Czechia

Activists of KoalaKollektiv during a protest against the greenwashing of nuclear energy and natural gas by the taxonomy of the EU, in front of the Euro sign in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 11 January 2022. EPA-EFE/RONALD WITTEK

Retired Turkish ambassador Nazmi Vildan Akiman passed away on July 1. Born in 1929 in Ankara, Akıman graduated from Şişli Terakki High School, Istanbul University Faculty of Law and Columbia University Faculty of Political Sciences.

He represented Türkiye as a diplomat in the Foreign Ministry between 1957 - 1991. He served as Türkiye's ambassador to Cuba, Greece and Spain.

In other Czech news, Prague is set to take over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU from France on Friday. This would be the second time Czechia has served as the president of the EU Council since it joined the bloc in 2004. It had been hoping for a smoother ride this time, unlike in 2009 when the government collapsed during its stint, causing its presidency to be judged a disaster.

Riga – President Borut Pahor urged the leaders of Three Seas EU countries to endorse Slovenia’s proposal at the EU summit later this week to give Bosnia-Herzegovina the status of EU candidate country, as he addressed the summit of the Three Seas initiative in Latvia on Monday.

It is the first case in which the court has addressed the issue of the penalization of a judge for criticizing PiS reforms. Zurek is one of the best-known Polish judges to be critical of the ruling party's politicization of the judiciary.

It's a chance, they argue, for Czechia to distinguish itself from the populist-conservative values that the likes of Vladimir Putin have weaponised and for the five-party centre-right governing coalition that took power in December to match its declared goal of reasserting Prague's commitment to liberal democracy with action.

The northwestern province of Edirne applied to host 2024-25 European Junior Rowing Championships, the officials have said in the opening ceremony of the 2nd Edirne Rowing Festival held on the Meriç River.

Liptovsky Mikulas – Ajda Novak won Slovenia another medal at the Canoe Slalom European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia, on Sunday by securing bronze in the women’s extreme canoe slalom, a new Olympic discipline.

The 28-year-old rounded off a perfect day for Slovenia after Benjamin Savšek won his forth European championship title in the men’s C-1 event.

Nearly a third of the Turkish population, or 32.1 percent, comprises obese people, whereas 66.8 percent of the population is either overweight or obese, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released during the 29th European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Those earlier arguments, based on Prague's plan to play a major role in distributing gas from Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, derailed the project to build the Stork II gas link between the two countries in 2020.