she can avoid a forced return to Belarus. "Following an agreement with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Interior Minister Jan Hamáček, we will offer her a visa to enter our territory so that she can seek international protection," Kulhánek said. "Our embassy in Tokyo is ready to help, too."

Czech and Slovak regional representatives, mayors, and members of civic groups met at the annual Czech-Slovak Brotherhood Festival at Velká Javořina on Sunday. The location is the highest mountain of the White Carpathians on the border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The festival celebrates the shared history between the two nations. The Czech-Slovak Brotherhood festival was first organised in 1992, at first in protest against the split of Czechoslovakia into two countries and as a demonstration of harmony between the two nations. Due to a storm, a planned cultural program was cancelled on Sunday. "In the past, we have twice had such weather, even a hailstorm and snow in the middle of the summer," said Martin Beňatinský, organizer of the festival and mayor of the Slovak village Lubina.

About 100 Czechs begin the process of changing their gender annually, with most of them opting for hormonal therapy and only about three percent preferring surgery, according to data provided by the Association of Health Insurance Companies. "Transsexuality is a congenital defect of sexual identity, usually causing serious mental health problems," doctor Ludmila Plšková from the SZP said. "In the Czech health care system, it has a diagnosis and way of therapy." After a diagnosis is made, hormonal therapy is complemented with psychotherapy. If patients do not undergo surgery, they take the necessary hormones for the rest of their lives. Gender reassignment is a long-term process.A request filed by a patient is first reviewed by a sexologist, and then a decision is made by a Health Ministry commission.