Czech morning news in brief: top stories for Jan. 15, 2021

The mortgage market in the Czech Republic rose by 38 percent last year when banks in the Czech Republic provided mortgages for a record roughly 250 billion crowns. This follows from the estimates of the ČSOB Group, which informed about it at an online press conference. According to the bank, strong interest in loans will continue this year as well, however, ČSOB's estimates expect the market to decline by about 10 percent this year. At the same time, the bank expects a gradual rise in interest rates and a stabilization of real estate prices this year. See the full story here.

Czech firefighters intervened at 143,490 events in 2020, 10 percent more than in 2019, although they put out nearly eight percent fewer fires over that time, with the increase also caused by interventions related to the COVID epidemic, their spokeswoman Nicole Studena said. The activities related to fighting the coronavirus pandemic are registered as "other events" and there were 5,192 of them last year, while in 2019 only 40 other events occurred. According to the preliminary statistical data, firefighters were called to 84,041 technical accidents last year, which is 16 percent more than in 2019.

Former TV presenter Eva Jurinová, who worked for the Nova TV station has passed away. She also voiced the announcements on Metro line B. According to her family, Jurinová succumbed to a long illness on Jan. 3 and a funeral took place on Wednesday. She had been working in television since 1975. Eva also worked for Czechoslovak Television and Czech Radio. Read more here.

An international team of scientists has succeeded in creating another two embryos of the northern white rhino, a subspecies extinct in the wild and threatened with complete extinction, Dvur Kralove zoo expert Jan Stejskal said yesterday. Stejskal who heads the zoo's section of international projects told CTK that together with the two new embryos, the scientists have five frozen embryos in total. The taking of eggs and the creation of embryos is a part of the project to try and save the northern white rhino species through in vitro reproduction (IVF). The world's last two females of this subspecies live in the Ol Pejeta Reserve in Kenya, both are owned by the Dvur Kralove Zoo. Read more here.

The end of the week will be marked by snow and frost. According to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, temperatures will continue to be below zero in the coming days. It will fall between 10 and 40 centimeters of new snow. Meteorologists expect the coming days to reach low temperatures due to the flow of cold air. The temperature during the day will be below freezing. It will also cool at night, the lowest temperatures can be expected at night on Sunday and then on Monday when in some places the temperature could approach -15 ° C. See the full story.

The program of the prestigious Hong Kong festival of arts, which will offer exclusively online concerts this year due to COVID-19, includes two productions of Leos Janacek's operas of the Brno National Theatre (NDB); Jenufa and The Cunning Little Vixen. Both were made in cooperation with Czech Television. In 2017, the NDB succeeded at the festival with its production of Janacek's Makropulos Affair. The NDB management views the current new invitation as a success, its director Martin Glaser said. The February-March festival will also offer several recorded concerts from last year's Janacek Brno festival, including Janacek's Diary of One Who Disappeared.

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