Czech news in brief for August 10: Monday's top afternoon headlines

As the day winds down, here's what's happening of note across Czechia: unemployment cools as a feud over air conditioning heats up, and Prague is still chasing the dream of a Vltava river pool. Plus: Prague has some of Europe's cheapest internet (and its most expensive iPhone). Here are your evening headlines:

Czech unemployment rose to 5 percent in July from 4.8 percent in June, the worst July figure in a decade, as labor offices registered 367,346 job seekers, 11,212 more than a month earlier. Job vacancies also ticked up to 100,932 positions, and the government points to the usual summer slowdown as companies delay hiring until after the holidays.

Seasonal, but watch the trend: Analysts call the bump normal holiday noise, but the seasonally adjusted rate is now at its highest since late 2016, and the register remains about 38,000 people higher than a year ago.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a CZK 51.4 million contract in June to install air conditioning in the Černín Palace's Janák extension, and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka says predecessor Jan Lipavský signed off on it before leaving office. Lipavský denies signing anything, saying he only greenlit the underlying project back in 2024 and that the tender itself was handled by the ministry's investment commission.

Petty, but pointed: Macinka has previously said the climate crisis ended when he took office, which makes defending a six-figure-dollar AC bill an awkward needle to thread.

A water pipe ruptured underground on U Jezera Street during a pressure test Monday morning, killing one worker on the spot and leaving another in serious condition; a third man was slightly hurt. Firefighters brought the injured up from underground, and police say criminal proceedings will follow, though the exact charges haven't been determined yet.

Under the surface: The rupture happened on a pipeline PVK leases from the city, worked on by a private contractor on the utility's behalf. Drinking water to nearby homes wasn't affected, since the area's been running on a temporary replacement line since work began in April.

Prague has the second-cheapest internet in Europe at $22.8 a month, or roughly CZK 460, beaten only by Warsaw among the cities Deutsche Bank tracked. That's for a standard connection with speeds of at least 60 megabits per second and unlimited data, comparing 2026 prices against 2016 across 69 cities worldwide.

Small comfort: Prices here have climbed about a third over the past decade, but that's nothing next to Zurich or Luxembourg, where users now pay more than double what Prague residents do each month.

Prague 7 wants to build a pontoon swimming pool near U Vody Park in Holešovice, with Mayor Jan Čižinský touting the district's new ownership of the harbor edge as the key to finally making it happen. But river spas have a habit of staying on paper here: a floating spa planned below Vyšehrad won an international architecture award back in 2022, only to be scrapped over costs running into the hundreds of millions of crowns.

Well-trodden water: Similar proposals for the Edvard Beneš and Kosárkov embankments, and even a municipal spa in Riegrovy sady, never made it past the concept stage. For now, the only official spot to swim is Štvanice's Baden Baden, a natural riverside pool that's been open for five years.