Czech news in brief for May 15: Friday's top afternoon headlines

Czech lawmakers have voted to exempt military spending from the country's budget rules, meaning the government can spend more on defence without it counting against deficit limits. The change runs until 2036 and covers strategic infrastructure, too. The Finance Minister says it won't increase the deficit. The opposition disagrees and is taking it to the Constitutional Court.

Prague's high school admissions gap is getting worse. While 93 percent of ninth-graders nationally secured a place this week, only 84 percent of Prague applicants did; the lowest rate in the country, and entirely down to a lack of capacity rather than exam performance. The Education Minister called it a waste of children's potential. Second round takes place on May 19–25.

About 9.5 percent of more than 80,000 students failed the high-school leaving exam this spring, a few percentage points less than last year. The highest rate of failure was for the German and mathematics tests, while just about 3 and 6 percent of pupils did not pass the English and Czech languages exams, respectively.

A Prague court has officially rehabilitated Ivan Martin Jirous Magor, artistic leader of The Plastic People of the Universe, imprisoned in 1976 for organizing concerts under the communist regime. The ruling confirms he served his sentence without legal basis. His daughter, who requested the rehabilitation, called it a cleansing for her family. Jirous spent nearly eight and a half years in prison across multiple convictions. He was a signatory of Charter 77.

As the iconic brewery located in the village of the same name, just north of Prague, prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary tomorrow, the majority shareholders of Únětice unexpectedly dismissed its founder and co-owners, Lucia and Štěpán Tkadlec. The move took many by surprise, and it's unclear if the Tkadlecs will remain part of the company that created one of the most well-known craft beers in Czechia.