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Google published its annual “Year in Search”, revealing the top global Google searches by country. To highlight the most significant events and say goodbye to 2020, we collected the top searches in some of the neighboring Central European countries: in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Slovakia. Czech Republic Coronavirus – the most obvious search trend this year among Czechs was the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. The interest in novel coronavirus peaked between 8th-21st March in the Czech Republic when the search interest was valued at 100. US election – Czechs were surprisingly interested in the US election, which took place on November 3rd and ended with the victory of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Similarly, the most searchedRead more.

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Bookmakers named the favourite candidates for the presidency of the Czech Republic, who will participate in elections in 2023. The leader is the Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (odds at 2.45: 1), followed by the former president Václav Klaus Sr. (odds at 5.5: 1) and General Petr Pavel (odds at  7: 1) according to Novinky.cz. The spokesman for the Fortuna betting company, Petr Šrain, told ČTK that the volume of bets already reached three million CZK with as many as 40% placed on Babiš’s victory. Interestingly, the company registered a 10,000 CZK-worth bet on the victory of a former Minister of Health, Roman Prymula. Fortuna currently has 58 candidates for bets. “In any case, the spectrum of favorites will continue toRead more.

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For over 17 years, Viktor Kožený has been evading Czech and American authorities in the Bahamas for allegedly defrauding investors of billions of crowns.  During the massive transfers of Czech wealth in the early 90s following the collapse of communism, Kožený and his company Harvard Capital and Consulting ensnared many people wanting to get in on the emerging markets of the Czech Republic.  In 1990, Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed a new law that opened up previously state-owned companies to the public, allowing anyone to buy shares. This caused a frenzy of new capital flows which were then taken advantage of Viktor Kožený, offering to manage money for people who wanted to invest in the new market.  It’s unclear howRead more.