Apparently the first aerodynamic mass-produced car in the world, the Tatra 77a is notable for not only having the usual two left and right headlights, but also one in the middle. With only a few cars of this model surviving until today, one of the iconic limousines was restored by the National Technical Museum with the help of EU funds and can now be seen at the Plzeň region’s branch of the museum in the town of Plasy.

A new laboratory enabling safe work with highly infectious viruses and bacteria opened this week at the Biocev science centre in Vestec near Prague. The state-of-the-art facility will enable scientists to study hepatitis B, HIV, Covid and other dangerous viruses.

Walking through the streets of Czechia, you might spot people sporting tri-coloured sneakers in the country’s national colours; blue, white, and red. Those kicks are from an iconic brand called Botas, originally founded in 1949. Last year, the company almost went under, but two brothers came to its rescue. I caught up with 22-year-old Vít Staněk to learn more about the plans to give this classic Czech brand a new lease on life.

Farah Abou Kharroub has one of those personalities that draws you in from the moment you meet her. That warmth and hospitality is something that she is trying to translate into her new venture, Aleb – a wine bar purveying exclusively natural wines from around Czechia and serving up food from the Levant region where she hails from. A filmmaker by training, a wine bar was never in the cards for Farah, but when I visited Aleb, she told me more about her time in Prague and how it’s led her here.

A new night train route has just been launched between Prague and Brussels, also making stops in Amsterdam, Berlin, and several other smaller cities along the way. Train and sustainability enthusiasts are extremely excited about the new route, but with the ever-present temptation of cheap flights available, will it catch on? I went along for the train’s first ride to see for myself.

In the West Bohemian city of Plzeň there is a modern sculpture that people either love or hate. Its official name is The Panopticon, but in Plzeň everybody calls it “the pink rabbit”. Why is it there? And is it art or a terrible kitsch?

Revelations a Czech-based Russian influence network was paying politicians in several states have made headlines around Europe. Czechia’s European commissioner says she sensed Moscow was using such dirty tricks – and says steps should be taken to weed dodgy politicians out of the European Parliament.

Researchers at the Czech Technical University in Prague are using artificial intelligence to train robots, teaching them to search unfamiliar or hard-to-reach areas. In the future, these intelligent robots could help search for missing persons or victims of accidents.

Hundreds of Czech musicians and other artists have signed an open letter to the country’s leaders, urging them to push for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The initiative takes inspiration from the Artists4Ceasefire collective in the US and is led in Czechia by singer-songwriter Tomáš Klus.

A new work by David Černý – a five-tonne kinetic metal head of iconic movie director David Lynch – was recently unveiled at an apartment complex in Santa Monica, LA. The Czech sculptor is perhaps best known for works that have made their mark on Prague, such as the babies crawling on Žižkov TV Tower. So how did this project in California come about?