Czech news in brief for July 5: Sunday's top afternoon headlines

A government delegation led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš will depart Tuesday morning for the NATO summit in Ankara, shortly before President Petr Pavel's delegation, the Office of the Government confirmed. Babiš will be joined by Foreign Minister Petr Macinka and Defense Minister Jaromír Zůna; the two delegations will fly separately from Kbely for security reasons, following months of dispute over Pavel's attendance that only ended after the Constitutional Court ordered the government to include him.

Who's really leading: The government's official schedule for Babiš covers both marquee events, Tuesday's informal dinner and Wednesday's North Atlantic Council meeting while omitting any mention of Pavel's itinerary at all.

Meteorologists lifted the extreme heat warning across most of the country and issued a new alert for severe thunderstorms, expected to bring torrential rain, hail over two centimeters, and wind gusts up to 90 km/h through Tuesday. The South Moravian, Zlín, Olomouc, and Moravian-Silesian regions remain under a red heat warning, with highs still climbing toward 39°C.

Where it's worst: South Bohemia, especially around Prachatice and Vimperk, faces flash flood risk as a slow-moving cold front stalls over the region. Prague and Central Bohemia, meanwhile, remain under a separate smog advisory that was lifted elsewhere in the country over the weekend.

The Association of Audiovisual Producers reported that Czech audiovisual industry turnover rose 14.5% year-on-year to CZK 11.3 billion in 2025, driven largely by a jump in foreign production spending to more than CZK 6.6 billion. Applications for the incentive program that helped drive that growth have been closed since March.

The catch: APA warns that a government proposal to scrap Czech Television's license fees in favor of state budget funding could strip CT of CZK 1 to 2 billion, threatening its investment in domestic film and TV production and putting projects already underway at risk of stalling.

The 2026 European Cheerleading Championships wrapped this weekend, with finals held at O2 Universum in Libeň after two days of semi-finals. Czech teams sat mid-table overall in the acrobatic and dance disciplines, though several fielded strong individual performers at the highest competitive level.

Home turf, modest expectations: Cheerleading has grown in Czechia since clubs first appeared in the 1990s, following the American model, but the sport remains dominated internationally by Nordic countries like Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Organizers say the goal this year was building international experience, not medaling.

Following last weekend's record 41.9°C, environmentalist Jan Hollan says Czechs will need to adapt to more frequent heat waves with Mediterranean-style habits: avoiding midday sun, shuttering windows during the day, and ventilating at night when outdoor air cools below indoor temperature. He notes some workplaces are already shifting toward remote work during peak heat.

The practical fix: Hollan recommends cross-ventilation at night rather than a single open window, external shading on any sun-facing windows, and a simple desk fan for psychological relief even when it can't cool a room. He warns that opening windows after 9 a.m. is largely useless once the day has already heated up.

The Prague Botanical Garden's new "Plant Odyssey" exhibition centers on Cooksonia barrandei, a 432-million-year-old fossil found in Czechia and considered the world's oldest known land vascular plant. The exhibition runs through Sept. 20 and traces plant evolution from the first land pioneers to today's flowering species.