The Daily Dozen: 12 things to know about Czechia today

Eleven people so far claim to have enough signatures to run in the presidential elections, iRozhlas reports. In order to qualify for a presidential bid, the candidates need the signatures of at least 20 signatures of deputies and ten senators, or 50,000 citizens. The deadline for submitting the signatures is Nov. 8. After that, officials will check the signatures and, based on whether these meet the needed requirements, decide who will be on the presidential ballot.

The first round of the presidential election will take place on Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, 2023.

Czech students held a protest meant to draw attention to the ongoing climate crisis today at 12 p.m. in Old Town Square, iDnes.cz reports. "We don't want to be here, we don't want to be activists, we want to live in a world where this is not necessary," said representatives of the Czech Fridays For Future movement in their opening speech. Representatives of the Ukrainian Fridays For Future and students from other countries also took part in the rally.

The number of people visiting zoos across the Czech Republic in 2022 broke pre-pandemic records, iDnes reports. This is due to a rising interest in domestic attractions, as well as the special events that the zoos prepared, some of them for the approaching Halloween. For instance, the Safari Park Dvur Králové is expecting on Monday its 600,000th visitor, leading to estimates of an yearly total of visitors that is the highest in its modern history.

The newly-formed Alliance for Stability, which reunites Praha Sobě and the Pirates, complicates the plans of the Spolu coalition, Aktuálně.cz reports. The latter likely hoped to ink an agreement with either the Pirates or Praha Sobě, but not with both at once. The Alliance for Stability, whose creation was announced yesterday, has 24 seats out of a total of 65 in the Prague City Council, whereas Spolu has 19. The elections for the Prague City Hall happened last month.

Research carried out last year by the Czech Statistical Office shows that Czech households account for roughly 30 percent of the country's total energy consumption, ČTK reports. The largest share of the energy consumption, around two-thirds, goes towards heating in general, followed by the heating of water. Last year, around two-thirds of households said that the temperature in their homes was 22 degrees Celsius.

Starting today and until Sunday, several Czech puppet theaters will put on spectacles in Brussels as part of the accompanying program of the Czech Presidency of the European Union, ČTK reports. These include Divadlo Alfa, Naivní divadlo Liberec and Divadlo Spejbla a Hurvínek.

Director of the Brussels Royal Theater Peruchet Dimitri Jageneau said that 2022 is a year "of particular significance," since it marks "the 130th anniversary of the birth of Czech puppeteer Josef Skupa, and the 110th anniversary of the creation of the first professional puppetry magazine 'Loutkář.'" 

Digital television broadcasting, initially only for Prague and parts of the Central Bohemian Region, started on Oct. 21, 2004. The upgrade wasn't entirely new, but an update of an already existing concept from the summer of 2001. The difference between analog and digital broadcasting is that, for the latter, individual programs are not broadcast "individually," but only in larger units, which are groups of television and radio programs called "multiplexes." Digital broadcasting also allows interactive features such as electronic program guides.

Data from the Czech Statistical Office shows that 1,600 adults and 60 children commit suicide each year, iDnes reports. The numbers represent five to ten Czech children under the age of 15 who commit suicide per year; and 40 to 50 for the 15 to 19 age group.

"The cause of suicidal behavior is related to a person's age and life stage," psychologist Sylvie Navarová says. "The number of incomplete suicides can be up to a hundred times higher, given that they don't make it into statistics," said Jiří Koutek, the head of the Children's Psychiatric Clinic of the Motol University Hospital in Prague.

Criminal investigators from the Prague, working together with their Central Bohemian counterparts, apprehended a group of three men believed to be responsible for thefts resulting in damage of up to three million crowns, a press release from the Czech Police said. The trio, which stole mainly tools, construction equipment, and electronics, from family homes and businesses, was detained after a theft on the premises of a construction company in Prague 9. 

The Terezín Memorial announced today on Twitter the death of Holocaust survivor Chava Pressburger, born Eva Ginzová, at age 92, ČTK reports. Pressburger published the diaries of her brother Petr Ginz whom the Nazis killed in the Auschwitz gas chambers.

After World War II, Eva settled in Israel with her husband, and worked as an artist and teacher at an art school. One of her drawings from the Terezin ghetto was taken by Ilan Ramon, the first-ever Israeli astronaut, onboard the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Presidential chancellor Vratislav Mynář dismissed yesterday Ivo Velíšek from the position of director of the Prague Castle Administration, iRozhlas reports, citing president's spokesman Jiří Ovčáček. Mynář also accepted the resignation of the director of the Lány Forestry Administration, Miloš Balák. Balák was fined CZK 870,000 and banned from working in organizations that manage state property for two years, in a case related to stone mining in Lánská obora.

EU transport ministers are meeting today in Prague to discuss boosting the trans-European rail network system. Some of the topics under discussion are Czech Minister of Transport Martin Kupka's plans to establish new, cross-border lines that will connect Czechia directly with Berlin, Vienna, and Warsaw. In addition to representatives of EU member states, officials from Ukraine, Moldova, Switzerland or Norway will also take part in today's meeting. Read more here.