Czech news in brief for July 29: Wednesday's top morning headlines

A weather station outside the South Moravian town of Strážnice has logged conditions matching Mediterranean cities like Valencia and Almería, not in a one-off heat wave, but as its new average summer baseline, according to a Seznam Zprávy analysis of 14 European weather stations. The comparison holds for both tropical-day counts and 24-hour average temperatures, measured against those cities' mid-to-late 20th-century climate.

One town, not the whole region: Strážnice was picked as a representative extreme, not proof that South Moravia broadly has shifted south; several nearby stations show similarly warm records.

TOP 09's Matěj Ondřej Havel told reporters after meeting President Petr Pavel at Prague Castle that a coalition proposal to abolish ninth grades in elementary schools, floated by SPD's Tomio Okamura, would further disadvantage students already struggling. Education Minister Robert Plaga opposes the idea; Prime Minister Andrej Babiš says it merits wider debate on cost savings.

What to know: A government coalition is debating whether to cut elementary school from nine years to eight, a proposal floated by SPD chairman Tomio Okamura and framed around saving money for the state, schools and parents.

Health Minister Adam Vojtěch has proposed letting trained pharmacists administer flu vaccines from autumn 2027, citing low uptake (about 8 percent of the population gets vaccinated each season) and pointing to similar systems in France, Germany and Italy. Infectious disease specialists back the plan, but it's drawn hostile pushback online, with supportive doctors facing insults and accusations over their motives.

A skeptical streak: Czechia's resistance to vaccination has hardened since Covid, when public sentiment flipped from scrambling for early doses to widespread distrust; one doctor likened it to Czechs' slow acceptance of the restaurant smoking ban, calling it a broader pattern of resisting change.

The Foreign Ministry is advising Czechs in Spain to steer clear of all wildfire-affected regions and watch for road closures, with 1,201 Czechs currently registered in Spain through the ministry's Drozd traveler alert system. Spain declared a nationwide state of emergency last week; fires near Madrid have burned roughly 77,000 hectares and forced 63,000 evacuations, with more blazes affecting tens of thousands near Valencia.

Stay reachable: The ministry recommends keeping mobile data and location services on so Spain's ES-Alert system can deliver warnings directly if you're in an affected zone.

Smishing (fraudulent SMS) is hitting an unprecedented scale in Czechia this summer, with scammers impersonating traffic authorities and delivery companies to push victims toward fake payment pages. A woman in the Šumperk region lost CZK 21,000 after paying what she thought was a CZK 1,000 speeding fine; a 20-year-old in the Přerov region lost roughly CZK 100,000 after covering a fake CZK 120 handling fee.

The tell: Unknown sender numbers, off-looking domains, and manufactured urgency are the consistent red flags across every version of the scam.

Jewish sites open for free. More than 60 synagogues and cemeteries across Czechia will open for free or by donation on Aug. 9 for the 9th Jewish Heritage Day, including Prague's Jerusalem Synagogue. Roughly 200 synagogues and 370 Jewish cemeteries survive nationwide today, after Nazi destruction and further losses under communism cut deep into what once stood.

Diana Ross makes Czech debut. Pop icon Diana Ross, 82, performs in Czechia for the first time tonight at the Pilsen Lochotín Amphitheater, part of a European tour with only three stops this year. Her song "I Will Survive" became a Czech and Slovak staple as Helena Vondráčková's "Já půjdu dál,"; Vondráčková is expected in the audience.

Prague's IMAX draws sell-out crowds. A Prague cinema on Flora is one of only 6 in Europe screening "The Odyssey" in true IMAX 70mm, drawing sold-out crowds from as far as Austria and Germany at 9 a.m. and midnight alike. Each 300-kilogram film print costs roughly USD 55,000 to produce and is made in a single California lab.