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The amount of cases where people have contracted measles continues to rise in the Czech Republic. This week 57 patients were diagnosed with the highly contagious disease, the largest recorded rise in one week Czech Television reports. The overall number of cases has now risen to 366. More than a third of the diagnoses came from Prague, with the regions of Pardubice and Hradec Králové also registering a particularly large amount of new patients.

Due to the Europe wide nature of the measles outbreak and frequent travel within the continent, hygienists expect the disease to continue spreading.

Representatives of Parliament, the Ministry of Defence and resistance fighters have honoured the memory of anti-Nazi resistance fighter Václav Morávek. The rememberance act took place in Prague’s Dejvice district, where Morávek was shot 77 years ago.

The act took place without the Czechoslovak Freedom Fighters (CSBS) a group which has garnered controversy in recent years due to some of the comments made by its leader Jaroslav Vodička and the fact that its membership base includes former Communist State Security operatives. Both the Senate and the Defence ministry have recently distanced themselves from the group.

Saturday is expected to be sunny with temperatures across the country lying between 18 to 21 degrees. Only the west of Bohemia may see some clouds.

Pope Francis received the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Radek Vondráček in the Vatican on Friday. Mr. Vondráček travelled to the Vatican together with his Slovak counterpart Andrej Danko on the anniversary of the death of St. Cyril, one of the two missionaries that brought Christianity to the Slavs. The Pope and Mr. Vondráček discussed a treaty between the Czech Republic and the Vatican, which, among other things, sets out the position of the Catholic Church within the Czech Republic.

Mr. Vondráček also took the opportunity to invite the head of the Catholic Church to visit the Czech Republic.

Cardinal and Archbishop of Prague, Dominik Duka has expressed regret in connection with claims of sexual abuse in the Diocese of České Budějovice. An investigative report conducted by journalists from the online television Seznam TV brought interviews with women claiming to have been sexually abused by church officials and presented evidence that bishops in the diocese remained inactive despite being aware of the crimes.

Cardinal Duka released a statement on the church’s website expressing regret and shock over the cases of sexual abuse, which take place here and across the world. The Cardinal went on to say that he is aware of the overly long judicial processes on the state and church level and that it is necessary to work on a substantial change.

In their report, Seznam journalists found evidence that the testimony of one victim being repeatedly raped by a priest from the Diocese of České Budějovice started being investigated in 2009, but only achieved progress last year once it was brought up to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

A helicopter crash near the town of Slavoňov in the north east of the country claimed two lives on Friday morning. According to the regional police spokesman Ondřej Moravčík, the police are now investigating the helicopter’s flying route and other details. The village mayor, Michal Suchánek, says that the helicopter circled high above before plunging down from the sky straight into the field.

The company which owns the helicopter, told the news server Novinky.cz that the machine was on a training flight.

Czech police are currently tracking four people and three companies who are suspected of subsidy fraud worth CZK 300 million. According to Jaroslav Ibehej, the spokesman for the National Centre for Combating Organised Crime, they sought to gain money from European Union funds for a number of projects relating to a machine construction company. The suspects could face five to ten years in jail if convicted.

Investigators started working on the case in 2017. According to the police spokesman, the suspects, together with associated companies, presented documents of purchased machinery where the original cost was sometimes inflated by up to ten times.

The Czech Foreign Ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador for talks over the news that apartments for Russian diplomats are reportedly being rented to third parties in Prague.

The ambassador was summoned following reports in the Czech media that thousands of apartments intended for diplomatic personnel were being leased to third party tenants, which is in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously said that the reports were based on local sources that “distort the truth.”

Four seasonal ferries across the Vltava River, operated by the Prague public transport system, are set to resume their operation on Saturday. The ferry between the districts of Holešovice and Karlín has extended its service and will now ferry passengers until 10 p.m.

There are currently eight ferry lines available in the capital, with three of them running throughout the year. The ferry services on the Berounka River between Černošice and Kazín will resume operation on June 1.

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly denounced Czech President Miloš Zeman’s claims that Turkey was a de facto ally of the Islamic State. The ministry’s spokesman said the statements are false and insulting, both to the country and its president.

The Czech head of state said on Tuesday that despite seeking EU membership and being a NATO member, Turkey had served as a mediator in logistics operations for the Islamic State when it occupied parts of Syria and Iraq.

President Zeman also accused his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of pursuing a policy of Islamizing his country.