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New book by Petr Sís: "Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued".

Nicky & Vera, the latest work by the great Czech-born children’s author and illustrator Petr Sís, is being published on January 27,  International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Subtitled A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued, the beautiful and moving book comprises two intertwining narratives: the story of Sir Nicholas Winton, the young Briton who saved 669 mainly Jewish children from the Nazis on the eve of WWII; and that of Vera Gissing, one of the children who Winton managed to get on a “kindertransport” train he had organised from Prague to London. Born Věra Diamantová in a small town in Central Bohemia, she has been living in the UK permanently since the late 1940s and is today aged 92.

A Czechoslovak veteran of World War II who fought in the battles of Tobruk and Dunkirk has died at the age of 101, Czech Television reported. Bernard Papánek, who immigrated to Israel in the 1960s lived out his final days in Slovakia, where he died of Covid-19 shortly after his birthday.

Assessing measures to counter the spread of coronavirus on Thursday, European Union leaders agreed to introduce a new category of “dark red” zones, indicating areas of exceptionally high Covid-19 risk to which all non-essential travel should be discouraged. The Czech Republic, which has the second-highest rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths per capita in the European Union, is  certain to be on the list.

Czechia certain to be on EU’s “dark red” Covid risk zone, WWII veteran Bernard Papánek dies at 101,    Interview with Czech anthropologist Zdeňka Sokolíčková who is  studying how local people perceive the effects of climate change in Svalbard, Norway.

For nearly two years, Czech anthropologist Zdenka Sokolíčková has lived in Svalbard with her husband and three children, studying how local people perceive the effects of climate change. What was it like adapting to life high up in the Arctic? And what are the outcomes of her research? These are just some of the questions I discussed with Zdenka Sokolíčková on the phone to Longyearbyen. I started by asking her about her decision to move to Svalbard.

MPs seek mandatory quota on Czech food sales in big stores; Prague’s Podolí swimming pool declared a national monument; researchers track mis/disinformation about Covid-19

A team of researchers from the Faculty of Education at Palacký University in Olomouc have conducted an extensive study of how misinformation, disinformation and fake news about Covid-19 have spread throughout the country. Leading the research was department head Kamil Kopecký, along with fellow academic Dominik Voráč and other members of the ongoing E-Bezpečí (eSafety) project.

The swimming stadium in Prague’s district of Podolí, one of the iconic examples of Czechoslovakia’s 1960s architecture, was recently declared a national cultural monument. The complex of three swimming pools, built on the site of a former cement quarry, has been operating for more than 55 years.

The lower house of Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that would impose a mandatory quota on local food sold in retail stores larger than 400 square metres. The bill has come under fierce criticism from EU member states which say it would create favoured trade conditions for local producers and discriminate similar imported goods.