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The Czech Republic’s European Commissioner, Věra Jourová, has come out against a statement by French President Emanuel Macron that NATO is “brain dead”. Speaking on Czech Television on Sunday, Ms. Jourová said everything that caused the Kremlin to celebrate should be eschewed, adding that she the European Union must make itself heard more within NATO.

Speaking on the same programme, the Czech former chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Petr Pavel, said Mr. Macron’s words had disrupted unity within the alliance.

The Czech Republic’s ice hockey players have won the Karjala Tournament in Finland after a 3:0 victory over Russia on Sunday gave them three wins out of three. The Czechs’ goals came from Kovár, Sedlák and Nestrašil.

It is only the second time ever that the Czech Republic has won the Karjala Tournament, which is the opening event in the four-nation Euro Hockey Tour.

Neither the Social Democrats nor Tomio Okamura’s Freedom and Direct Democracy would have made the five-percent threshold to reach the Czech lower house if elections had been held last month, suggests a newly published poll conducted for Czech Television by the Kantar CZ agency. Both parties would have got 4.5 percent and exited the Chamber of Deputies, the survey indicates.

Government leaders ANO would have received the backing of 31.5 percent of respondents, ahead of the Pirates on 17 percent and the Civic Democrats on 12.5 percent.

The leading Czech cinematographer Vladimír Smutný says he is the person who shot the only known footage of Jan Palach in his hospital bed, shortly before his death. He made the comment in an interview for news site DVTV, saying he had never before revealed that he was the author of the film shot between Palach’s self-immolation in January 1969 and death several days later.

Mr. Smutný is a seven-time winner of the Czech Lion award and has worked on numerous well-known Czech films, including the recently released The Painted Bird by Václav Marhoul.

The Czech Republic’s ice hockey players made it two wins out of two with victory over hosts Finland in the Karjala Tournament on Saturday night. The Czechs sealed a 3:2 victory on penalties in that game in Helsinki. They now face Russia in a game to decide the winners of the competition, which is the first event in the four-nation Euro Hockey Tour.

It should be overcast on Monday in the Czech Republic, with temperatures of up to 6 degrees Celsius. Cloudy weather and similar daytime highs are forecast for much of the week.

Hurdler Zuzana Hejnová has been named Czech Athlete of the Year for the third time. The 32-year-old came fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Doha and regularly reached the podium at Diamond League events in 2019.

Hejnová, a two-time world champion in the past, finished ahead of javelin thrower Jakub Vadlejch and shot putter Tomáš Staněk in the poll of athletics functionaries, trainers and journalists.

Impoverished Czechs receiving benefits referred to as the living minimum and the existential minimum could receive an additional 13 percent next year, the minister of labour and social affairs, Jana Maláčová, told Czech Television.

The Social Democrat minister has proposed such an increase in view of the fact both minimums have been at the same level for eight years while inflation has increased by 13 percent during that time.

Government leaders ANO say they are not against such an increase. However, they have made agreement conditional on a revision in other benefits.

The authorities in Prague 3 are offering students cheap accommodation in municipal properties in exchange for spending time with the residents of old folks’ homes, Novinky.cz reported on Sunday. The programme comes partly in response to the fact that student dormitories are overcrowded and commercial rents have skyrocketed in the city.

The students are required to spend 30 hours a month with seniors under the scheme. Prague 3 deputy mayor Ondřej Rut said it should bring together the generations and offer both fresh perspectives.

All of the Czech Republic’s Roman Catholic bishops, the country’s foreign minister, Tomáš Petříček, a group of senators and over 2,000 pilgrims are set to take part in a three-day pilgrimage to Rome that will culminate on Tuesday. The pilgrims will be marking the 30th anniversary of the canonisation of Saint Agnes of Bohemia by Pope John Paul II on 12 November 1989; it was also attended by many Czechs and is considered a significant moment in the final days of the Communist regime.

During an audience on St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Wednesday the pilgrims will present a gift to Pope Francis in the form of the Crown of St. Agnes of Bohemia, a piece by sculptor Daniel Ignác Trubač.