Morning News: Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Eva Pavlová, the country’s future First Lady, has said that she intends to devote herself to charity. She wants to focus particularly on gender equality and discrimination against women in society. As a former single mother, she said she would like to draw attention to the problems faced by single parents.

Historian, dissident and writer Jaroslav Šedivý who served as Czechia’s second foreign minister has died at the age of 93. Mr. Šedivý was one of the intellectuals who was relegated to manual labour by the communist regime after signing Charter 77 and was only able to return to his work after the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

The newly elected Czech president Petr Pavel called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday to assure him of his country’s continued support for Ukraine. Mr. Pavel said President Zelensky had thanked Czechia for its support and invited him to visit Kyiv.

Last year, natural gas consumption in the Czech Republic fell by 19 percent. Overall, customers used over 81.5 terawatt hours of gas. The decline in year-on-year consumption was evident in every calendar month of 2022, according to the latest statistics from the Energy and Regulatory Office (ERO).

The newly-elected president, Petr Pavel on Monday met with Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. They discussed the current security situation, foreign policy issues and future cooperation. Foreign Minister Lipavsky told the ctk news agency it had been a pleasant and constructive debate.