The Czech Tennis Federation is embroiled in a massive fraud scandal. Ten people have been charged in the wake of Tuesday’s raid on the federation’s headquarters, among them its president Ivo Kaderka.

An unusual research study is currently underway at Prague’s FAMU film school, focusing on the effect of sound on video game players. As part of the project, organised together with the Medical Faculty, participants are asked to play a horror video game while their vital functions are monitored. I discussed the project with Tomáš Oramus from the Department of Sound Design:

Czechia’s Knihobot , which started out in a small second-hand book shop, has become a major name in the country’s resale economy. The service allows people to get rid of their old books for cash – and has made inroads into other markets in Europe.

Two comedies written by dissident playwright Pavel Kohout in the 1970s with the intention of being performed in private in peoples’ homes are being revived by the MANA theatre in Prague's Vršovice district – but not on a regular theatre stage. Instead, the plays are being staged in two small spaces that are evocative of the environments where they were originally performed.

While Czechia’s arms industry has seen record exports in the last two years, its armaments makers are still facing one major problem, according to the country’s defence minister. Jana Černochová says international banks are making it hard for such firms to acquire loans or make payments.

The Paris summit on Ukraine appears to have kicked into action a Czech plan to purchase badly needed ammunition for Ukraine outside of the EU. After struggling to secure international funding for the project, Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced on Monday that 15 EU member states are now willing to back the purchase.

A new study monitoring the burden of toxic chemicals on the population recently got underway in Czechia. Researchers in four different parts of the country are taking samples of children’s urine and hair to detect the presence of toxic substances, including pesticides and heavy metals.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala is set to host his counterparts Slovakia, Poland and Hungary in Prague on Tuesday. The meeting of the Visegrad Four leaders comes against a backdrop of calls to cancel the summit after Slovakia’s Robert Fico made a speech widely seen as pro-Russian. I discussed the V4 today with Mats Braun, head of the Institute for International Relations in Prague.

When Jiří Václav Parma fled from communist Czechoslovakia to the US in 1962, he sought to put down roots in a place that reminded him of home. He settled in Blue Knob, Pennsylvania, hung his “Bača” (sheep herder) hat on a stand and established a ski race that survived him.

Preparations are in full swing for the annual international book fair and literary festival Book World Prague , which gets underway in May. Organizers have just announced that this year’s edition will honour the centenary of Franz Kafka. Unlike in previous years, the guest of honour won’t be just one country, but German-language literature as a whole. I discussed the upcoming event with its director, Radovan Auer: