Czech Republic

Regular testing of public emergency sirens in the country has not taken place this week, the country's fire service has said, to avoid the panic the sirens could cause

Czech trains are waiting to pick up refugees at the Polish-Ukrainian border, after a train has already brought some Ukrainian families into the country

Almost 30 residents have applied for financial compensation for side effects and health problems after receiving the vaccine; seven of these have already been rejected on various grounds

Prague has the highest cost of living among the 50 monitored cities in Central and Eastern Europe, with the price of rent, food and energy contributing the most to the dearness, according to current data from the global Numbeo database

Czech scientists are planning to create a map of raw materials that can be found in space; on the recommendation of the European Space Agency (ESA), the project is expected to lead to the launch of two satellites in four years' time

The Coop supermarket chain will open the "supermarket of the future" in Strakonice; built around the ideals of innovation and transparency, the shop adds to a traditional food market interactive displays and smart shelves for more personalised shopping

A new LGBT+ community centre has just opened on Železná Street in the centre of Prague; open all year round and the first in the city, it is run by Prague Pride, organisers of the country's largest festival for sexual minorities

14% of Czechs are completely determined to resist vaccination according to a survey by the STEM agency, with the largest group consisting of people who are not financially secure, with a primary education or in the 18-29 age group

Despite the pandemic, living standards were close to the EU average last year; the country also maintained the lowest unemployment rate in the EU, according to data published by the Czech Statistical Office in the Statistical Yearbook 2021

A record number of shops and supermarket chains joined in the latest National Autumn Food Drive, with people donating more than 410 tonnes of food and hygiene products for people in need, achieving the best result in history

Czech scientists have presented the world's first method for observing the non-uniform distribution of electron charge around halogen atoms, confirming the existence of a phenomenon that had been predicted in theory but never directly observed