Good evening. Here is the Tuesday, January 31 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
CPI ranking: Slovakia's cosmetic improvement
The 'step by step against corruption' slogan during an anti-corruption march in Slovakia in 2017. (source: Sme)
Slovakia has slightly improved its position on Transparency International's ranking, the Corruption Perceptions Index, though this positive change is seen more as the outcome of stagnation in other countries.
Slovakia came in 49th in the latest ranking, which looks at the perception of corruption in 180 countries. In 2021, Slovakia ended in 56th place.
Still, the nonprofit remains on the alert ahead of the expected snap elections.
Other stories from The Slovak Spectator website
Science: How human biases affect the conservation of animal species and how people walk in the absence of orientational cues: these are just a selection of the many topics that scientists in Slovakia explored during the last quarter of 2022.
Podcast: American Jeremy Hill talks to four foreigners, including Rida from Sudan, about dating and finding love in Slovakia, but also about losing it.
Investment: A Liechtenstein firm plans a huge investment in northern Slovakia.
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OPINION FOR TUESDAY
Slovaks are obsessed with titles, but they are not the only ones
Do Slovaks love putting letters before and after their names? (source: SME)
James Thomson's column looks at the quality of university education in Slovakia and Slovak people's obsession with rank in a clever and light-hearted way.
SONG OF THE DAY
'The world gone nuts'
Jozef Biľ, a Slovak who lives in NYC, creates music in his free time.
He has recently released a catchy song that reacts to how much the world has changed, not necessarily for the better, and that what his generation experienced as children is not coming back.
More than a decade ago, Biľ wrote a fun song about people spending a lot of time on Facebook.
In a few lines:
Early parliamentary elections will take place in Slovakia on September 30 following a parliamentary vote on Tuesday evening. Ninety-two of 148 MPs present in the debating chamber supported the proposal.
Ukraine is criticising the Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International. The group has not left the Russian market despite Russia's war in Ukraine. The group owns a 78-percent share in Tatra Banka, a Slovak bank. Tatra Banka says that the scandal does not concern them, noting that it does not operate in Russia, Belarus, nor in Ukraine. (SME)
Hungary will join Poland and the Czech Republic in protecting Slovakia's airspace until next year, when the US should deliver the country's new but delayed F-16 jets.
The Berlin Court of Appeals has sentenced a Vietnamese national, 32, to five years in prison for his involvement in the 2017 abduction of Vietnamese entrepreneur and former communist functionary, Trinh Xuan Thanh. The businessman, who is now imprisoned by the communist regime in Vietnam, was abducted from Germany to Vietnam through the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A Slovak government plane was used in the abduction, but nobody in Slovakia has been brought to justice for assisting in the abduction. The investigation in Slovakia is still open. Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka has questioned Slovakia's involvement in the scandal.
Interim Environment Minister Ján Budaj (OĽaNO) has presented Slovakia's first climate bill to the public. According to the bill, Slovakia shall become carbon neutral by 2050 and achieve negative greenhouse gas emissions five years later. The bill sets a number of specific and sectoral goals, but no specific measures. There is still a long way to go before the bill is adopted as the legislation has just been sent to the interdepartmental comment procedure. (SME)
Gorals want to become an official ethnic minority. They have already submitted their application for recognition to the Justice Ministry. In February, the Vietnamese may officially be recognised as the country's fourteenth ethnic minority.
President Zuzana Čaputová meets his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen, in Bratislava on January 31, 2023. (source: TASR - Jaroslav Novák)
WEATHER FOR WEDNESDAY: Cloudy sky. Snowing in many places, rain or sleet in places at lower altitude. Daily temperature from 3°C to 8°C, in some places in northern Slovakia from -2°C to 2°C. Strong wind in the mountains. A number of yellow warnings (wind, ground ice, snowfall, snowdrifts) will be in place in western and central Slovakia on Wednesday.
Thank you for reading The Slovak Spectator.
P.S. If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
