China Eastern Airlines will restrict its flights from Prague to Shanghai with effect from March, joining Hainan Airlines, which announced the closure of its direct flights from Beijing to Prague earlier last week. The carrier is currently operating five weekly connections between the two cities. China Eastern will scrap one of them as of March 1, keeping four other lines open. “Let us inform you that China Eastern Airlines is cancelling MU708 / 707 flights between Prague and Shanghai as of March 1, 2020,” the airline wrote in its statement. The flights have already been deleted from the reservation system. “At the moment we have no further information from carriers about the changes in the timetable. Of course, the situation may change for operational or other reasons, and these changes are always at the discretion of the airline,” said Prague Airport spokesperson Katerina Pavlikova. Relations between the Czech Republic and China took a turn for the worse last year after city authorities in Prague showed support for Tibet and demanded changes to an intercity partnership agreement with Beijing over a reference to China’s ‘one-China’ policy on Taiwan. Hainan’s website was offering direct Beijing-Prague and Prague-Beijing flights until Friday Feb. 28 when checked on Wednesday.
Tthe US has threatened the Czech Republic with tariffs on Czech goods in the event that parliament adopts a 7% digital tax on Google, Facebook, and other giants.
Finland’s new prime minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin, once floated the idea of a four-day week. It sounds quite glorious, doesn’t it? Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček fueled the debate after he posted on his Facebook his thoughts about a four-day workweek. “A four-day workweek. I understand that when we start talking about changes, we don’t always take them seriously. On the other hand, people once believed that shortening the workweek from six to five days was not possible. And it happened,” posted Hamáček on Facebook two weeks ago. “Can you imagine today at your job, that if you do your weekly tasks in four days that the weekend will then start on Thursday afternoon? What would you do on Friday?” His post was based on the Microsoft experiment in Japan. When, in August, Microsoft Japan tested a four-day week, productivity work shot up by about 40%. One Melbourne organisation found a six-hour working day forced employees to eliminate unproductive activities such as sending pointless emails, sitting in lengthy meetings and cyberloafing (messing around on the internet). However, Hamáček’s colleagues are not so keen on the idea. Former Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek admits that in the distant future, there might be a four-day workweek, saying...
Last November, the capital city’s long battle over Pražská tržnice’s ownership proved the municipality victorious, meaning the future of the behemoth market and its accompanying grounds now lay in the hands of the city. What the metropolis decided to do with the industrial-compound-turned-marketplace will determine its future place and function in the city. The market complex, a former slaughterhouse, is nestled between the Vltava river and Holešovice, a young and hip neighborhood marked with museums and artistic spaces. This advantageous location provides Pražská tržnice with an enormous amount of untapped potential. Currently overgrown with weeds and passed over by most, the market grounds could serve as a bridge between the new and old Prague, inhabiting the space of both an evolving marketplace and creative cultural center. Slowly, the grounds are tapping into this potential. In April 2019, seven months before the courts came to their conclusion in the case against the former renters of the market, Delta Center, the city of Prague, led by Deputy Mayor Pavel Vyhnánek, began implementing changes to the landscape of the former slaughterhouse and current mish-mosh of markets, retailers, and restaurants. The first things to go were the dilapidated DIY market stalls located between the...
Czech President Milos Zeman’s decision to skip China’s summit with European leaders in April shows the “honeymoon is over” between Prague and Beijing, analysts say, as it tries to shake up the relationship to push for more investment. And China could face similar trouble with other nations looking for more at this year’s “17+1” summit with Central and Eastern European nations in Beijing. Top leaders usually attend the gathering, but Zeman on Sunday said he would not be going, and that China had not “done what it promised” by failing to invest more in his country. He would instead send Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek, which he said was “adequate to the level of cooperation”. At last year’s summit in Croatia, Prague was represented by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who was diplomatically on par with the Chinese representative, Premier Li Keqiang. But it is China’s turn this year, and President Xi Jinping will be the host – meaning heads of state are expected to attend. The 17+1 grouping was launched by Beijing in 2012. Zeman was a strong advocate for deepening economic ties with China and investments were on the rise, for a time. But Zeman and other Czech leaders...
Greece has reiterated its request to send children from Greek refugee camps to the Czech Republic, which if granted, would be a major reversal of previous policy regarding accepting migrants into the country. Acceptance of children from refugee camps in Greece was one of the topics discussed by the Czech Chamber of Deputies chairman Radek Vondráček (ANO) and members of the Greek parliamentary committee on public administration, public order, and justice. Vondráček said that during the negotiations with the Greeks, there was a consensus on a pan-European solution for migration, including a policy of return. “Of course, Greece also reiterated the request regarding 40 children migrants. However, our parliaments are unable to draw any conclusions because we do not have executive powers. Currently, communication between ministries is going on in private,” said the Czech Chamber of Deputies chairman. Vondráček believes that the acceptance of 40 orphans is a symbolic issue, but it may have become the subject of internal political struggles in the Czech Republic and possibly in Greece as well. “We definitely agreed on one thing, which is that a Europe-wide solution and a clear return policy must be introduced,” Vondráček stressed on migration, adding he understands that the...
