Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for June 3, 2021

Czech President Miloš Zeman is incapable of executing his office the Czech Senate security committee has decided. The Senate will now rule on the committee's proposal that Zeman, 76, be stripped of the post, committee chairman Pavel Fischer told reporters Wednesday. Zeman's spokesman Jiri Ovčáček reacted by calling the committee's decision an attack on constitutionality, freedom, and democracy and that the steps to have the president removed arouse a serious suspicion of the criminal subversion of the state, he said. Under the constitution, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, would have to confirm the upper house's possible verdict on Zeman's incapacity for office. ČTK

The National Museum in Prague (NM) will display the skull of a woman who lived over 45,000 years ago, one of the oldest reconstructed genomes of anatomically modern people in Eurasia, an NM spokesperson said Wednesday. The skull's real age was determined only this April. The skull fragments were uncovered in the Koněprusy Caves, south of Prague, in the 1950s, but were considered much younger for many decades. More thorough radiocarbon as well as genetic dating, performed by the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany, recently confirmed that the skull is much older. "We suppose that the skull dates back to the era of 2,000 or 3,000 years after the woman's [African] predecessors mixed with Neanderthals," anthropologist Petr Velemínský said. The skull and a female face model made after it will be on display until July 2. Experts say that with the skull's newly ascertained age, it will be necessary to modify the model made by French sculptor Elisabeth Daynes. The woman should have darker skin and far simpler clothing. The NM is asking the public to name the woman. ČTK

From June 2021, direct flights from Prague to over 70 destinations, operated by thirty airlines, will depart from Prague. Low-cost carrier Ryanair will resume direct flights to up to twelve locations in the first half of the month, while Smartwings will service an additional seventeen destinations. Czech Airlines is also adding connections to Malta, servicing a route that will be operated by Air Malta. Other airlines are also returning to Prague Airport. Iberia, Eurowings, and Wizz Air will soon resume their flights as well. A new website for travelers offers a current overview of available connections from Prague, including important travel information, check-in details, services, and protective measures implemented both at Prague Airport and aboard aircraft. ČTK

The Cinema on Border film festival to be held in Český Těšín and the neighboring Cieszyn in Poland from July 30- August 4 will present films mapping the life of playwright, dissident, and Czech president Václav Havel or based on his works spokesperson for the event told CTK Wednesday. The festival commemorates ten years since the death of Havel, president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, an anti-Communist opposition activist, and a renowned playwright and essayist. Havel (1936-2011) was the first post-Communist president (1989-2003). After he left the post, he primarily focused on the promotion of human rights in the world. He died in his cottage in Hrádeček, east Bohemia, on December 18, 2011, aged 75 years. ČTK

According to Forbes magazine, the Minister of Finance Alena Schillerová remained the most influential woman in the Czech Republic. European Commissioner Věra Jourová is second and third place is the Prague chief state prosecutor Lenka Bradáčová. Renáta Kellnerová, the widow of the late majority owner of the PPF Group, Petr Kellner, ranked in the fourth position, and Petra Kutnarová, co-owner of the DEK construction supplier, came in tenth place. Forbes published the ranking of the most influential women for the tenth time, this year presenting 150 names of important Czech women from various fields, from the public sphere and politics through business to the non-profit sector. The editorial office monitored more than 350 women, in a wider selection were business owners, managers, women working in the public sphere, finance, or justice, but the editorial team also monitors the non-profit sector, and women from culture and sports. ČTK

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