• 10/05/2024

    Czech tennis player Karolína Muchová will try to reach her second final this year at the China Open tournament in Beijing on Saturday. Her opponent will be home player Zheng Qinwen, whom she has faced twice so far. She lost to her in the final in Palermo this year and beat her in Madrid the year before. In the quarter-finals, Muchová defeated the world No. 2 and reigning US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in three sets, the latter’s first defeat in 15 matches. The 28-year-old native of Olomouc could advance to the final for the sixth time in her career. Last year, she made it to the final of the Grand Slam Roland Garros. She has only won the WTA Tour title in 2019 in Seoul.

  • 10/05/2024

    Doctors at Prague’s Motol University Hospital have warned about the dangers of the Piercing Challenge on Tik Tok, which has landed several Czech children in hospital. The hospital said it has already  treated five children who swallowed ball magnets and two of them have had to undergo emergency surgery. Apparently they were inspired by the challenge on Tik Tok and wanted to imitate a tongue piercing with the magnets which they then accidentally swallowed.

  • 10/05/2024

    Prime Minister Petr Fiala has asked President Pavel to appoint Petr Kulhánek to the post of minister for regional development and Lukáš Vlček to the post of industry minister. Petr Kulhánek will replace Ivan Bartoš of the Pirate Party, who was dismissed for failing to secure the digitization of the building permits system, while Lukáš Vlček is set to replace Jozef Síkela, who is moving to the European Commission. The president is expected to meet both nominees on Monday and is likely to appoint them on Tuesday.

    According to the prime minister, Kulhánek faces three key tasks: in addition to guaranteeing a functional building permits system and securing more affordable housing, he must also work in cooperation with the regions and municipalities in repairing the damage wrought by the September floods.

  • 10/04/2024

    The 49th-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova stunned top seed Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to reach the China Open semifinals on Friday. Muchova won 7-6 , 2-6, 6-4 and faces China's Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen for a place in the final.

  • 10/04/2024

    The parties of the ruling coalition on Friday used their majority in the lower house to send the bill on pension reform into its third and final reading, forcibly cutting short the debate after 26 hours of obstruction tactics by the opposition parties. The  proposal envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age linked to a higher life expectancy with a ceiling at age 67, 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. The present retirement age is 65 for both men and women.

    According to Labour Minister Marian Jurečka the reform is necessary for the sustainability of the pension system. The opposition ANO party is highly critical of the planned changes and has said that it will consider filing a complaint against it to the Constitutional Court.

  • 10/04/2024

    Saturday should be overcast and rainy around the country with daytime highs between 8 and 12 degrees Celsius.

  • 10/04/2024

    The police have detained an 18-year-old student who threatened to go on a shooting spree at his school in Prague 8. He also told classmates that he wanted to obtain a firearms license and repeatedly praised the lone shooter who killed 14 people and injured 25 at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University last December. During a search of the detained student's home, the police discovered airsoft guns and knives, Prague police said on their website on Friday.

  • 10/04/2024

    The leader of the Christian Democratic Party Marian Jurečka has said he will run for reelection to the party’s top post at the party’s election conference in Olomouc in two weeks’ time. His main rival for the post will be  Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný, who confirmed his candidacy on Thursday. Marek Výborný led the Christian Democrats, who are a member of the SPOLU coalition in the Fiala government, for less than a year from 2018 to 2019, but left the post after the sudden death of his wife, so as to take care of his three children. Jurečka has led the Christian Democrats since 2020 and faces criticism for the party's dwindling popularity. Commentators say the choice of leader will decide the party’s fate in next year’s general elections.

  • 10/04/2024

    The planned three-day strike of employees in the judiciary, announced for 7 to 9 October, will go ahead, trade union representatives confirmed following talks with Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura and Justice Minister Pavel Blažek. Minister Blazek said it had not been possible to avert strike action, even though he had promised judiciary employees an increase in their average monthly salary to CZK 41,000. He pointed out that over the past three years the average salary of justice sector employees has increased by CZK 6 000 which is more than other civil servants received. Minister Blažek said the unions are insisting on a change in financing so that employees in the judiciary would be set apart from the rest of the civil service.

  • 10/04/2024

    According to the Board of the Czech National Bank, there is still a risk of accelerating inflation in the Czech Republic, especially given the growth in the price of services and the rising costs of real estate and rents in Czechia.

    Governor Aleš Michl also identified an increase in the state budget deficit as a risk that could lead to an acceleration in inflation. On Tuesday, the lower house of Parliament approved an amendment to this year's budget that increases the deficit by CZK 30 billion to CZK 282 billion. In August, annual inflation was 2.2 percent.

    Last week, six of the seven members of the bank's board backed a quarter percentage point cut in the key interest rate to 4.25 per cent.

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