The Daily Dozen: 12 things to know about Czechia today

Dancer for Putin | Organizers cancelled a performance of Ukraine-born ballet dancer Sergei Polunin scheduled for the summer of 2023, iDnes reports. Jiří Gračka, who is the spokesperson for the Archbishopric of Olomouc, which manages the castle in Kroměříž where Polunin was scheduled to perform, said the cancellation happened because the dancer did not provide a statement about his stance on the war in Ukraine. Polunin holds a Russian passport, and has three tattoos of Russian President Vladimir Putin on his body.

Senior smuggler | A Czech citizen sentenced to 27 years in prison in Hong Kong for drug smuggling was transferred last month to a Czech prison, where he will serve the rest of his sentence, ČTK reports. Hong Kong authorities found Vladimír Švec, 74, in the possession of a suitcase filled with cocaine that he picked up in Brazil, where he went to pick up an alleged inheritance he found out about in an email.

Don't worry, darling | Czech economists dispelled allegations of an imminent currency crisis, iDnes reports. These started after a report yesterday from Japanese financial group Nomura Holdings, which identified the Czechia, along with Hungary and Romania, as countries at risk of a currency crisis. Czechia's "absolute advantage" is its foreign exchange reserves, "which are multiple compared to Hungary, for example," said Petr Dufek, Chief Economist of Banka Creditas.

Black Friday | Data from the commerce-analysis Shop Watcher project revealed that the de facto price reduction offered by Czech merchants for Black Friday is between 10 and 15 percent. However, some companies can advertise these discounts as being up to four times as high. Avoid scams this week with our guide to Black Friday shopping.

Morning traffic jams | Tunnel closures and traffic accidents gave headaches to Prague residents out and about this morning, iDnes reports. Traffic through the city was considerably slowed by the closures of the Dejvický and Bubenečský tunnels on the Prague city ring road for several hours, due to camera system failures; and by four traffic accidents in the Strahov Tunnel.

Self-defense | This Friday is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, an occasion to look at ways to prevent domestic violence, including tools for women to defend themselves from such violence. One of them are self-defense courses offered by entrepreneur Linda Štucbartová, who is the person behind Empowerment for Self Defense Czechia. Read more here.

High school rush | An app and an education fair will guide students applying for high school spots in Prague this year. Its creators say that Schola Pragensis "offers a catalog of all Prague secondary schools, a profiling test, a video guide with advice from graduates and a map of the (upcoming) fair itself." The fair takes place between Nov. 24 and 26 at the Prague Congress Center.

Sissi in Prague | On Nov. 22, 1858, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, popularly known as Sissi, and her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph, travelled from Prague to Brno, where they were accommodated at the governor's palace. The tragic life of the empress is the subject of "The Empress," a German-language series currently streaming on Netflix, according to Tatler.

Jihlava's Tour de Kanál | A newly-paited bike lane in Jihlava has gone viral on social media for its seemingly hard to navigate configuration, complete with bumps and sewage holes, iDnes reports. The municipality said that it planned to repair the bike lane in spring, and that the paint works happened in advance of the repairs because the company providing road markings had free capacity at this time.