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Twenty Czech women successful in fields such as science, medicine, and journalism came to Prague Castle on the occasion of International Women's Day on Friday at the invitation of President Petr Pavel and his wife Eva. Among the attendees were names such as actress Iva Janžurová, president of the Academy of Sciences Eva Zažímalová, and palliative care physician Katarína Vlčková.

In a short speech, President Pavel said that more than 100 years since the struggle for equal rights for women began, it still cannot be said that women hold an equal position to men in Czech society. He mentioned in particular the areas of domestic violence, the gender pay gap, and the lack of women in top positions in business and politics.

Seismographs recorded a 3.9 magnitude earthquake centred around Písek, southern Bohemia on Thursday. According to the Geophysical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, it was a moderately strong earthquake which is not common in this part of the world. People reported tremors within a radius of several kilometers, but there were no reports of material damage. Experts last registered a similar phenomenon in southern Bohemia more than a decade ago. In 2012 the Geophysical Institute registered tremors of 2.4 on the Richter scale in Český Krumlov.

Ukraine’s allies have lined up nearly all the funding required for the Czech initiative to purchase hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds for Ukraine outside of the EU, the agency Bloomberg reported citing a Czech government official familiar with the arrangements. The commitments mean that the shells could be delivered to Ukraine in a matter of weeks. The precise timing would depend on contractual and delivery schedules, Bloomberg wrote.

Czech President Petr Pavel said earlier that Prague had received commitments to support the 200 million euro project financially from around 15 states including Britain, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said his cabinet is ready to try to find consensus across the political spectrum for the government’s pension reform, but complained that the leading opposition party ANO had refused to negotiate the proposal in the past. The prime minister was reacting to a statement by President Pavel earlier this week urging for broad political consensus on the long-awaited pension reform. The opposition parties have complained that they were left out of the debate and have labelled the proposed reform “anti-social”.

The government’s proposal envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age linked to a higher life expectancy, a different basis for calculating old-age pensions, a lower indexation of pensions and a minimum pension amounting to 20 percent of the average wage. It would also enable early retirement for people in demanding professions.