Daily news summary

Lower house to meet on Monday over lithium mining in Czechia

The Lower House of Parliament is set to hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday over lithium mining in the Czech Republic, which has caused a dispute between the Social Democrats and the ANO party. ANO said the memorandum signed by the Social Democrat-controlled Ministry of Industry with Australia’s European Metals Holdings Company sells out the national interest.

The meeting was prompted by the opposition Communist Party, according to which lithium doesn’t belong to foreign hands and should remain in the state hands. However, the Social Democrat foreign minister, Lubomír Zaorálek, said the government had agreed a measure aimed at boosting the state’s rights to mine other materials.

GlobalMarkets names Jiří Rusnok Central Bank Governor of the Year

Governor of the Czech National Bank, Jiří Rusnok, was named Central Bank Governor of the Year 2017 for Central and Eastern Europe by GlobalMarkets, a newspaper of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

GlobalMarkets Magazine acknowledged Rusnok for smooth termination of foreign exchange interventions, including thorough preparation and efficient communication, the Czech National Bank said in a press release issued on Sunday. The magazine also praised the bank's policy on financial stability.

Unions to demand minimum wage rise from new government

Czech unions have prepared a list of ten requirements for the future government to fulfill during its mandate. One of the requirements is to raise the minimum wage to 50 percent of the average wage within the next four years, the head of the Czech Confederation of Trade Unions Josef Středula said in a debate on Czech Television on Sunday. According to him, the unions will present the requirements in the coming days.

The government decided in August to increase the minimum wage by 11 percent to 12,200 crowns as of next year. That should be about 40 percent of the average wage, which reached 29,346 crowns in the second quarter of 2017.

Parents who kidnapped their children wanted on European arrest warrant

Police are searching for two children who were kidnapped by their parents from a children’s home in Strakonice, South Bohemia on Friday. The two brothers, aged four and 10, were removed from the parents by the court. They were abducted during regular visiting hours in the home.

The parents are now wanted on a European Arrest Warrant, the South Bohemian police spokesman Jiří Matzner told the Czech News Agency on Sunday. According to the police, witnesses saw the parents with both children in Freyung, Germany.

Tennis: Barbora Strýcová claims WTA title in Linz

Czech tennis player Barbora Strýcová has won a second WTA singles title in her career. In the final round of WTA event in Linz on Sunday, the Czech No.2 seed defeated Magdalena Rybáriková of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-1. The 31-year-old Czech last claimed a WTA title in 2011, when she won at the WTA Bell Challenge Tournament in Quebec City.

Weather records set around Czech Republic on Sunday

Temperature records were set around the Czech Republic on Sunday. Seven measuring stations in South Bohemia that have been keeping records for more than 20 years saw their warmest ever temperature for the day. The hottest place in the country was Volary in Prachatice region, where it was 23.8 degrees Celsius. Meteorologists expect more temeprature records may tobe broken on Monday.

Weather

Monday is set to be mostly sunny with daytime temperatures ranging between 19 and 23 degrees Celsius.