Exhibition on Nazi plans for New World Order opens in Prague

Update (15:16): Police report the highway is now open again in both directions.

Two people were killed and three others were injured in an accident on the D1 highway between Prague and Brno. The road in the direction of Brno is closed about 14 kilometers from Prague, and drivers have to take the exit must use the exit at Modletice. The Czech Police tweeted that the accident involved a truck and three passenger cars. Emergency services have responded to the scene. News server iDnes.cz reported that a fully loaded truck crossed the safety barrier and started driving in the opposite lane in the wrong direction, hitting the passenger cars. One of the injured people was airlifted to Prague by helicopter.

The multimedia exhibition New World Order, which presents the Nazi idea of southeastern Europe arranged along racial principles, as suggested by acting Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, will open in the Karolinum of Charles University building today. The exhibition coincides with the 80th anniversary of the assassination of Heydrich, who was killed by Czechoslovak paratroopers in June 1942.

Prague had been intended by the Nazis to become a center for the planning of the new arrangement. The Nazis has intended to exterminate 30 million to 40 million inhabitants of Bohemia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia as far as the Urals, curator Pavel Štingl from the Memorial of Silence said. the exhibition runs to June 12.

The dead body of a 49-year-old Czech truck driver who went to Ukraine as a volunteer after the Russian invasion was found near Kyiv in a mass grave, the Kyiv regional police said on its Facebook page. The police said he stopped contacting his relatives and friends on March 3. They said the man has a wife and brother in the Czech Republic. The Czech Foreign Ministry said it knows about the case of a Czech national who died in Ukraine and is in contact with his family. It is not releasing further details for now.

Three bodies were found in the grave near Makariv in the Bucha district. Czech identity documents were found on the spot. The other two bodies in civilian clothes have not been identified yet. According to previous information, the volunteer died when he was driving in a car and Russian soldiers shot at the car.  

Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will visit the Czech Republic at the end of September and in early October, Prime Minister Petr Fiala told journalists after a regular meeting with President Miloš Zeman. The Czech government wants to sign taxation and investment deals with Al Thani, Fiala said. In early May, the Presidential Office told the public that Al Thani had accepted the invitation. The visit may result in agreements that help the Czech Republic lessen its dependence on the Russian gas at the time of a worsening situation in the energy sector, the Presidential Office said.

Czech-based companies PPF and Home Credit announced they have signed an agreement with a group of individual investors led by Ivan Tyryshkin to sell their banking assets in Russia, including their subsidiaries. This means the Home Credit Group's departure from the Russian market. They did not disclose the price of the transaction. PPF Financial Group operates in 25 countries worldwide. It invests in financial services, telecommunications, media, biotechnology, real estate, and engineering. Among its assets are Air Bank, the telecommunications companies Cetin and O2, and the engineering company Škoda Transportation.

Runner Zuzana Hejnová, who was world champion two times in the 400-meter hurdles but has not run at world events for nearly two years due to health problems, has ended her sports career due to pregnancy. "I would like to share wonderful news with you. I am expecting a baby with my partner Marek Zuber. It would be hard to hide it now and so we are telling it to you," she said. Hejnová, aged 35, will say goodbye to her fans at the Golden Spike event in Ostrava on May 31, but will not compete there. She won a bronze medal at the London Olympics in 2012. She was world champion in 400-meter hurdles in 2013 and 2015.  

The European Commission has significantly reduced its estimate of this year's growth of the Czech economy to 1.9 percent. Back in February, prior to the Russian invasion, it was estimated that the economy would grow by 4.4 percent. The Commission's reduction is the result of disrupted supply chains caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as increased inflation due to higher energy and commodity prices. Inflation is expected to peak in the second quarter of this year. For the whole year, it will average 11.7 percent, and in 2023, according to the commission, it will slow to 4.5 percent due to the strengthening of the domestic currency and stabilization of energy prices. 

The tent camp built in Prague-Troja neighborhood for Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war in Ukraine and asking for temporary protection visas in Czechia has brought no relief to Prague's overburdened train station with hundreds of refugees staying there, the Hlavak initiative said today. According to the Organisation for Aid to Refugees (OPU) and the Hlavak initiative, 17 people from the station went to the camp. At present, there are 142 refugees including 101 children staying at the camp. NGOs are of the view that the situation at the station is "rather critical" with some refugees being foreced to sleep on the floor. Read more here.

The first stage of extensive repairs to the Barrandov Bridge began in Prague today, with on-site traffic being monitored by several media since the morning. Despite several delays, no major complications occurred. Prague Integrated Transport (PID) strengthened train and bus traffic on Monday due to the repair of the Barrandov Bridge. Drivers and people using public transport dealt with delays in some places. Read more here.

Rainbow Europe – ILGA-Europe’s annual benchmarking tool – examines the laws and policies in 49 countries using a set of criteria divided between seven thematic categories: equality and non-discrimination; family; hate crime and hate speech; legal gender recognition; intersex bodily integrity; civil society space; and asylum. This year's index, released today put Czechia at 32 out of 49 countries, scoring particularly low in the area of policies for LGBTQI families and protections against hate speech. See the full index here.

Prague will expand the list of its honorary citizens to include singer Marta Kubišová and violinist Václav Hudeček. Dr. Milena Černá will be awarded the silver medal of the capital city of Prague in memoriam. Marta Kubišová will receive honorary citizenship as a special show of respect for extraordinary acts associated with personal heroism during the August invasion of Soviet troops in 1968 and at the time of normalization and as an award for artistic contribution and merit in the field of music.

Her song "Prayer for Martha" became a symbol of national resistance against the occupiers in 1968 and also a symbol of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. From 1970 she was not allowed to appear and faced the pressure of the normalization regime. In 1977, Marta Kubišová signed Charter 77 and became one of the spokespersons for the initiative.