After decades as one of Czechia’s best-known authors, Jaroslav Rudiš is about to see the first ever publication of one of his novels in English. However, Winterberg’s Last Journey was actually written in German, rather than Czech, reflecting the Berlin resident’s deep immersion in German culture. Ahead of the release of the English version of the novel – which traces a 99-year-old Sudeten German’s sometimes bizarre trip through Central Europe – I managed to catch up with the extremely busy Rudiš outside a Prague café.

The Czech government has announced that after nearly half a century, the country is ready to send another astronaut to space. The man preparing for the mission, which is expected to take place in five years’ time, is Czech fighter pilot Aleš Svoboda, a member of the European Space Agency’s astronaut reserve.

People are drinking much less beer in Czechia than before, a country that is known for its highest beer consumption per capita in the world. Some of the reasons include tighter budgets due to economic uncertainty as well as the rising cost of draught beer. Will this trend continue in the years to come?

The diversity of plants in Europe's forests, wetlands and meadows is rapidly declining. This long-term trend has been confirmed by data collected by botanists from Masaryk University in Brno in collaboration with their European colleagues. To assess the changes in flora, vegetation and habitats, they created the largest database to date. I asked Milan Chytrý from the university’s department of zoology and botany how they collected the data:

US chip maker Onsemi is planning to invest $2 billion in its production facility in Rožnov pod Radhoštem–the biggest single foreign investment in Czechia’s modern history. The company’s chip production in Czechia would shoot up by hundreds of percent, boosting value-added production, creating thousands of new jobs and contributing more than CZK 6 billion annually to the country’s GDP.

The Czechs did not manage to secure a point after their game against Portugal, conceding in the 87th minute for a final score of 2:1. However Coach Ivan Hašek believes that they can draw on the game’s positives against their future opponents, particularly Georgia, which they play on Saturday. What are some other takeaways that the Czech national team can learn from moving forward?

The star guests for this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – which gets underway in nine days – have just been revealed. Audiences can look forward to Hollywood stars such as Viggo Mortensen, while Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh will be the most successful director in attendance. I discussed the big guests, and more, with the festival’s artistic director, Karel Och.

The west Bohemian city of Plzeň is without doubt synonymous with beer. It was here that the world’s first-ever Pilsner lager was brewed in 1842. But Plzeň, which has a population of around 170,000 people, has much more to offer than just the golden brew, for instance, the second largest synagogue in Europe or striking interiors designed by the world-renowned architect Adolf Loos.

The Mayors party, who have a say in the matter under the coalition deal, have announced they will put forward both Danuše Nerudová and Jozef Síkela for next Czech European commissioner – with the government to decide on a candidate by August. I discussed the pair’s chances, and other aspects of the process, with Klára Votavová of the think tank Europeum.

Avoidance of the news is at a record high, according to the Oxford-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which produced the 168-page Digital News Report 2024 analysis. Nearly 39 percent of people worldwide said they sometimes or often actively avoid the news, up 10 percent from 2017. So how are Czechs doing in this respect?