• Labour minister: President’s hesitation will cost treasury 4 billion crowns
    09/04/2023

    The president’s hesitation in signing into force a bill tightening the conditions for early retirement and the subsequent one-month delay in bringing it into force will cost the state  treasury up to 4 billion crowns,  Labour Minister Marian Jurečka said on Czech Television. Thousands of Czechs close to retirement age scrambled to file for early retirement over the summer under more advantageous conditions and Jurečka said their numbers could increase by another 10,000 in October. Originally the government hoped to enforce the new legislation from September 1st.

    The president was hesitant to sign the bill, arguing that in times of high inflation the newly-proposed indexation of pensions could be more costly than the present arrangement and criticizing the decision to cut the possibility of early retirement from five to three years ahead of the projected date as “too abrupt”. Nevertheless, he eventually put his signature to it, saying it was “a step in the right direction”.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Dancer from iconic musical The Hop Pickers Ivana Pavlová dies at 77
    09/04/2023

    Dancer and actress Ivana Pavlová, who starred as Hanka in the iconic 1964 Czech musical The Hop Pickers, has died at the age of 77. Pavlova took ballet classes from the age of five, graduating from the Prague Dance Conservatory, and later performed with the Ballet-Prague ensemble. She also performed at Prague’s famous Laterna Magica.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Muchova reaches US Open quarterfinals
    09/04/2023

    Karolina Muchova reached the quarterfinals of the US Open on Sunday with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Wang Xinyu. For the 10th-seeded Czech, a 2021 Australian Open semifinalist who has reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon twice, it marked her deepest run ever at Flushing Meadows. Muchova’s next opponent is No. 30 Sorana Cirstea who beat 15th-seeded Belinda Bencic in Sunday’s match.

  • Czech and Ukrainian orchestras to perform concert in Prague as tribute to war victims
    09/03/2023

    A hundred bell towers across Prague will ring in unison at 6pm on Sunday to pay tribute to victims of the war in Ukraine. The bell ringing will be a prelude to a special concert at Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle in which the Prague Philharmonia, Czech Philharmonic and the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra will come together to perform Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, based on poetry written by Wilfred Owen, a British war poet who was a victim of World War I.

  • Weather forecast
    09/03/2023

    Monday should be clear to partly cloudy with day temperatures between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius.

  • Ministry drafts bill stating that corporal punishment of children is “unacceptable”
    09/03/2023

    The Justice Ministry has drafted an amendment to the Civil Code stating that corporal punishment of children is unacceptable. It does not however introduce penalties for parents who choose to employ spanking or slapping as a disciplinary measure. The aim of the amendment is reportedly to make parents consider more appropriate educational means. The move is part of a broader governmental plan to combat domestic violence. According to the outcome of a July poll two-thirds of Czech parents use or have used physical punishment when dealing with their kids’ misbehavior.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Vondroušová in US Open fourth round
    09/03/2023

    Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondroušová advanced to the last 16 of the US Open by beating Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-1 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Saturday. Vondroušová, ranked No 9, will next play American Peyton Stearns. The Czech has now won 10 matches in a row at the Majors after her surprising run to the Wimbledon title while being ranked 42nd in the world.

  • Justice Ministry proposing lighter sentences for some crimes
    09/03/2023

    The Justice Ministry is proposing an amendment to the Penal Code which would introduce lighter penalties for certain types of crime, such as support for terrorism on social media or repeat theft. The upper limit for supporting terrorism with a post on social media should be five years instead of the present ten. According to Deputy Justice Minister Antonín Stanislav Czechia sends fewer people to prison than other countries, but the sentences are much harsher. He said lowering penalties is also a way to relieve overcrowding of Czech prisons.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Thousands of Czechs opt to retire early ahead of tighter pensions law
    09/03/2023

    An increasing number of Czechs have opted to go into early retirement ahead of a new law that will make it significantly less advantageous to do so. The Czech Social Security Administration registered over 20,000 applications for early retirement in June and July - and expects similar numbers for August.  The number of applications in the first eight months of this year is similar to the number for the whole of last year. From October, the rules for early retirement will become significantly stricter. People will no longer be able to retire five but only to three years ahead of the projected date and the financial penalty for each year will be higher.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Czech universities say students increasingly cheating in exams with help of AI
    09/03/2023

    Czech universities say they have increasing problems with students cheating in their exams by using AI. The University of Chemical Technology in Prague says its students have cheated in up to half of the tests in some subjects, handing in essays and tests completed by chat bots. The university says it will introduce more frequent oral testing and hand-written tests in the new academic year.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

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