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Prague city council is discussing a potential increase in public transport fares, Deník N reported on Sunday. The coalition parties that form the city government have not yet agreed on how much fares should be raised by, but several possibilities are being discussed. One of the proposals on the table is doubling the price of the annual public transport pass, which currently costs CZK 3,650, working out at CZK 10 per day, one of the cheapest in the world. The price has not increased since 2015.

Deputy Mayor for Transport Zdeněk Hřib from the Pirate Party told Deník N he did not agree with the proposal, saying he wanted public transport to remain affordable for the residents of Prague.

In recent years, Prague has been grappling with how to ensure the financial sustainability of the city transport company, which suffered especially hard during the coronavirus crisis. Before 2020, passenger fares covered roughly 21 percent of the transport company's costs, while now it is only around 15 percent, with Prague covering the remaining 85 percent from its spending budget. In most other countries the share is closer to 50-50.

If the US doesn't deliver the promised F-35 fighter jets to Czechia within the deadline agreed in the deal between the two countries, head of the opposition ANO party and former prime minister Andrej Babiš hopes it will be possible to withdraw from the agreement, he told Czech newspapers Novinky and Právo in an interview published on Saturday, adding that Czechia didn't need the jets.

Defence Minister Jana Černochová and US Ambassador to Czechia Bijan Sabet signed an agreement on the purchase of 24 fifth-generation F-35s for the Czech military on Monday. Czechia will pay CZK 150 billion for the fighter jets made by the US manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the most expensive military purchase in the country’s modern history. The first jets should arrive in the country in 2031, the rest by 2035.

Large companies in Czechia will have to ensure a more balanced share of men and women in leadership positions if a proposed bill published on the government's website is approved, the Czech News Agency reported on Saturday. According to the draft law, women should make up at least a third of representation in upper management.

On average, women hold 32.2 percent of leadership positions across the EU, while in Czechia, it is only 21 percent. It ranks 20th out of the 27 EU member states when it comes to representation of women in upper management and has long been criticised for failure to do anything to improve the situation.

The new regulation is required by last year's EU directive on improving the gender balance among directors of listed companies, and Czechia must adopt it by December 28. According to the accompanying documents on the government's website, the law is being adopted in the most minimal form required for it to still comply with the EU directive and the changes would only affect five companies and banks in the country. However, in their justification for the law, the authors noted that more progress towards gender balance was made in countries where the measures were mandatory and that, according to studies, an increase in the proportion of women in top management positions leads to higher performance, success and competitiveness.

The Jizerská padesátka, a 50-kilometre-long cross-country ski race held every year in the Jizera Mountains since 1968, will not be taking place next Sunday as planned due to unfavourable weather conditions. The organisers announced their decision to cancel the 57th edition of the event on Facebook, saying that the lack of snow and warm weather made holding the event unfeasible, especially given the even worse weather forecast for next week.

Thousands of people had registered to participate in the four-day event, which was supposed to start on Thursday and culminate in the main race on Sunday, which is part of the Ski Classics series. Registered competitors will receive up to 70 percent of their entry fee back.