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The Czech Interior Ministry is preparing an amendment to the foreigners’ law according to which foreign residents in the Czech Republic would have to undergo a four-hour integration course on the country’s laws, traditions and culture.

The course should provide basic information about the country’s legal and social order and inform foreigners about their rights and duties. It should serve to combat social isolation, radicalism, terrorism and social problems, such as domestic violence.

The course will be available in 9 languages and foreign nationals will be charged a certain fee to help cover the cost of lecturers. The proposed amendment, which should go into force next year, still has to be approved by the government and Parliament.

The Czech Republic has sent CZK 3,5 million to the Peruvian Lima Foundation (Fundación Lima) to help in the fight against COVID-19, Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček tweeted on Thursday. The money has been used to purchase protective equipment for Lima’s city hall health workers as well as Lima Foundation employees. Furthermore, 1,400 rapid COVID-19 tests were bought for the poorest residents in the districts of El Pino and San Cosme and 2,175 food packages were purchased for coronavirus infected Venezuelan migrants as well as the Shipibo-Conibo indigenous people, who live along the Ucayali River in Peru’s part of the Amazon rain forest.

The Czech Republic’s Consul Jana Dušková and the Mayor of Lima Jorge Muñoz attended the distribution of the packages, which contained foodstuffs such as rice, noodles and tuna. The next stage of humanitarian support will focus on other poor districts of the Peruvian capital. Mayor Muñoz has expressed gratitude to the Czech Republic for its help, solidarity and excellent cooperation, according to a Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.

Smartwings Group airlines Smartwings and ČSA (Czech Airlines) have sent a proposal for an extraordinary moratorium, in other words a deferral of debts repayments, to the Municipal Court in Prague. The two companies announced the move in a press release on Wednesday, stating that new legislation, also known as Lex COVID, enables them to do so.

The official statement says that the coronavirus pandemic has created the greatest crisis in the history of air transportation. It highlights that both companies were profitable before the pandemic and expect to return to profitability after the situation settles down. The two companies say that the extraordinary moratorium will help ensure a long term solution to the situation that works for all stakeholders (creditors, staff and clients).

A memorial honouring the three phases of resistance in Czechoslovakia and one of its most famous leaders, Major General Josef Mašín, is being built at Mašín former farm in the village of Lošany in the district of Kolín. The memorial is set to open next year. A special mulberry tree was planted in the remnants of the house on Wednesday to mark 124 years since Mašín’s birth.

A part of the old building will house a letter penned by Mašín which contains the testament to his children on how they should fight for freedom if it ever comes under threat. The letter was found after Mašín died in his cell. Special lights will display a moving tricolour in another part of the house, historian Petr Blažek, who is the deputy-chairman of the Mašínův statek - památník tří odbojů society, told the Czech News Agency.

The society is currently in the process of raising funds for the reconstruction of the farm as a memorial. It was acquired again by Mašín’s descendants in 2017. Some CZK 2.5 million have been raised thus far. The farm previously belonged to the Mašíns for centuries.

Josef Mašín was one of the leaders of the anti-Nazi resistance in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He was captured by the Nazis, tortured and executed after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. His children were active in the anti-Communist resistance and managed to escape to the West. Their mother and sister were jailed by the Communists.