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A new method developed by Czech scientists could eliminate the unpleasant side effects of cancer therapy. Experts from the Academy of Sciences have come up with a new chemical reaction, based on so-called fluorescent tagging, that allows them to better target drugs to specific places in the human body.

The Czech Republic is one of many countries marking Roma Holocaust Memorial Day on 2 August, the day in 1944 when 2,897 Roma were murdered in Auschwitz. Up to half a million Roma were murdered in total, including over ninety percent of the pre-war Roma and Sinti population of what is now the Czech Republic. To mark the anniversary a new database has been launched by the Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, bringing together testimonies of Czech and Slovak Roma who survived what is known in the Romani language as the Porajmos – the Devouring. David Vaughan spoke to the initiator and head of the project, Kateřina Čapková.

Three Czechs who risked their lives to save nine members of a Jewish family from the Holocaust have been recognised in memoriam as Righteous Among the Nations, the highest Israeli tribute to Gentiles who saved the lives of Jews during the Second World War. On Wednesday their relatives received the award from the Israeli ambassador to Prague.

The Senate met on Wednesday to consider three judges nominated for places on the Constitutional Court. However, the candidacy of Robert Fremr for Czechia’s top court sparked controversy, following recent allegations of impropriety pre-1989.

International headlines were made at the weekend when Czech police stopped a Russian player from entering the country to appear at a tennis tournament. However on Monday the police said they would take no action against players with Russian passports taking part in a different competition. Why the discrepancy?

Recently there have been a lot of Czech media reports about tensions and conflicts between the Roma and Ukrainian refugee communities in the country. In early June, a young Roma man was stabbed in Brno, according to unverified reports by a Ukrainian national, and died afterwards as a result of his injuries. The attack prompted a wave of anti-Ukrainian reactions and protest marches in Brno and other cities demanding increased security for Roma people. Further incidents, protests, and rumours followed, prompting the Czech Interior Minister to call on those affected not to allow themselves to be manipulated into prejudice and hatred.

Matěj Číp, a musician from a small village in Moravia, has devoted his life to playing the cimbalom, a hammered dulcimer from Central-Eastern Europe. After graduating from the Ostrava conservatory, he went on to study at the Northern State University in South Dakota, becoming the first ever cimbalom student at university level in the United States. He is now heading to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in New York City for his Master’s degree. His ambition is to spread the awareness of the instrument all over the world. I met with Matěj shortly before his departure to the US and I started by asking what brought him to study the cimbalom in the first place:

Much may depend on the continent of Africa in the future. In a shifting geopolitical landscape where Western hegemony is no longer a given, what African countries think and which way they choose to go will likely be highly significant for many global issues later on. And Czechia has paid attention, setting its sights on forging relationships with the future leaders of the continent by inviting them on a study trip to the country.

The minister of labour and social affairs, Marian Jurečka, says that Czechia could be on track to adopt the euro by 2030. But, nearly 20 years after EU accession, what are the chances the country will actually adopt the common European currency this decade? I discussed issues surrounding the euro with Lukáš Kovanda, chief economist with Trinity Bank.

Communist-era dissident John Bok has some great stories to tell. His parents met in the UK during the war and his English grandmother joined them in Prague after the conflict ended. Indeed Bok’s first language was English and though his speech is idiosyncratic he still has a noticeable northern English accent. Like his parents, he fell foul of the Communists, especially when he signed Charter 77. In the 1980s John Bok served as Václav Havel’s odd-job man before heading his security team in the immediate aftermath of the revolution. However – perhaps in part due to his life-long rebellious spirit – he soon found himself frozen out of the circle around the democracy leader and was not invited to his inauguration as president in late December 1989. I spoke to John Bok, who is today 77, at our studios in Prague’s Vinohrady.