Czech news in brief for February 8: Sunday's top morning headlines

Inflation in Czechia slowed to 1.6 percent year on year in January, its lowest level since 2016, according to a preliminary estimate from the Czech Statistical Office. The decline was driven mainly by cheaper energy, with prices down 7.9 percent. Without the reduction in energy and fuel prices, inflation would have reached 3 percent. The figures also reflect the state taking over renewable energy fees from households and firms.

Police in the Karlovy Vary region are investigating several cases in which minors aged 14 to 18 were hospitalized after ingesting products sold as legal technical cannabis. Laboratory tests found a synthetic cannabinoid, which is illegal in Czechia and significantly stronger than THC, causing symptoms including anxiety, memory loss and hallucinations. Police warn that although such products are legally sold to adults, their composition and effects are unpredictable and potentially dangerous, especially for children.

Diesel-powered heat generators funded by the Czech civic initiative A Gift for Putin were dispatched to Ukraine on Friday to help address the country’s energy crisis. Nearly 95,000 donors contributed more than CZK 180 million toward the equipment, which has a total capacity of 2.4 megawatts and is expected to reach Kyiv by Sunday or Monday. The generators will be distributed by military chaplains as millions face winter without electricity or heat.

Billionaire Pavel Sehnal will have 90 days to remove a modular hotel from state-owned land in Prague’s Letňany district after the lease expires on March 31, the Finance Ministry said. If the structure is not dismantled in time, the ministry will arrange its removal at the tenant’s expense. The state has ruled out buying the hotel, citing no public interest in operating it.

A Czech man and woman have been remanded in custody in Linz after Austrian police said they repeatedly travelled by train to the city to shoplift. Police said the pair, aged 41 and 31, stole goods several times a week over the past month, using modified bags. The stolen items were resold in Czechia, with damages estimated in the tens of thousands of crowns.