Shanghai Municipality has terminated its sister-city relationship with the city of Prague with immediate effect and suspended all official exchanges, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government announced on Tuesday. The decision was made given the fact that “the political prerequisite and basis for the exchanges between the two cities no longer exist,” according to a statement. “The administration of the city of Prague of the Czech Republic has repeatedly made wrongful moves on the Taiwan question and other issues that bear on the core interests of China, which has constituted a blatant interference in China’s internal affairs and a flagrant challenge to the one-China principle,” read the statement. Mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit are the foundation of relations between China and the Czech Republic, noted the Shanghai government, and urged the Prague administration to realize its mistakes as soon as possible, remove the negative impact through concrete actions, and adhere to the one-China principle. Czech President Milos Zeman has pushed ties with China. But the capital’s government has taken a much harder line, including Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib’s refusal to eject a Taiwanese diplomat from a conference at the demand of a Chinese official, and his decision to fly the...
Prague Mayor condemned China as an "unreliable partner" and told his city will sign a twinning agreement with Taiwan's capital Taipei.
Former Prague imam Samer Shehadeh admitted on Tuesday that he had helped his brother and sister-in-law travel to Syria to join a terrorist organization, Jabhat Fatah as-Sham (Conquest of Syria). Along with his brother Omar and his sister-in-law Fátima Hudková, were all charged with supporting terrorism. For these offenses, they face up to 15 years in prison. Shehadeh said he does not consider it a criminal act because he does not recognize the Syrian government or perceive Jabhat Fatah as-Sham as terrorists. In November 2016, Shehadeh first helped his brother to travel to Syria and join the terrorist organization. Later, he arranged for Fátima Hudková to leave as well. “I raised funds to help people affected by the war in Syria – to buy food, and secondly I traveled to Istanbul with a sum of money I collected. Then, I contacted jihadists, and I wanted to join them,” Shehadeh said in court. Czech intelligence services began investigating the trio in 2016. He left his post as imam in 2014 and was eventually expelled by the Czech Muslim community, according to Radio Prague. Shehadeh is Czech-born with Palestinian roots. Having secured a degree from the Islamic University of Medina, he took a...
The upcoming year will again be marked by major changes for entrepreneurs and citizens. We summed up the list of major legislative changes: More expensive cigarettes According to the tobacco companies, for a packet of cigarettes consumers are likely to pay an extra 12 or 13 crowns. The new rates will come into effect on 1 March 2020. Starting from then, the three-month deadline for the resale of stocks will start, and from 1 June 2020 only cigarettes with the new tax rate will be available for sale. Receipts for almost… everyone At the beginning of May, all-cash payments (paid in cash, by check, promissory note or deposits) will also have to be recorded by all craftsmen and private individuals engaged in a freelance profession. The last phase of Electronic Records of Sales (EET) will start. Spirits become more expensive The government will increase the tax on tobacco and spirits. The price of a bottle for 40% alcohol will increase by 9.10 crowns (beer and wine are not affected by the price increase). Cheaper draft beer and hairdressers With the introduction of EET, VAT will be reduced for selected services and products, unless entrepreneurs decide to keep the difference. For example,...
Czech President Milos Zeman on Friday (December 27) lashed out at Russia’s “insolence” for protesting against Prague’s decision to turn the anniversary of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of then-Czechoslovakia into a memorial day. Czech lawmakers passed a bill earlier this month to designate Aug 21 as “a day commemorating the victims of the invasion and subsequent occupation by the Warsaw Pact armies”. Zeman signed the bill into law on December 13. Zeman added that he could cancel his visit to Moscow on the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. “Some time ago, I accepted the invitation of the President Putin to take part in the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, and now I’m thinking about whether to go there at all or, what I’ll most likely do, go there and say to the Russians: “What if you turned the page and stopped recalling this anniversary?” Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was disappointed with the law adopted by the Czech Republic, which shows “the desire of Prague … to return to the events of half a century ago” in the modern context. Moscow noted that such a situation does not contribute to the...
Czech President Milos Zeman presented his Christmas message on Thursday, drawing attention to the slowness in trial proceedings, housing, and infrastructure construction in the country. “I would summarize the problem I want to talk about in one word. Slowness. The slowness of court proceedings, slowness of construction process, slowness in the construction of transport infrastructure,” he said, citing examples of trials lasting 10 to 20 years while warning against highway construction that takes 13 years. In the message, Zeman praised the low unemployment rate, stable economic growth, relatively low state debt and the growth of the average wage and old-age pensions in the country. Zeman also talked about climate change in his message. Calling himself “a heretic of the climate change debate”, the president said he was unsure whether the decisive factor of the planet’s warming was human activity. “I believe that the discussions on climate change are becoming a new religion, and therefore let me be a heretic,” he said, warning that the European Union (EU) should not become an environmental open-air museum with a lower standard of living under the influence of climate protection measures. He added that he would not like green banking in the EU to...
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