Czech news in brief for June 30: Tuesday's top morning headlines

This morning sees calm after the South Bohemian storm; with hail and flooding up next after an weekend accumulation of extreme heat. Just how equipped is Czechia to handle future heatwaves and weather events? ICYMI: Yesterday, we took a look at the question in this article. Here are the morning headlines curated just for you from my morning news feeds.

Thunderstorms rolled through South Bohemia and the Vysočina region Monday afternoon after a weekend of record heat, triggering more than 170 firefighter callouts across both regions. The hardest-hit areas were Prachatice, Strakonice, Tábor, and Jindřichův Hradec, where crews spent the evening clearing fallen trees and pumping water from flooded buildings and roads. Rail services on multiple lines were suspended after trees fell onto tracks and lightning knocked out signaling equipment at two stations.

By the numbers: Strakonice hit 39.8°C on Sunday, a regional record for the weekend, before the storms moved in. An amateur weather station in Bohumilice in the Prachatice region recorded 100mm of precipitation in a single hour. Hailstones up to 5 cm fell in some areas.

President Petr Pavel said Monday the government's handling of his participation in the NATO summit in Ankara contradicts a Constitutional Court preliminary injunction, even after the cabinet approved a plane for him and added him to the delegation. The dispute centers on who leads the Czech delegation at the leaders' dinner and North Atlantic Council meeting. Pavel has proposed splitting the sessions between himself and Babiš; Babiš suggested the president could simply skip the summit entirely.

More to the story: The Constitutional Court declined to say Monday whether the government's decision actually satisfies the conditions of its own injunction. The Ankara summit is imminent, leaving little time for the dispute to be resolved through the courts.

Foreign Minister Petr Macinka issued an apology Monday after his appearance at the International Folklore Festival in Strážnice on Saturday drew chants of "get out!" from the crowd. Macinka had told the audience the festival had become politicized, a comment that landed badly a day after Culture Minister Ota Klempíř was booed off the same stage. Prime Minister Babiš said the episode was "not entirely happy."

City takes a stand: The festival, held annually in South Moravia since 1946, is the largest of its kind in Central Europe, drawing folk ensembles from dozens of countries and tens of thousands of visitors each year. The city of Strážnice distanced itself from both ministers, rejecting suggestions that the crowd's reaction was fueled by alcohol or rowdiness, and warning that political disputes were undermining the work of hundreds of organizers and performers.

Italy has overtaken Spain as the top destination for Czech real estate buyers abroad, with demand for Italian properties up 18 percent year-on-year between March and May, according to a Sreality.cz analysis. Spain, long the frontrunner, saw interest drop 7 percent over the same period. Croatia held steady, while Austria and Albania both declined. Analysts point to rising Czech property prices as a key driver. In many Mediterranean locations, a 2+kk apartment near the sea can be had for under CZK 2 million, comparable to what buys a small cottage in the Ústí nad Labem or Karlovy Vary regions.

Banking on la dolce vita: ČSOB Hypoteční banka confirms it issues more mortgages for Spanish properties than any other foreign destination, but says Italian demand is closing the gap fast.

Prague 3 has launched two electric grill points this summer, one in Teen Park Habrová and one in Rajské zahrady, available to book online for CZK 100 per session. The borough, the most densely populated in the capital, invested around CZK 800,000 in electrical infrastructure and seating at both sites. Slots run daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in summer months. Booking is handled through the SARAP3 website.

More grill sites: Prague allows grilling in 14 designated park and forest locations between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m., but spots can’t be reserved, so it’s first come, first served. These sites are spread across places like Stromovka, Divoká Šárka, and Kunratický forest, with some picnic areas allowing tables but not open fires. Read more here.

Czechia now offers every approved CAR-T cancer therapy. The country became one of the first in Europe to make all six EMA-approved CAR-T cell therapies available this month. The one-time treatment reprograms a patient's own immune cells to destroy tumors, with a 99 percent response rate in multiple myeloma patients. Researchers are now testing it on autoimmune diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

A giant hunting tick has arrived in Czechia. A new species, Hyalomma marginatum, common in southern Europe and Africa, has been spotted here, likely arriving on migratory birds. Unlike the common tick, which waits on vegetation, this one actively chases its host by tracking heat and scent. Experts say mass spread is unlikely, but the species is linked to Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Summer camp costs are up, parents sending kids anyway. Camp prices rose 10–20 percent this year, yet half of families with school-age children are sending them, according to an Ipsos survey for Home Credit. A typical camp runs CZK 5,000–10,000. One in six parents said they had to turn their child down due to cost.