Czech news in brief for August 18: Tuesday's top morning headlines

Storms tore across the country Monday, snapping trees, cutting power to thousands, and tangling up train lines from Prague to the Moravian-Silesian region. Meanwhile, political scientists are already predicting who might chase the Castle if President Pavel decides not to run again. Good morning, here's your headline mix.

Severe storms swept the Czech Republic Monday afternoon, with a wind gust over 100 km/h recorded in Skutč and firefighters logging more than 550 technical assistance calls between noon and 6 p.m. Prague's Zbraslav district saw crews clearing downed branches; a fallen tree briefly halted rail traffic near Prague, and the Central Bohemian region logged 144 incidents, triple its daily average.

Power crews racing: The worst power disruption hit East Bohemia, where roughly 3,500 households in the Pardubice region and 1,700 in the Hradec Králové region lost electricity after high-voltage lines were struck by falling trees.

Petr Pavel hasn't ruled out a second term, but political scientists are already sketching what happens if he doesn't run. Most agree the ruling coalition would benefit most, with speculation swirling around a potential second bid by Andrej Babiš or a fresh run from Danuše Nerudová, though neither has confirmed anything, and analysts say the fragmented opposition would struggle to unite behind one name.

The frontrunners: Nerudová declined to comment when asked directly; ANO is staying similarly tight-lipped about its own plans.

Prague rents dipped slightly in the second quarter, per Deloitte's Rent Index, even as prices climbed in Pardubice, Ostrava and Olomouc. The capital's average landed at 468 crowns per square meter, with Prague 9 posting the sharpest citywide increase while Prague 1 and Prague 8 both saw notable drops.

The exception: Deloitte's Petr Hána called it a correction rather than a reversal, after several quarters of steady growth.

A rally titled "Go Home, Ivan" returns to Boris Nemtsov Square in front of the Russian Embassy on Thursday at 6 p.m., marking the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion while voicing support for Ukraine. Organizers have lined up witnesses, historians and Ukrainian speakers for the evening program.

Who's speaking: Eyewitness Karel Kovařovic, who was injured trying to save a man shot by Soviet troops in 1968, headlines a lineup that also includes Charter 77 signatory Věra Kostlánová Roubalová and Ukrainian healthcare worker Anna Abramchuk.

The Záchranka emergency app turns 10 this year, having grown from a single panic button into a full toolkit connecting users directly to lines 155, 112 and mountain rescue, while sharing exact location and phone battery data with responders. It's now used beyond Czechia too, with Hungary, Bavaria, Finland and Moldova on board.

Worth the download: It won't auto-dial for you, no fall-detection gimmicks, so it only fires when someone actually needs help, per Mountain Rescue's Marek Fryš.

Smartwings U-turns for strippers. A Smartwings flight from Prague to Split turned back to the gate Saturday after ten women from a Prague strip club missed boarding for a "promo video" shoot in Croatia. Both the airline and airport admitted the hour-long delay came down to a VIP lounge staffing mix-up, not the passengers themselves.

Nothing, full stop. Prague's Water Tower in Letná is hosting the Festival about Nothing through Aug. 23, offering mattress-lined rooms, meditation music, and a deliberate excuse to just lie down and do nothing. Founder Simona Bagarová says the point isn't entertainment; it's permitting people to stop.

Holocaust memorials, mapped. A new database from the Federation of Jewish Communities maps 616 Holocaust memorials and monuments across Czechia, backed by over 5,500 photographs and 3.5 years of research. Users can search by city, map, memorial language, or even iconographic motifs.