Police recommend charges for 21 people in football fixing case

Police have proposed indicting 21 people and one legal entity in a case affecting the results of football matches. One of the main suspects faces up to 12 years in prison the National Center Against Organized Crime (NCOZ) said. Former Deputy Chairman of the Football Association (FAČR) Roman Berbr is also facing charges in a case that also concerns the withdrawal of money from the Plzeň Regional Football Association. On Wednesday, the police headquarters sent a motion recommending charges to the Prague Public Prosecutor's Office, which will decide on further action. According to investigators, the perpetrators influenced the results of the matches in the second and third leagues. The police accuse them of bribery, bribery, embezzlement, or participation in an organized criminal group.  

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Twitter that he was going to meet Pope Francis today in the Vatican. Fiala will give the pope a shawl that Czech and Ukrainian women sewed together, which is supposed to symbolize peace and friendly relations between nations. The meeting with the head of the Catholic Church will take less than an hour. Fiala said he wanted to talk about the situation in Ukraine and the refugee crisis caused by the Russian invasion, as well as human rights and the upcoming Czech presidency. He will also invite the pope to visit the Czech Republic.

The government will allow the opposition to submit amendments to the proposal for a one-time contribution of CZK 5,000 per child for families with last year's gross income up to CZK 1 million. MPs have approved a method of discussing the law in the lower house. The Cabinet is no longer asking for approval at first reading, but only for discussion in a state of legislative emergency. With the benefit, the government wants to mitigate the effects of rising prices on families. Andrej Babiš, chairman of the opposition ANO last week said families should receive the amount every month until the end of the year and it should also apply to students under the age of 26.

The European Parliament approved a ban on the sale of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines from 2035. The measure should only apply to new cars, people should continue to be able to use older vehicles with internal combustion engines and continue to buy such cars on the second-hand market. The final legal text will now be drafted and then environment ministers from EU members are set to approve their version of the legislation at a summit in Luxembourg on June 28. The measure is part of an EU climate package intended to help the EU achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. 

The noxious fumes that sickened over three dozen people in Jablonec nad Nisou came from an illegal methamphetamine lab. Samples from the building where the incident occurred were examined at the chemical laboratory from the Institute of Population Protection in Lázně Bohdaneč. These showed the presence of solvents and other chemicals used for making meth. A resident of a high-rise panel house reported the leak of an unknown irritating substance to emergency services on Tuesday evening. Rescuers then took 37 people to hospitals in the surrounding area. A forensic expert said that whoever was making the meth lacked ventilation and filters, so the fumes filled the building.

The appeals court imposed a three-year suspended sentence with three years of probation on Prague Land Office former director Eva Benešová over her actions in the Bečvář farm restitution case. The Prague Metropolitan Court made the same decision last year, but the Supreme Court canceled the verdict. The appeals court considerably softened a previous sentence which would have sent Benešová to prison for six years and imposed a CZK 4.5 million fine. According to the indictment, Benešová and her subordinate Jan Horák illegally made the wrong decision in the restitution dispute, causing damage of at least CZK 1.4 billion.

Czechs' trust in the police and military is rising, with the former having the trust of 79 percent of them and the latter of 73 percent, according to a CVVM poll conducted between March and May. By contrast, political parties are the least trusted institutions, with just under one-fifth of Czechs trusting them. Trust in police soared by 9 percent since last August, reaching the highest level since the start of the measurement in 1994. In the case of the military, the trust rose by 4 percent, returning to the level of 2020. For the internet, television stations, NGOs, political parties, and the press, mistrust strongly exceeds trust.

Farmers marched through Wenceslas Square in the afternoon, protesting against the setting of subsidies in favor of small farmers. About an hour later, they came to the Government Office at the Straka Academy in Malá Strana, where they continued their protest. Police estimated that about 2,000 people took part in the march. They carried banners, whistled, trumpeted, drummed, and chanted. The police stopped traffic on the way.

The march was preceded in the morning by a meeting in Lucerna's Great Hall. Czech Agrarian Chamber (AK ČR) president Jan Doležal told the crowd that many farmers will find themselves on the verge of survival due to the new set of subsidies. He also said that the transfer of money to smaller farmers will lead to medium-sized and larger companies not being able to compete with companies from neighboring countries. 

Public sector trade unions are declaring a strike alert as of June 9 to put pressure on the government to meet demands for pay increases to compensate for high inflation, public sector trade union spokesman Pavel Bednář told ČTK today. The strike alert will end when the government and the public sector union leaders make a deal on salary adjustments, he said.

The trade unions demand that salary increases keep pace with inflation to preserve purchasing power. The government said it will decide on the date and level of pay increases within two weeks.

Computer maker Apple's iOS 16 update includes a Czech-English dictionary among the seven new ones being added to the existing 51. In addition to the meaning of Czech words, users will see the gender, pattern, and pronunciation, as well as their translation into English in several forms of use, Smartmania.cz reported. Although a Czech version of Siri has been discussed for a while, this update has not yet been implemented.

The Czech National Museum will restore 20 valuable objects from Syria dating back to the Bronze Age and antiquity, National Museum director Michal Lukeš told reporters in the museum's restoration workshop in Terezín today. The artifacts were transported from Damascus with the aid of the Czech military, Lukeš added.

The collection contains bronze statuettes, a bronze pin from Ugarit, and three stone grave relief sculptures from Palmyra. The restoration work will last one year, with Syrian experts present. The restored objects will then be displayed at the National Museum before being returned to Syria.

Belarusian writer and 2015 Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich and Russian opposition intellectual Lyudmila Ulitskaya have canceled their participation in the 27th Book World international book fair and festival in Prague to be held from June 9 to 12, organizers told journalists today. Alexievich will not attend due to health reasons, and Ulitskaya decided to stay in Germany due to the ongoing processing of her asylum-seeking application. The fair and literary festival Book World will receive guests from 35 countries and regions. Italy will be the guest of honor this year.

The Prague City Council unanimously agreed to purchase a new imaging system for the capital's planetarium in Stromovka park. The revolutionary system, which uses tens of millions of LEDs directly on the dome surface, in combination with one of the world's largest projection domes will make Planetárium Praha the best in the world, the planetarium director Jakub Rozehnal wrote on Facebook. Only two similar installations exist, and both are on smaller domes. The city plans to invest CZK 250 million in the purchase, which still must be approved by the full 65-member Prague Assembly.