Prague’s Vltava Philharmonic Hall will cost double the original estimate

Project costs for the new Vltava Philharmonic Hall in Prague are now estimated at CZK 9.4 billion excluding VAT, almost double last year’s estimate of CZK 4.9 billion, according to a document approved by the city council approved today, confirming the results of the architectural competition. The winner, announced in mid-May, is the Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). All competing bids exceeded costs initially estimated at between CZK 6.5 and 11.5 billion, the city said. The increase in estimated costs compared to the January 2020 estimate is due to the increase in the price of construction works and materials, the originality of the chosen design and an increase in floor space of 15% .

The costs of the necessary developments of the given site near the Vltavska metro station, such as the reconstruction of the Vltava embankment and the metro vestibule and other infrastructure, are estimated at CZK 2.9 billion. According to previous information, the preparation of the project plan will cost an additional CZK 780 million. The building is due to be completed in 2032.

Former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told news server Deník.cz that he would like to face Prime Minister Petr Fiala in the presidential election. “Mr Fiala should show up, and if he did, I would,” Babiš said. Babiš is expected to run for president but has yet to declare his candidacy. It has only been a few months since Babiš lost to Fiala in the parliamentary elections. Petr Fiala said he was amused by the challenge. “I think Andrej Babiš wants to run for the presidency. Just for some weird reason he doesn’t want to admit it yet. … It really doesn’t depend on me. I will do what I promised people and this for which I gained their trust,” Fiala said.

The investigation into the fall of a cable car last year at Ještěd in Liberec, during which a guide died, will take months. According to spokesman Martin Drápal, the railway inspectorate is awaiting an expert opinion. The suspended cable car has been out of service since late October last year, when one of the two cabins fell after the tow rope broke. The tow rope, which weighs three tons, is replaced after 10 to 15 years. According to ČTK data, the last time this happened was in the spring of 2016. Last year’s accident was the first in the history of this cable car, which is owned by Czech Railways. It has been in service since the end of June 1933.

After violent thunderstorms yesterday afternoon, several thousand homes in the Czech Republic were left without electricity, notably in the region of Vysočina, in southern Moravia, and in the Plzeň region. The energy company recorded thousands of homes in Vysočina and South Moravia without electricity and nine power line failures. The most affected areas were the Jihlava district in the Vysočina region and the Břeclav region in southern Moravia. ČEZ said there was an outage of a high-voltage line in the Pilsen region, leading to loss of electricity for hundreds of homes in the Rokycany district without electricity. Firefighters mainly removed fallen trees in dozens of places that complicated traffic on roads and railways.

Police are investigating the alleged violent deaths of three people whose bodies were found in a house this afternoon, police tweeted. Nova TV reported that a man killed a woman and a child and committed suicide, but police did not confirm the information. “There is no longer any danger to anyone,” police wrote. Three bodies were found in a house, police said, declining to add more information. The incident took place in Javornice, a small town of some 1,000 inhabitants located about six kilometers east of Rychnov nad Kněžnou.

Scientists from the University of Pardubice have developed a personal air filter against the coronavirus, with effects comparable to FFP3 respirators. It is made of available materials and can be carried in a small backpack, university told the media. The filter can be used, for example, by doctors in developing countries to reduce the risk of infection when treating patients. The material used to make the filter is chemically and thermally resistant, and is also mechanically stable, unlike the materials used in respirators. It is washable. An article on the design was published by US peer-reviewed PLOS One review.

Police investigated some 2,181 crimes committed against people over the age of 65 last year, which is a similar figure to 2020. The figure involved some 1,100 thefts, 221 bodily harm and 39 cases of bad treatments. Nearly 3,300 such incidents, mostly thefts, occurred in 2019, the Home Office’s crime prevention section said. However, aging experts say that only a small number of elderly victims have reported the wrongdoings they have experienced. World Elder Abuse Awareness Day falls on June 15.

The Foreign Ministry is intensively dealing with the situation with the transport of the body of a Czech killed in the Donbass, reports ČTK. The Office is treating the matter as a standard consular matter, it does not wish to comment on it. The man lost his life in a fight with the Russian army on Friday. According to available information, he was the first of the Czech volunteers to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to information from social networks, the victim was a man from Třebíč. Czech television said he died after being hit by a mortar grenade and had worked in Ukraine for several months.

After several months of preparation in the Grassmayr bell workshop in Innsbruck, a large bell weighing 9,801 kilograms. Bell #9801 and the initiative of the same name commemorate the bells requisitioned during the Second World War. The inscription on the case also communicates this mission: “I speak with the voice of thousands of bells muffled by war. The bell will arrive in the capital in August and will be deposited on the island of Rohan, from where it was transported in 1942 to the factories in Hamburg.

Twenty of the 90 points of the Czech-Polish agreement on the Polish lignite mine Turow have been met, Czech Environment Minister Anna Hubáčková said today after the first meeting of the Czech-Polish commission. The underground barrier that is to stop the flow of water from the Czech Republic will be completed by June 30, the minister said.

Poland plans to continue and gradually expand the Turow mine until 2044, and it has given the green light to the expansion despite objections from the neighboring Czech Republic and Germany. Czechia and Poland signed the bilateral mine agreement, agreeing on 45 million euros in compensation for damage caused by mining at Turow and five-year monitoring by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The European Commission has fined the Czech Republic more than CZK 85 million for errors in agricultural subsidies. It also includes sanctions for conflicts of interest of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. The Czech Republic has to pay around CZK 1.1 million for this irregularity. Czechia can appeal the decision to the Court of Justice of the EU within two months. An audit of Babiš’s conflict of interest took place in the Czech Republic in early 2019. The former prime minister has long denied mistakes.

After a tropical Sunday, very strong storms hit the Czech Republic. They occurred, for example, in the Olomouc region and also west of Prague. Storms are already causing damage in some places. Meteorologists were expecting a rare occurrence of severe storms with wind gusts of around 70 kilometers per hour and, to a lesser extent, hail and torrential rain. They issued warnings until 8:00 p.m. for the whole of the Czech Republic, except for northern and southwestern Bohemia.