Czech daily news roundup: Thursday, April 28, 2022

The Czech government has announced a one-off contribution of CZK 5,000 for each child in families with a net income of less than CZK 1 million per year. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Marian Jurečka said the benefit should be paid out by August.

The income threshold translates into around CZK 83,000 per month for the whole family. It's thought the state contributions will be paid out for more than two million children, in around 1.1 million households. The proposal will now go to the Czech parliament for discussion. Ministers have yet to specify whether parents will need to apply for contributions themselves, or whether the benefits will be paid out automatically.

The Czech School Inspectorate has registered four cases of teachers promoting disinformation on Ukraine in Czech schools. As reported by the iROZHLAS.cz server, the inspectorate has forwarded all complaints to school principals for resolution.

The inspectorate has received four complaints against teachers since March 3, 2022 in connection with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The content of each complaint was a suspicion of support for Russian aggression, attempts to relativize the aggression, or spreading lies about what is happening in Ukraine.

The funeral of Madeleine Albright was held in Washington yesterday. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke at the event and said America remembers "a proud American woman and a daughter of the Czech Republic." Biden said that Albright knew what it meant to endure war and flee persecution and that she never forgot her origins.

Around 1,400 guests attended the funeral of the former U.S. Secretary of State, who was born Marie Jana Korbelová in Prague's Smíchov. Her father, a Czechoslovak diplomat, took his family to London upon the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. The family left Czechia again for America in 1948 after the communist takeover. A Czech delegation attended her funeral, led by Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský and Senate chief Miloš Vystrčil.

Czech MPs will today discuss the government's proposal to introduce requirements on local authorities to ensure that at least a certain proportion of public transport vehicles are low-emission. The amendment would also enforce a monthly provision of information from remote heating and hot water readings in accordance with an EU directive.

Rules on environmentally-friendly public transport vehicles would also be based on EU standards. They would set minimum shares for low-emission and zero-emission vehicles in the awarding of public transportation contracts, some of which should be completed by the end of 2025 and some by the end of 2030.

Moneta Money Bank has released its financial results for the first quarter of this year, showing a huge net profit increase. The bank's profits rose 116 percent year on year to CZK 1.3 billion in the first three months of the year. Total revenues increased by 13 percent, to CZK 3 billion.

The bank said the good results were supported by a change in interest rates and lower risk costs. Net income from interest increased by 17 percent year on year due to higher interest rates set by the Czech National Bank. The bank also managed to prevent a significant increase in operating costs despite inflation.