The 27th edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival kicks off today, ushering in six days of documentary films by both seasoned and new filmmakers. To learn more about the history of the festival and this year’s edition, I spoke with the festival’s head and creator, Marek Hovorka.

A ban on the sale of flavoured heated tobacco products came into force in Czechia this week, bringing it in line with an EU directive issued last year. I discussed the move with Dr Eva Králíková, who heads a stop smoking clinic at Prague’s General Faculty Hospital.

When walking through the heart of Prague today, one might notice electric scooters that often litter the grounds of the city’s historic centre. Bolt and Lime scooters are used in many cities across Europe, although Paris has just recently banned them. On Czech soil, the Prague 1 municipality has been taking steps to limit the use of these scooters in the historic centre. To learn more about the measures being taken, I spoke with the district’s head spokesperson Karolína Šnejdarová:

The Czech government has moved to address the shortage of qualified workers on the country’s labour market. Last Friday, it approved a proposal put forward by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to increase quotas for foreign workers from third countries by 20,000 as of 2024.

Hundreds of thousands of Czechs were among the many millions of people, many from Eastern Europe, used by the Nazis as forced labour during World War II. Among them was trained mechanic Miroslav Jeřábek. Many decades later, his UK-born great-grandson Mirek Gosney has just made a documentary exploring Germany’s forced labour programme, Building Hitler’s Empire, which gets its first screening at the Czech Embassy Cinema in London this coming Friday. I spoke to Gosney ahead of the premiere.

The Indian writer, investigative journalist and translator Ashutosh Bhardwaj is known internationally for his work on the tribal people in Central India caught between Maoist insurgents and the police. But it was something very different that recently brought him to Prague. He is writing a book about the influential Hindi writer, Nirmal Varma, who has been all but forgotten here, even though he spent the best part of a decade in post-war Czechoslovakia. David Vaughan met Ashutosh Bhardwaj to talk about this fascinating literary link. But their conversation began with Franz Kafka, who was born 140 years ago in the same house just off the Old Town Square where Bhardwaj was staying on the invitation of Prague’s City Library.

In 1933, Czechoslovakia was rocked by a gruesome murder. Two suitcases were found on 2 September, independently of each other, in the Slovak cities of Bratislava and Košice. The suitcase that was found in Košice contained a woman’s torso, and in Bratislava, a woman’s severed head and legs. The perpetrator was never found, but 90 years later, researchers think they may have an answer.

The Foreign Ministry has handed out its annual Gratias Agit Awards to Czech expats and foreigners for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad. Among this year’s recipients were eight personalities and one organization, including writer and Holocaust survivor Eva Erbenová and Jana Sommerlad, a translator and editor for the British organisation The Friends of Czech Heritage.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský awarded eight Czechs with the prestigious Gratias Agit Award this week, honouring those individuals who have made their mark in areas of science, literature, and culture. Among the laureates was Josef Baláž for his work with the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association based in New York City. I caught up with Mr. Baláž after the ceremony and asked him what the honour means to him:

Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. The Prague-based editor at Radio Free Europe’s Tatar-Bashkir service faces up to five years in jail if she is found guilty by the Russian courts.