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Prague councilors have approved a plan to obtain automated trains for the metro’s C line and the D line which is now under construction. The purchase and operating cost of 69 such trains is estimated at CZK 86 billion. The trains are due to be available in 2029 and beyond. The council concluded that the investment is inevitable, since the current trains on the C line will have be replaced after 2034 and in view of the pace of technological development it is no longer worth buying non-automated trains that are serviced by drivers.

“We have a common responsibility to protect the weak and fight against hatred in every form, every day,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala said at a commemorative gathering on Holocaust Remembrance Day held in the Czech Senate. The Speaker of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil said that the horrors of the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity must serve as a warning to us of how far hatred and indifference can lead. The commemorative ceremony in the upper house of Parliament was also addressed by Doris Broulová, a former prisoner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi camp and chairwoman of the Czech Auschwitz Committee.

The Regional Court in Brno has issued a public statement explaining the reasons for the three-year suspended sentence it issued to a man who sexually abused his stepdaughter over a longer period of time.  The court said it had taken into account that the man had a clean criminal record, was not a rapist or sexual predator and the initial impulse for sex had come from the victim who allegedly wanted to get back at her mother. Court experts also alleged that the psychological damage to the victim was of a milder nature with a positive prognosis for the future, the court said. The verdict evoked public outrage when the media reported on it adding that the victim had attempted suicide after the court's ruling and was in a mental hospital.

The lower house of Czech parliament voted on Thursday afternoon to support a government coalition proposal to allow postal voting in elections for Czechs living abroad in the bill's first reading. The opposition's proposals to reject the amendment or return it to the government for redrafting were both rejected. It will now go to the Constitutional-Legal and Foreign Affairs Committees for discussion.

The debate over postal voting lasted for six days due to filibustering by the opposition, taking approximately 63.5 hours. The coalition eventually set a fixed time of 3pm on Thursday for voting to take place.