Good evening. Here is the Wednesday, March 8 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Slovak wines win big in France
Tokaj Wine Region in eastern Slovakia. (source: SITA)
Slovak winemakers won dozens of top awards at last week's Vinalies Internationales in Bordeaux. Widely seen as one of the most prestigious wine competitions in the world, almost 2,000 wines were entered for prizes.
In total, Slovaks won six Grand Gold, 39 Gold, and 14 Silver medals.
Read more on Slovak wines:
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Slovak wines do great abroad, but inspectors see them as unfit at home.
While France has Beaujolais Nouveau, Slovakia has St Catherine's wines.
More stories on Spectator.sk
ACCOUNTING: The pandemic unlocked huge potential for improvement. Covid has accelerated digitalisation and automation in the field.
MONUMENTS: Remarkable Bratislava spa will feature a Roman bath-style pool. The Grössling Spa is one of the last unrestored national cultural monuments in downtown Bratislava.
HOUSING: Older apartment prices falling. Change not expected soon.
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Feature story for today
Initially, Slovak visual effects (VFX) creator Vladimír Valovič expected to work on commercials and trailers. But then he took matters into his own hands, attended a VFX school in London, and then started working on big Hollywood productions, including several Marvel movies.
In an interview with the Slovak Spectator, he talks about his projects, how he got involved in the film industry, and the nature of his work.
Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. (source: Archive of Vladimír Valovič)
Culture tip of the day
The exhibition '8-bit' opens one Wednesday at the Satellite Design Gallery in Bratislava. The exhibition maps the formation of the first computer and digital games fan communities in the 80s and 90s in Slovakia. Computers allowed for the transfer of information technology knowledge from research centres to households.
The exhibition includes early computer games, magazines, media and other related objects and memorabilia.
(source: SCD)
In other news
On Thursday, US Ambassador to Slovakia Gautam Rana visited the town of Tisovec, Rimavská Sobota District, going to, among others, a bi-lingual secondary school and a factory that will build armoured 8x8 vehicles. Read more in Slovak.
There are 119,000 more women than men in Slovakia, with the former accounting for 51.1 percent of the total population, the Statistics Office reported on the occasion of International Women's Day. On average, Slovak women live for 78 years, seven more than Slovak men.
The Dutch royal visit to Slovakia continues. King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Slovak President Zuzana Čaputova discussed the equality of girls and women with secondary-school and university students, and attended a business forum. The Dutch king and queen also visited the Tepláreň gay bar where two people were shot dead in last year's terrorist attack.
The Dutch king tries out the Slovak system of returning used plastic bottles and cans. Unlike its Dutch counterpart, the Slovak system is fully digitised. (source: TASR)
Police have warned the number of scams involving mobile phone applications is on the rise, including attempts to get people to give out their bank account information.
The interim Government appointed Michal Palkovič as state secretary of the Health Ministry where he will head a crisis management team.
Construction of 20,220 apartments was completed in Slovakia in 2022, but the number of new flats fell 2.1 percent year-on-year, the Statistics Office reported.
There has been no significant improvement in problems with drug shortages, although the situation is not getting worse, says the State Institute for Drug Control. Some drugs like pain killers and antibiotics are unavailable.
A preparation of an artificial nest to help fish spawn in the Žilina Waterworks, north Slovakia. (source: TASR)
Weather for Thursday
Cloudy with rain in most places, snow at higher elevations. Daily temperatures between 12 and 17 degrees Celsius. In the northern half of the country temperatures between 7 and 12 degrees. A level 1 wind warning is in place for south-west, central, and north Slovakia.
If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
