Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for July 23, 2021

Women who were illegally sterilized between 1966 and 2012 should be entitled to compensation. If they can prove their claim, they will receive CZK 300,000 under a bill approved by the Czech Senate today. It now must be signed by President Miloš Zeman before it can take effect. The possibility of compensation applies to women who were sterilized in what is now the Czech Republic between July 1, 1966, and 31 March 2012, the period from the entry into force of the Public Health Act until the adoption of a new standard for medical procedures. According to the bill’s supporters, women were not able to decide freely for sterilization but did so based on the threat of having their children taken away or losing social benefits.

Cyclist Michal Schlegel is the fourth Czech athlete to have tested coronavirus positive at the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Czech Olympic Committee (COV) said today. Before, beach volleyball players Ondřej Perušič and Markéta Nausch Sluková as well as table tennis player Pavel Sirucek also tested coronavirus positive. All of them came to Japan by special aircraft. One of the doctors of the Olympic team, Vlastimil Voráček, was the first from the Olympic team to have tested COVID positive. The unvaccinated doctor denies that he is the source of the infection spread. One day later, Perusic was sent to isolation. He was followed by Simon Nausch, Sluková's husband and the coach of the Czech team. On Wednesday, Sirucek and today Nausch Sluková lost their hopes in the Olympic competition.

The Czech Senate has opposed the increase in the content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component in cannabis in a resolution it passed Thursday. The upper house has returned the amendment that is to facilitate access to medical cannabis and enable its being prescribed electronically along with modifications in it to the lower house. The senators also want to toughen the conditions for medical cannabis growers. The version drafted and approved by the Chamber of Deputies defined technical cannabis as the one with less than 1 percent content of the THC, which is roughly three times more than now. Vojtech and some senators warned that the increased THC content would be in conflict with the International Drug Control Convention and might have an impact on the penal law when it comes to the border between a misdemeanor and a criminal act.

Tennis star Petra Kvitová and NBA player Tomáš Satoranský will carry the Czech flag at the Friday opening ceremony of the summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Czech Olympic Committee said Thursday. "To carry the flag is for me an honor. These are my fourth Olympic games, perhaps the last ones. This is why I am glad that I can start them so," said Kvitová, a two-time Wimbledon winner. "This is a wonderful feeling. For me, it is an exceptional affair that we have qualified for the Olympic Games and that we can be part of our delegation," said Satoranský, a point guard for the Chicago Bulls. For the first time this year, the Czech Olympic teams and other teams will see both a man and a woman as flag bearers. This is due to a new rule by the International Olympic Committee that insists on gender equality. Previously the Czech flag was carried by men at Olympic games with a single exception of whitewater champion Štěpánka Hilgertová at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The Lennon Wall Story Museum, which will offer period photographs, thematic publications, and the premiere of a short documentary, will open on July 23, the founder of the museum, Eva Ticháková, told journalists Thursday. The museum will be located in the basement of the Napa nightclub in the Malá Strana district in Prague. On Friday afternoons and at weekends, it will present exhibitions about the history of the Lennon Wall. Poetic texts and poems started appearing there especially in the 1980s. The Communist regime had several times repainted the wall, but the texts always reappeared there. In 2014 someone painted the wall white, writing the "Wall Is Over" there.