Gas prices on the rise in Europe again due to Russia’s pipeline halt

Gas for the European market is strengthening again after Friday's record close at the beginning of the week. The price of gas rose by 6.8 percent and ended trading at EUR 257.40 (roughly CZK 6,340) per megawatt hour. In the market, the new increase in gas prices is explained by the re-interruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, writes ČTK.

Firefighters have been extinguishing a blaze in an industrial area since around 7 a.m. in Nové Město nad Metují in Náchod district. The fire affected the hall where the chemicals were stored. Thick smoke spread from the fire site in Náchodská street in the western part of the city, which could be seen from afar. 

The start of this week will be cold, with daytime temperatures dropping below 20 degrees Celsius. It will gradually warm up again, and temperatures may exceed the tropical thirties on the weekend. Last week, temperature records were repeatedly broken and the heat reached up to 36 degrees.

Four Czechs were arrested in Albania on Sunday for taking photographs at an arms factory in the town of Poliçan, the Albanian media have reported. The detained Czechs claimed they were tourists. They are now being questioned by police, and nothing illegal was found during the search of any of them. According to the police, the Czechs were taking pictures of a tunnel that forms the entrance to the factory. 

Dominik Chabr, a 28-year-old Czech, won the international contest Man of the Year in Bali on Sunday. Chabr advanced to the international contest after winning third place on the domestic level last year. The competition is primarily a beauty contest for male models, with fashion, talent, and interview sections.

Czech tennis star Petra Kvitová has advanced to the final at the Western & Southern Open after topping American Madison Keys 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in a hard-fought match on Saturday. Kvitová will play in her 40th career final today, and her first in eleven appearances at the Cincinnati Open, as she takes on France's Caroline Garcia at 8:00 p.m. Prague time.

"It was incredibly difficult. I expected it to be difficult, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult. Madison played incredibly," Kvitová said after the match against Keys. "I was a game behind right away [...] but I tried to keep fighting, tried to calm down and wait for the opportunities that eventually came."

Events around the Czech Republic today mark the anniversary of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, when Soviet tanks rolled into the country on the night of August 20-21. A total of 72 people were killed and more than 700 were injured during the first days of the invasion.

Today in Prague, government officials including Prime Minister Petr Fiala will honor the memory of the victims of the invasion at the Czech Radio building on Vinohradská street from 11:00 a.m. From 5:00 p.m., Prague's Výstaviště Exhibition Center will host the NeverMore 68 concert; the concert will feature performances from Ukrainian music acts as organizers draw parallels to current events in Ukraine.

Rain is in the forecast for much of the Czech Republic early this week, and a warning for extreme rainfall remains in effect on Sunday for most areas in Moravia. Rainfall continues throughout many other areas of the country, and smaller streams and tributaries in the country face a risk of flooding.

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has issued a warning for extreme rainfall in parts of the Moravian-Silesian Region, Prostějov and Konica in the Olomouc Region, and Moravská Třebová in the Pardubice Region. People in these areas are advised to limit outdoor travel due to the risk of flooding, landslides, and falling trees.

Despite heavy rains this weekend, thousands attended the 20th anniversary of the Mácháč open air beach festival at the Czech Republic's Lake Mácha this weekend. The festival culminated on Saturday evening with a performance by Berlin-based electronic music producer Paul Kalkbrenner.

"There is not much [covered] space there, so we got wet on Friday," festival attendee Tereza told ČTK. "But they sell raincoats here and most people don't mind, they jump, dance and enjoy themselves.

Areas of Bohemia have been hit by heavy rain over the past 24 hours, with flood alerts issued for areas in southwestern parts of the Czech Republic this morning by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. Areas from Prague to Plzeň have reported 20-50 millimeters of rainfall from Friday to Saturday, with a high of 85 millimeters recorded at a measuring station in Zbiroh, near Plzeň.

The more intense storms have now moved on to the eastern half of the country, with a heavy storm warning in effect for most areas of Moravia today. A warning for strong storms in western parts of Moravia and very strong storms in eastern parts of Moravia is in effect through midnight, with an additional warning for heavy rainfall in effect for eastern parts Moravia through Monday.

The annual inflation rate in the Czech Republic is forecast to settle at 16.2 percent by the end of the year and drop to 8.8 percent in 2023, according to a new report published by the Ministry of Finance on Friday. Across the rest of 2022, year-on-year inflation rates in the Czech Republic are expected to be somewhere in the range of 20 percent.

"Russian aggression in Ukraine unleashed a dangerous macroeconomic cocktail of declining performance of European economies and rising inflation," notes Czech Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura. "In addition to ensuring enough available energy for our households and companies, [inflation] is the main economic problem we have to deal with."

Cineworld, the world's second-largest multiplex operator and the largest in the Czech Republic, is preparing to file bankruptcy in the coming weeks, reports The Wall Street Journal. Its cinemas worldwide have seen a downturn in visitors following the coronavirus pandemic. Cineworld owns Cinema City, which operates a total of thirteen multiplexes across the Czech Republic, including six in Prague.

The filing will not affect the operation of local multiplexes, according to a spokesperson. "All matters related to the announcement that recently appeared in the media relate only to the internal financial affairs of Cineworld Group and will not have any effect on the operation of our multiplexes or the visit of our customers," Cinema City Czech Republic Marketing Manager Lenka Tiché told reporters.

An average of 340 million single-use coffee cups are consumed in the Czech Republic every year, according to a study conducted by EKO-KOM. The study comes off the back of a new law prohibiting single-use plastics in food packaging that was signed by Czech President Miloš Zeman earlier this week.

According to the study, around 77 percent of the single-use coffee cups consumed in the Czech Republic come with plastic lids. Across the EU, 36.5 billion coffee cups and 24 billion lids are consumed every year. The total amount of plastic waste resulting from single-use plastics used for food packaging in the Czech Republic is about 25 million kilograms per year.

The Venus of Dolní Věstonice has gone back on display at the Moravian Museum in Brno after a three-year hiatus as part of a new exhibition about the Stone Age, museum head Marek Junek told reporters. Dating to between 29,000-25,000 B.C., the Venus is the oldest-known ceramic piece in the world along with a few other figures excavated nearby.

The Venus was discovered in Brno in 1925 alongside a few figurines depicting animals. "At the time, our territory was the world centre of human civilization," Martina Galetová, curator of the new exhibit, told reporters. The Stone Age exhibition at Brno's Moravian Museum will run through February.