Czech news in brief for August 20: Thursday's top morning headlines

The Czech defense budget is set to cross the 2 percent of GDP threshold for the first time next year, while the Senate gears up to reject, and likely get overridden on a contested overhaul of building permits. Meanwhile, drivers face two nights of closures on the country's busiest highway and the public can choose what to send to space. Here's your headline mix this morning.

Defense Minister Jaromír Zuna says next year's ministry budget will land at CZK 191 billion, roughly 36.2 billion more than this year, after a bilateral budget meeting with Finance Minister Alena Schillerová, one of a series of ministry-by-ministry talks ahead of the government's full 2027 budget draft, due in the Chamber of Deputies by the end of September. The figure would finally meet the government's legal commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence, a NATO benchmark Czechia has missed until now.

Budget breakdown: This year's defense spending sits at about 1.8 percent of GDP. Zuna calls next year's jump "strongly investment-oriented"; recruitment, modernization, procurement.

A four-week nationwide inspection targeting kratom and other borderline-legal drugs found violations in 63 percent of the 1,000 stores checked, with 373 cases serious enough to count as criminal offences, Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar said. Nearly half a million products were seized and 25 online stores blocked.

Legal loophole: Metnar says the sweep exposed gaps that let sellers skirt existing rules, prompting 26 proposed legislative changes, including standardized age verification for online sales, feeding into a "lex kratom" law expected to take effect next January.

The Senate takes up a coalition-backed amendment to the Building Act today that would centralize permitting under a single state authority and a single sign-off. All three Senate committees that reviewed it recommended rejection, with critics calling the norm unclear and its effects unpredictable, but the coalition holds enough votes in the Chamber of Deputies to override any Senate veto.

What's changing: Currently, a building permit can require sign-off from multiple separate authorities: building, environmental, fire, heritage, for instance, each reviewed on its own track. The amendment would fold that into one consolidated procedure run by a single office, ending with one stamp instead of several.

New EU rules taking effect Sept. 27 will ban vague sustainability claims like "eco-friendly," "climate neutral," "green," unless companies can back them with independent certification or a verified reduction plan. The directive also outlaws claims based solely on carbon offsets, like an airline calling a flight "climate neutral" just because it bought carbon credits. Czech law catches up via an amendment to the Consumer Protection Act now before the Chamber of Deputies.

What counts as proof: Companies will need to point to something like the EU Ecolabel or another officially recognized certification; a company's own green logo won't cut it. Violators face fines up to 5 million crowns under existing unfair-practices rules, with a possible two-year grace period for products already on shelves.

Drivers heading south from Prague toward Brno face two overnight highway closures this weekend, as crews put the rebuilt Šmejkalka bridge, roughly 40 km outside the city near Benešov, through load-bearing stress tests. The D1 shuts in both directions Friday 8 p.m. to Saturday 6 a.m., then again Saturday 8 p.m. to Sunday 8 a.m.

The detour: Traffic exiting Prague will be rerouted through Benešov, adding roughly 30 km to the trip; heavier freight follows a separate posted route. Road authorities say the closures should clear before Monday's commute, and if the tests pass, the rebuilt bridge half opens to traffic on Sunday, Aug. 30.

Send something Czech into orbit. The public can submit ideas until mid-September for a small object that astronaut Aleš Svoboda will carry to the ISS next year. No plum brandy allowed; it's flammable.

Czechoslovak samizdat at Frankfurt. A new exhibition on underground publishing during communism opened this week ahead of October's Frankfurt Book Fair, where Czechia is guest of honor.

The Petřín Lookout Tower turns 135 today. Prague's mini Eiffel Tower opened on August 20, 1891, dreamed up by members of the Czech Tourists' Club after a trip to the Paris World Exhibition, and yes, Hitler reportedly wanted it demolished during WWII. Prague marks the anniversary with commemorative tickets and themed programming in the Mirror Maze, running all day.