News in brief for May 4: Czech Olympic gold medalist wins World Cup series in shooting

Czech Olympic trap shooting champion Jiri Lipták has won in the trap discipline of the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Cairo this afternoon. Trap shooting is one of the three major disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting. In the final, he missed just one out of 33 shots.

Lipták took home the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in trap, and was the world champion in 2014. He was placed third in the European Chamiponships in 2018.

During his visit to the Moravia-Silesia Region today, Czech Minister of the Environment Petr Hladík announced that the Czech environment and agriculture ministries will permit the culling of dangerous and problematic wolves, despite their protected status in Czechia. 

Wolf packs have returned to the Czech mountains in recent years, and their population in the Beskid Mountains is causing problems, particularly for sheep breeders. In the previous year, wolves have killed 186 farm animals belonging to 80 farmers in the region.

According to the Minister of the Interior’s report on extremism, some right-wing extremist entities in Czechia have become part of communities that resonate with pro-Kremlin narratives. 

The ministry says that some extremist entities with a right-wing ideology, such as the National Democracy movement or the Workers' Party, can be considered part of a community that aligns with the Kremlin's official viewpoints. Similar extreme and ultra-conservative tactics were used by these groups before the war, directed at Muslim immigrants for example.

Former hockey forward Petr Klíma has passed away suddenly at the age of 58, with no known cause of death. Klíma was found at his home in Chomutov with no signs of life. He played 13 seasons in the NHL and won the Stanley Cup with Edmonton in the 1989/90 season.

He also won three medals from youth championships and two titles from the Czechoslovak top competition. Klíma was remembered as a legendary figure in Litvínov hockey history, and condolences were expressed to his loved ones.

Head of the opposition ANO movement Andrej Babiš today is attending a conservative conference in Hungary, where his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán is also present. 

Babiš earlier today delivered a speech at the meeting, saying: “Our way of life is under attack from Brussels. The EU is no longer an organization that wants its citizens to live better.” He also remarked that environmentalism endangers normal people's way of life and promoted Serbia’s entry into the Schengen area. He added that Europe should be self-sufficient in strategic areas, such as agriculture.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala today held talks with representatives of Czech energy suppliers and authorities regarding recently published energy prices by Eurostat, which Fiala sees as misleading. He had also discussed the issue with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit earlier this week.

The parties agreed that energy companies will in the future supply the authorities with more extensive data on energy prices than has been the case so far. A working group will also be set up to define the conditions and discuss possible legislative changes. At the meeting, Fiala sharply criticized the EU’s statistics, which were based on tabulated prices and, in his words, did not correspond to real prices.

The University of Pardubice has announced in a press release today the cancellation of its TikTok account in compliance with a warning from the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency, which does the Chinese social media platform as a significant security threat.

The university had been on TikTok since last September, and during that time its videos had garnered over 3 million views. The account was followed by almost 11,000 people in the previous week and had the largest number of followers among Czech universities.

Eight people have gone to hospital following a crash this morning between a tram and public bus in Prague 15’s Švehlová Street.

None of the injuries are life-threatening. Tram lines 22 and 26 are disrupted in Prague 15 and the surrounding area, according to information from Prague Integrated Transport.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has criticized the governor of the Czech National Bank (ČNB), Aleš Michl, for blaming the pro-inflationary effects of state budget deficits on the government. Fiala said that the ČNB is primarily responsible for inflation and suggested that it could do more to combat it.

Michl had warned that if the government's consolidation package to reduce the structural deficit is not credible enough, the ČNB may have to raise interest rates to counteract inflation. Fiala called for cooperation between the government and the ČNB, but some economists and politicians believe that public finance recovery needs to happen more quickly.

Eight people have died in a fire that broke out in residential units in Brno, with firefighters responding to the incident since Wednesday night. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and hidden fires were still being put out at the site on Thursday morning. The identity of the deceased will be investigated by the police, and the accident site will be searched for clues.

Tragic fires are not uncommon in Brno, with four people burning to death in a decommissioned railway carriage that served as a hostel for the homeless in October 2020.

Slavia Prague won the Czech Football Cup after beating Sparta Prague 2-0 in the final. This was Slavia's seventh victory in the Cup since the 1993-94 season. Sparta had won the Cup seven times as well.

Sparta was last defeated in October 2022 when it lost to Slavia 4-0 in a league match. Before the final match, about 2,000 Slavia fans marched through the city to the Sparta football arena in the afternoon, but no conflict occurred during the event.

The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of helicopter equipment worth USD 650 million to the Czech Republic, which includes upgrades for eight utility helicopters and four attack helicopters. The U.S. will donate an additional eight older helicopters to the Czech Republic as support for Ukraine.

The Czech air force will have ten upgraded Venom and ten upgraded Viper helicopters, with identical equipment to the newly purchased models. The Czech Republic will cover nearly half of the USD 650 million total costs, with the majority covered by the USD 306 million donations received as partial compensation for their support of Ukraine.

Thunderstorms with rain are expected to hit the Czech Republic this weekend, while ground frosts may appear on Friday night. The highest temperatures will reach up to 22 Celsius on Friday, and between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius over the weekend. On Thursday, it will be clear to partly cloudy.

An occlusion front will advance from the west to Central Europe on the night from Thursday to Friday, causing cloudiness to increase from the west later on Friday afternoon and evening, leading to some showers and thunderstorms in places in the west.