Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for June 21, 2021

Video shows Czech police kneeling on the neck of a Romani man who later died

Video footage from Teplice, Czech Republic of a police intervention against a young Romani man who later died is being widely shared through social media. Romani community members are comparing his death to the death of George Floyd, the Black man who was murdered by police in the US last year. One of the intervening police officers kneeled for several minutes on the Romani man's neck. The young man later died in the ambulance called to the scene by police. Police say their intervention was not the cause of death, but the drugs the Romani man is said to have used. Michal Miko, director of the Romanonet organization, posted online that what the video shows is "The height of brutality." Michal Mižigár, a Romani student of history and Romani Studies who won the Aspen Central Europe Leadership Award in 2019 from the Aspen Institute Central Europe, commented that the footage shows "The Romani Floyd today in Teplice!" Romea.cz

Five thousand join Million Moment's protest against Babiš govt.

Some 5,000 people attended an anti-government demonstration staged by the Million Moments for Democracy group in Prague Sunday which began with organizers issuing a symbolic account for the cabinet, a giant receipt itemizing all of the issues surrounding Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's policy. The rally, which was held in Prague's Wenceslas Square, lasted 1.5 hours and was not disrupted by any major incidents. The organizers also launched a campaign in support of democratic alliances in the forthcoming general election. EU flags prevailed among those waved by demonstrators. Similar to previous rallies organized by Million Moments, people carried banners calling for the resignation of Marie Benešová as justice minister. ČTK

Ležáky obliteration anniversary commemorated this weekend

The annual event in commemoration of the obliteration of the Ležáky village 79 years ago took place without the presence of the public on Sunday. It was attended by Deputy PM Alena Schillerová and Culture Minister Lubomír Zaorálek, who laid wreaths at the Ležáky Memorial. Schillerova told reporters it is necessary to visit sites such as Ležáky and Lidice to realize that in the very heart of Europe, people inflicted such horrors upon other people. In the years before the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of people annually met at the remembrance event. The Nazis burned down Ležáky on June 24, 1942, after discovering that Czechoslovak paratroopers trained in Britain had a transmitter there that secured contacts between the domestic and foreign anti-Nazi resistance movements. The obliteration occurred two weeks after the obliteration of Lidice, a village in central Bohemia. ČTK

Astronomical summer begins today, bringing shortest night, longest day of year

Today sees the beginning of astronomical summer which brings the shortest night of the year and the day the longest. After today, the days will shorten until the winter solstice. According to Czech meteorologists, the beginning of the astronomical summer will be accompanied by partly cloudy to cloudy weather, but in most areas, it will eventually be overcast with rain, and in some places, storms could appear. Daytime temperatures should remain high today, around 30 degrees with cooling over the next few days. Astronomical summer is the period from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox, while in the southern hemisphere it is astronomical winter at this time. The climatological summer lasts from June 1 to August 31. ČTK

Meteoroid crosses sky over southwest Bohemia before falling apart

A meteoroid weighing about 5 kg crossed the sky over east Bavaria and southwest Bohemia on Thursday night before falling apart in the air. Its remnants may be found mainly in the Czech Republic's Sumava mountains, the Astronomical Institute said. The meteoroid entered the Earth's atmosphere before 22:00 Sunday above the Bavarian town Deggendorf, moving at the speed of 11.7 km per second along a trajectory sloping towards the Earth's surface at an angle of 25 degrees. It continued moving to the southeast, with its brightness intensifying; after "crossing the border" above Sumava's Trojmezi locality, where the Czech Republic borders on Austria and Germany, it darkled at an altitude of 32 km. The meteoroid covered its whole 111-km route across the sky in 11 seconds, consuming most of its mass during the flight. ČTK