Czech news in brief for August 19: Wednesday's top morning headlines

Czechia is logging its longest stretch of soil moisture deficit on record, with a third of the country parched since January. Meanwhile, Prague's streets are standing in for Soviet territory in a new Apple TV+ series, and archaeologists near Nymburk have uncovered a ritual site older than Stonehenge. Good morning, here's your headline mix.

Czechia is in the middle of its longest recorded stretch of soil moisture deficit, with roughly 30 percent of the country, concentrated in South and Central Moravia and the Ore Mountains foothills, short on water since the start of the year. This year the shortage has spread further than usual, reaching higher-altitude regions like Vysočina that aren't normally hit this hard. Crops, grasslands and fruit trees are already suffering, and streams and shallow wells are running dry in places.

Dry ground, dry wells: The government revived its National Coalition for Combating Drought this week, with PM Andrej Babiš ordering a map of 500 to 1,000 of the worst-hit spots for targeted intervention. Opposition figures, including STAN's Vít Rakušan, argue the response leans more on politics than on addressing the underlying climate risk.

Archaeologists from the University of West Bohemia have identified a 6,500-year-old circular ritual enclosure near the village of Chleby, northeast of Prague, a thousand years older than Stonehenge. The 230-meter site has 12 entrances arranged to track solstices and lunar cycles, along with bull skulls and horns pointing to early farming cult rituals.

Why it matters: Researchers say the deliberate entrance geometry puts Chleby among the oldest known ritual astronomy sites in Central Europe, adding a new marker to the region's prehistoric record.

The annual Crown Jewels exhibition, themed "Habsburg 500" this year, opens a day later than planned in Prague Castle's Vladislav Hall due to a protocol event on September 18. Entry is free, and the display will include a 1653 coronation robe alongside the jewels for the first time in years.

Plan ahead: Last year's exhibition drew over 51,000 visitors, and the jewels are removed from St. Vitus Cathedral's Crown Chamber on September 14, so expect crowds building through the opening weekend.

Production on "Birdwatcher," the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters spin-off starring Wyatt Russell, is using Žižkov, Karlín and New Town to double for the USSR in a 1984-set Cold War story. The shoot has also taken over Prague's Botanical Garden in Troja and the Czech University of Life Sciences campus, with filming inside a Prague 7 government building running through August 24.

Location watch: Expats in Prague 7 near Kapitána Jaroše Embankment should expect parking and sidewalk restrictions through the month as the production continues; Stillking Films, the local outfit behind the shoot, has previously handled Mission: Impossible and Spider-Man productions in the city.

Highway vignette fines have already topped CZK 48 million this year, with over 36,000 cases caught between January and July, up nearly 1,800 cases from the same period last year. Officials say most violations come from drivers forgetting to renew or skipping the vignette altogether, though simple typos when buying online (like mixing up O and 0) also trip people up.

Buying tip: Only purchase through md.gov.cz or edalnice.gov.cz. The Ministry of Transport is warning about lookalike sites that redirect buyers to pricier, fraudulent pages. An annual vignette currently costs CZK 2,570, with 30-day, 10-day, and one-day options also available.

A photo by 18-year-old Czech photographer Jakub Kuřák, stitched together from 20,000 shots of the Perseid meteor shower over the Jizera Mountains, was named NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. It's his fifth NASA pick and third this year alone.

Czechia has picked "If Pigeons Turned to Gold," Pepa Lubojacki's phone-shot documentary about her brother's homelessness and addiction, as its Oscar submission for the international feature category. The film already won Best Documentary at this year's Berlinale and hits Czech cinemas Sept. 24.

Prague Zoo's newest South African sea lion pup, the first cub born there in seven years, made his public debut in the main pool this week. He's the great-grandson of Gaston, the zoo's famous sea lion who survived the 2002 floods by swimming 300 kilometers to Germany.