Czechia

Ljubljana – Consumers in five Central European countries, including Slovenia, have been using cashless forms of payment more often since the start of the Covid pandemic. Electronic payment is the most popular in Slovenia, where the majority of the surveyed residents would oblige retailers to offer at least one form of cashless payment.

Nonetheless, President Milos Zeman, who wields the constitutional authority to appoint governments, invited the populist Babis - with whom he has a longstanding power pact - to meet on Sunday.

Vucic took to the stage, adjusted his suit, and read the room. In the front row were some familiar faces: Former US Vice President Mike Pence, the prime ministers of Slovenia and Czechia, Janez Jansa and Andrej Babis, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and the man they had all come to see, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Prices are expected to rise further as the cost of carbon permits under the EU emissions trading scheme continues to increase.

The local press was full of complaints over the tightly controlled event, which Orban stressed had definitely no connection to the upcoming election in Czechia but was merely a standard state visit. Naturally, then, the two premiers refused to take questions, but treated the few journalists admitted to an hour-long chat.

The jury members and films that will take place in the International Feature Film Competition and the National Feature Film Competition of the 58th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival have been announced.

According to a statement made by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, works for the festival, which will open on Oct. 2, continue.

The number of tourists who have holidayed on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in the summer of 2021 is up by 70% compared to 2020, announced Minister of Tourism Stela Baltova after a meeting with representatives of the tourist industry in Varna. She described the season as dynamic, difficult and rather short.

So when Amazon set up shop on the outskirts of the capital, Prague, in 2015, many Most residents rushed to apply; the hourly pay rate of 6.5 euros, Amazon's willingness to overlook bad credit when hiring and the offer of free transport to and from work was compensation enough for the 160-kilometre round trip each day. Máková, 53, joined in 2017.

The real world consequences of this dispute could be seen on Wednesday, when European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni for the first time stated officially that delays in negotiations over the Polish national spending plan for the EU Recovery Fund are being caused, in part, by Poland's problems with the rule of law.

Populist President Milos Zeman told his favourite pro-Russian disinformation website Parlamentni listy that NATO's legitimacy has been called in question due to its failure in the Central Asian country. Claiming that NATO has left a void that will be filled by terrorism, Zeman also said Czechia should now focus its budget on national defence and no longer "waste money" on the alliance.