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Age discrimination in the Czech labour market may start as early as 40, according to a study by the deputy ombudsman and researchers from Masaryk University, released on Thursday. It found that job seekers’ chances of receiving a positive response from employers decline with age, including in their forties and fifties.

The researchers sent 4,280 fictional CVs from men aged 40 to 55 to jobs advertised through the country's Labour Office. Although all the applicants met the job requirements, only 28.9 percent of those aged 40 to 44 received a positive response. For men aged 51 to 55, the rate was almost three percentage points lower.

Around 90 percent of the more than 1,400 small hydropower plants in Czechia have stopped producing electricity due to low river levels, according to the Czech Chamber for Renewable Energy Sources. Hydropower normally accounts for just three to five percent of the country’s electricity, so the drop is not expected to threaten the power supply.

Large hydropower plants are still operating, although some have reduced their output. Overall, hydropower production fell by around 17 percent in the first half of the year. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute says this is one of the driest years since 1961, with rainfall so far at just 66 percent of the 1991–2020 average.

The risk of wildfires has spread across all of Czechia due to continuing drought and hot weather, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute warned on Thursday. The risk is expected to increase over the weekend as winds strengthen.

The warning remains in place until further notice, with temperatures expected to exceed 32 degrees Celsius across most of the country. Meteorologists say this year is among the driest since records began in 1961, with rainfall so far at just 66 percent of the 1991–2020 average.

Some rain could arrive in the form of thunderstorms on Sunday, mainly in Bohemia, with further showers and storms expected next week. Temperatures should also fall.

People across the Czech Republic were able to observe a particularly striking partial solar eclipse yesterday evening. The rare astronomical event was accompanied by clear skies and strong public interest. The Moon began covering the Sun shortly after 7:18 p.m., with the eclipse reaching its maximum phase less than an hour later, at around 8:11 p.m. In western and southern Bohemia, the Moon covered more than 85 percent of the solar disk at that point. In the eastern parts of the country, however, the Sun had already set before the eclipse reached its maximum.

According to astronomers, yesterday’s eclipse was the largest visible from the Czech Republic since August 11, 1999. The Czech lands will not experience a total solar eclipse until 2135. The next partial eclipse of comparable magnitude will occur in nearly 50 years, in 2075.