The Daily Dozen: 12 things to know about Czechia today

The first meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) started with the participation of prime ministers and presidents of the EU states and other countries such as Britain, Turkey, and Ukraine today. The meeting will be followed by an informal summit of the 27 EU countries' leaders on Friday. After Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala's opening address, speeches will be delivered by four non-EU states' leaders including British Prime Minister Liz Truss, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address it in a live transmission from his homeland.

In the first part of his speech, Fiala condemned the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Then he said the EPC that was not to replace the existing formats of cooperation but to enable a sincere discussion. Fiala welcomed leaders before the meeting. Russia and Belarus have not been invited.

Activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace from the Czech Republic, Germany, and the Netherlands placed a large yellow model of a gas pipeline with the English inscription “Putin's bloody gas” on the Vltava river near Prague’s Charles Bridge this morning, in view of Prague Castle where world leaders are meeting. The movement wants to draw attention to the fact that the long-term solution to energy security lies primarily in moving away from fossil fuels. Energy and climate is one of the topics that politicians from 27 EU member states and another 17 states will discuss during the round tables today.

A farmer found a 60-gram golden tiara from the Bronze Age while harvesting beets at the end of September. It will become part of the Muzeum in Bruntál's collection and will be exhibited for the first time at the end of next year. The finder will receive a reward worth 10 percent of the amount determined by the expert. The tiara will now undergo treatment and analysis to confirm its origins. The museum thanked the farmer for turning the find over to the proper authorities.

More changes are coming to Prague’s Žižkov neighborhood. One of its main arteries, Seifertova Street will get a new look as part of a pilot project to improve the environment. Prague residents can look forward to new rows of trees and more greenery. State-of-the-art blue-green infrastructure will retain rainwater to use for trees and other plants. the street will also become friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists.

Carp will be plentiful this year, but more expensive. The fresh-water fish is a staple at Christmas dinners across Czechia. Prices will rise by up to 20 percent this year, according to fisheries. The rise is due to higher energy and fuel costs, among other things. The actual catching of the fish from ponds is taking place now across South Bohemia. Several fisheries hold festivals for the public to watch and also buy both cooked and live fish.

The Spanish film festival La Pelicula starts tonight and runs until Oct. 8 at kino Světozor and Instituto Cervantes. English-friendly highlights include "What Lucia Saw" (Llegaron de noche), about the murder of priests in El Salvador in 1989, and "The Emptiness and I" (Mi Vacio y Yo), about a trans woman embracing her identity.

A new mural in remembrance of Czech-born composer and conductor Gustav Mahler was officially unveiled on a 20-meter-long wall in Jihlava's Znojemska Street. The brush painting is by Vincent Chignier, a French artist living in Czechia. The artist won a competition organized by the Jihlava Town Hall. Mahler was born in nearby Kaliště in 1860 and lived in Jihlava until 1875. The painting took Chignier two years. "I tried to paint in a way similar to a composer's way of composing music as if working with individual notes," Chignier told ČTK.

The Czech Republic will donate CZK 25 million to Ukraine so that it can renew its civil service with the aim to relaunch some services such as the issuance of travel documents to Ukrainians, the Interior Ministry said today. "Ukraine will be able to widen the provision of consular services to Ukrainian citizens in the EU countries and Moldova. In the future, the program will help with the voluntary returns of its citizens to safe regions of Ukraine," Interior Ministry spokesman Klára Dlubalová said.

The Health Ministry launched an information campaign today to boost interest in vaccination and revaccination against Covid-19. The campaign has the slogan “Life without fear,” and includes TV and radio spots starring well-known actor Petr Čtvrtníček, and also outdoor posters.

The Health Minister said vaccines against the latest Covid-19 variants are now available even without an appointment. An important part of the campaign is the emphasis on prevention. In particular, it concerns the observance of the hygiene principles usual for the season of respiratory infections, such as maintaining distances and wearing respiratory protection in insufficiently ventilated places.  

The first climate-neutral city district independent of gas or coal could be created in the future in the new city district of Bubny–Zátory, Prague City Hall announced. Among other things, it will include the use of heat and cold from the energy center planned at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bubenč, which will produce heat from wastewater. The center is one of the plans to help Prague become independent of Russian gas.

In the future, the center could also be used for heating and cooling the Vltava Philharmonic, which will be built by the river near the Vltavská metro station. The Bubny-Zátory district will be created in one of the city’s largest brownfields. Up to 25,000 residents will live there in 11,000 apartments.

Czech police officers detained another 73 migrants and two people smugglers on the Czech-Slovak border in the past 24 hours. Out of 24,697 people checked at the border, 25 did not meet the conditions for entering the Czech Republic and 52 were returned to Slovakia.

Police officers have been guarding 27 former border crossings with Slovakia as well as the green border since last Thursday due to an increased number of immigrants, especially from Syria. The checks were originally supposed to last until Oct. 8, however, the government approved their prolongation for 20 more days.

Electronic music band Depeche Mode will come to Prague as part of their just-announced world tour. They will be at Letiště Letňany on July 30 to support their upcoming album, “Memento Mori,” due out in Spring 2023. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Oct. 10. Previous shows in Prague have filled the capacity of its stadiums, but the outdoor show will allow for larger crowds.

Depeche Mode played at Sportovní hala ČSTV (now called Sportovní hala Fortuna) in Výstaviště in Prague 7 on March 11, 1988, over a year before the Velvet Revolution. They were a last-minute substitute, and authorities apparently didn't know much about the band when it was booked.