Czech news in brief for April 29: Wednesday's top afternoon headlines

In an interview with renowned British-Iranian journalist and CNN's chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour, Czech President Petr Pavel said that while the US and EU should cooperate and work together as partners, Europe needs to become independent from Washington, in particular in the defense and military field. "We have to talk to each other as equals," Pavel insisted.

President Pavel is perceived positively by 60 percent of Czechs, according to a new CVVM poll, Novinky.cz reported, with Czech mayors and municipal councilors being the only other politicians who enjoy the trust of more than half of the population. Just one-fourth and one-fifth of citizens say they trust the current government and Chamber of Deputies, respectively, according to the survey.

The Media Committee of the lower house of the Czech parliament today said it was in favor of safeguarding the stability of Radio Prague International (RPI), the Czech Radio's foreign broadcasting service, Denik N reports. The Foreign Ministry already cut RPI's budget by one-quarter for 2026 and has threatened to cut all funding from next year, sparking fears about the future of the 90-year-old public broadcasting service.

About 1.1 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to Seznam Zpravy, while more than two million are being treated for high blood pressure and some 2.7 million suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease. Pointing to the domestic healthcare system's shortcomings in treating critically ill patients, the Czech daily also highlights that about a third of these numbers concern people under 60.

Seniors in the village of Vimperk, in southern Bohemia, now have the possibility of taking self-defense courses to deal with aggressive door-to-door salespeople, iRozhlas.cz reports. According to the instructors, the main goal of the training program is to provide elderly people with greater self-confidence and easy-to-use habits and postures to fend off overly-zealous salesmen.