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The number of doctors from countries outside the European Union working in the Czech Republic keeps increasing. According to the Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education (IPVZ), there were nearly 1,650 doctors from the third countries working in Czechia in 2018, compared to 200 a decade ago.

Most of the doctors come from Ukraine, Russia or Belarus. In order to work in the Czech Republic, they have to pass an aptitude test. The number of those who pass the exam has dropped in recent years, with the success rate currently ranging between 20 and 30 percent.

Monday is expected to be partly cloudy to overcast with daytime highs ranging between five and nine degrees Celsius.

Czech speed skater Martina Sáblíková on Sunday won the women’s 1500m race at the speed skating World Cup in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan.

The three-time Olympic winner, who finished second in the 5000m event on Friday, covered the track in a time of 1:57,507, ahead of Isabelle Weidemann of Canada.

The new conservative Tricolour party established by Václav Klaus Jr. this year would cross the five-percent threshold needed to win seats in the Chamber of Deputies, according to the latest poll carried out by Kantar agency. Support for the ruling ANO party dropped by three percentage points in November to 28.5 percent.

The centre-right Civic Democrats came third with 14,5 percent, up by two percentage points. Meanwhile the opposition Pirate Party has dropped to the fourth place and is currently polling at 13.5 percent.

The salaries of senior officials will increase next year by about one tenth, the Czech News Agency reported on Sunday. According to the data released by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the average gross monthly salaries on MEPs and Senators will increase by 8,400 crowns to CZK 90,800.

The president’s wage will increase next year to CZK 302,700, while the ministers will earn CZK 173,200 a month, just like the heads of both houses of parliament. The average gross monthly salary in the Czech Republic reached CZK 33, 697 in the third quarter of 2019.

Czech skier and snowboarder Ester Ledecká finished fourth in the second women’s World Cup downhill at Lake Louise on Saturday.

The race was won by Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria. Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States was second, followed by Francesca Marsaglia of Italy.

It is the second-best result in the Alpine Ski World Cup for Ledecká, who was the surprise winner of Friday's season-opening downhill, clinching victory from the 26th starting position.

The City of Prague wants to sign a sister city pact with Vienna, Prague mayor Zdeněk Hřib told the Czech News Agency on Sunday. The cooperation with the Austrian capital will concern mainly the areas of transport, housing and ecology. The city also plans to cooperate with the other V4 capitals, Bratislava, Warsaw and Budapest.

Following the cancellation of a sister city agreement with Beijing, Prague councillors on Monday approved to sign a sister agreement pact with Taiwan’s capital Taipei, concerning economic, business and cultural cooperation. The Prague-Taipei agreement still has to be approved by the Prague assembly members, who are to deal with it on December 12.

The Czech Senate wants to make changes to the amendment on the government’s Council for European and Structural and Investment Funds.

According to a proposal made by the Senate’s Committee for Public Administration, the amendment should clearly state that the chairman or a member of the Council cannot be in conflict of interest, as defined by the European Union.

Until last December, the Council was chaired by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who, according to an EC audit, is in conflict of interest over EU subsidies paid to the Agrofert holding he founded and placed in a trust fund two years ago.

The proposal should be debated at next week’s session of the upper house.

Sunday is expected to be partly cloudy with occasional rain showers and daytime highs ranging between 6 and 10 degrees Celsius.

Dozens of people attended a commemorative mass in the village of Lažiště in South Bohemia on Saturday in honour of the late Josef Hasil, who died in the United States in November at the age of 95.

Mr Hasil, also known as the "King of Šumava", was a former border guard who helped people cross the tightly guarded Czechoslovak-German border after the onset of communism.

In 1949 he was exposed and arrested, but managed to escape from jail and serve as an agent for the CIA. He eventually emigrated to the United States.

"He was both courageous and devout, and saved dozens of people from imprisonment and death," the event’s organizer, Pavel Horešovský, said during his speech at the church.