Czech morning news in brief: Top headlines for July 26, 2021

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) has filed a complaint against the Černošice Town Hall, which repeatedly launched administrative proceedings against him over a suspected breach of the conflict of interest law, Czech Radio writes. The Town Hall of Černošice near Prague deals with the case because Babiš's place of residence, Průhonice near Prague, falls in its jurisdiction. The proceedings were launched based on a complaint submitted by the Czech branch of Transparency International that says the PM violates the conflict of interest law because he is a top politician and owns the Mafra and Londa media groups. Babiš has always denied the conflict of interest accusations. He maintains he placed his Agrofert holding in trust funds in 2017 and has had no influence on any of the companies belonging to Agrofert, including Mafra, one of the country's largest media houses.

Canoeist Lukáš Rohan advanced from fourth place to the finals where he won a silver in the men's slalom. Tennis players Barbora Krejčíková and Markéta Vondroušová advanced to round 16 at the Olympic tournament in Tokyo. Karolína Plíšková and Petra Kvitová will also strive to advance to the third round. The Czech men's basketball team beat Iran 84-78 in the Olympic basketball opener on Sunday; they face France in Group A matchups on Wednesday. Czech fencer Alexander Choupenitch has reached the quarterfinals while skeeter Barbora Šumová also qualified. Swimmer Barbora Seemanová advanced in the women's freestyle while cyclist Ondřej Cink will also compete today.

A fire in a 10x30 square meters storage facility in Uhrineves on the outskirts of Prague caused damage estimated at some CZK 120 million Sunday, Prague firefighters have tweeted. The building partially collapsed. Some 23 firefighting units were called in to extinguish the fire. A third-degree fire alert was declared due to the extent and the number of firefighters involved. Firefighters announced that they had the fire under control shortly after 19:00. Police said dozens of people from the adjacent facility had to be evacuated. Rescuers arrive at the scene of the accident for preventive reasons but there were no injuries. A chemical laboratory was called in to measure a possible concentration of harmful substances in the air but none were detected. Firefighters and police are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Thirteen people were injured in a skirmish between local Roma and a group of canoeists at the railway station in Sokolov on Friday, in which police had to interfere, the regional authorities reported today. Server Romea.cz confirmed the locals were Roma and called the group involved "aggressive young men attacked the local Roma." Three boaters and ten locals suffered minor injuries in the conflict. Paramedics treated two on the spot. No one had to be hospitalized, while the most serious injury was the broken arm of a woman caused by one of the attackers who kicked her. Police are calling on possible witnesses who had recorded the skirmish on smartphones to contact them on the free phone line 158 or at any district police station.

Some 15 percent of people checked by police and hygienists in bars and dance clubs in Prague Saturday night violated anti-epidemic measures according to information released on the website of the Prague Hygiene Station. Of the 170 people checked, 24 were fined on the spot for a total of CZK 12,000. Inspection of five venues primarily focused on "nightclubs, music and dance clubs in the wider center of the metropolis." The main violations involved failure to prove infectivity when entering bars, restaurants, and clubs where it is necessary to prove 14 days after the last dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, submit a negative test, or prove having had Covid-19 less than 180 days ago. The dancing ban and spacing and table-capacity violations were also reported.

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