• 02/05/2024

    The Ministry of Labour has announced plans to introduce a single application form for four social benefits in order to simplify and better target state support. The merger would combine housing allowance with housing supplement, subsistence allowance and child benefits. This would enable the authorities to have stricter control over the claimant's income, their assets, what support they are already receiving and whether or not they are employed. Work or seeking employment would be a condition for receiving support. The changes should come into force next year.

  • 02/05/2024

    David Koller, the drummer and vocalist from popular Czech band Lucie, is leaving the group to focus on his family and other projects, the band announced on their Facebook page on Sunday. Koller wrote that he will still perform in all the concerts that the band has been contracted to play until the end of the summer. The remaining members of the band said that they plan to carry on and are working on a new album.

    Lucie was one of the most successful Czech bands of the 90s, with sell-out shows and chart-topping albums in the years following the Velvet Revolution. Although marked by breakups and comebacks, the band will celebrate 40 years together in 2025.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/05/2024

    Water levels in north Bohemian rivers rose overnight, with 11 places in the Karlovy Vary and Liberec regions on flood alert on Monday morning and two places, the Jizera River in Jablonec nad Jizerou and the Elbe in Vestřev, at the highest alert level with a severe risk of flooding. The swollen rivers have, however, not caused any major damage so far.

    The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute's warning for rising river levels, issued on Sunday, will remain in place until Tuesday at 6 am.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/04/2024

    The President of the Constitutional Court, Josef Baxa, said he is against allowing constitutional judges to repeat their ten-year mandate. Speaking on Czech Television on Sunday on the political talk show Otázky Václava Moravce, he said that a limited term in office is a better guarantee of impartiality in decision-making.

    The Supreme Court consists of 15 judges appointed by the president for ten years; however, the Constitution does not prohibit this mandate from being repeated. While the first post-Velvet Revolution president, Václav Havel, gave judges the option of a second mandate, the current practice is that the president does not.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/04/2024

    Pražská strojírna (Prague Engineering), a subsidiary of the Prague public transport company, has won its first contract in New Zealand. It will deliver two atypical tram switches to the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland, New Zealand this May. The company was recommended to Auckland by the transport authority in the Australian city of Melbourne, which is one of the Czech manufacturer's biggest customers.

  • 02/04/2024

    Monday will continue to see strong winds with a chance of rain. Daytime temperatures should be between 8 and 11 degrees Celsius.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/04/2024

    The Czech men's tennis team beat Israel on Sunday at the Davis Cup qualifiers in Vendryně, North Moravia, to advance to the group stage of the annual competition. The decisive third point was won by Tomáš Macháč and Adam Pavlásek in their doubles match against the Israeli pair Edan Leshem and Daniel Cukierman, who withdrew from the match at 4:1 due to Cukierman getting injured.

    On Saturday, Jakub Menšík defeated Yishai Oliel 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), and Jiří Lehečka beat Cukierman 6-1, 7-6 (7-2). Czechia's place in the Davis Cup Finals this autumn is now guaranteed, as it is leading 3-0 in the qualifier.

    Last year, Czechia made it to the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup before being knocked out by Australia.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/04/2024

    If parliamentary elections had taken place in January, Andrej Babiš's opposition ANO party would have won with 33.4 percent of the vote, according to the latest STEM agency poll, published on Sunday by CNN Prima News. Prime Minister Petr Fiala's Civic Democrats (ODS) would have come in second with 13.2 percent and the Pirate Party third with 11.3 percent. Tomio Okamura's opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD) would have been fourth with 10 percent of the vote.

    Of the remaining three members of the governing coalition, the Mayors and Independents (STAN) and TOP 09 would also have made it into the Chamber of Deputies with seven and five percent of the vote respectively, five percent being the minimum required for representation in parliament. The only party from the governing coalition that would not have reached the five percent threshold would have been the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL), who would have finished even behind the Communist and Social Democrat (SOCDEM) parties.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/04/2024

    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.

    Author: Anna Fodor
  • 02/04/2024

    Kristýna Zemanová won a silver medal in the under-23 category at the Cyclocross World Championships in Tábor on Sunday. She was beaten by 19-year-old Zoe Bäckstedt from Wales by 44 seconds.

    Zemanová's silver was the second medal won by Czechs in the cycling competition this year, after sixteen-year-old Kryštof Bažant took the bronze for Czechia in the Men's Junior race. He was half a minute behind the winner, Stefano Viezzi from Italy, and 22 seconds behind the silver medallist, Keije Solen from the Netherlands.

    Bažant was competing against over 70 others and Zemanová against more than 30, from as far afield as Australia, Canada, the United States and Japan.

    Author: Anna Fodor

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