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Monday saw ANO party leader and presidential candidate Andrej Babiš acquitted of fraud charges in connection to the so-called Stork’s Nest case, with the judge ruling that it cannot be proven any of the defendants had acted criminally. I asked political commentator Jiří Pehe whether the acquittal will strengthen the former prime minister’s chances in the upcoming presidential race.

Among those taking part in elections for the next president, which begin on Friday, will be many thousands of Czechs living abroad. With postal ballots not an option, registered voters need to travel to a Czech embassy or consulate and cast their ballots in person. Jan Pěnkava, who has been living in Derby, England for eight years, says he is planning to go to London – for the second round in two and a half weeks’ time.

Despite the Velvet Divorce, relations between Czechia and Slovakia still remain very close. This is perhaps most evident in the Moravian Slovakia region, which lies on the border between the two countries. Radio Prague International visited the area in December and has this report.

2022 was a very busy year for the Czech minister of foreign affairs, Jan Lipavský. He became a major supporter of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country in February, regularly calling out Moscow’s aggression in forthright language. The issue of the war was also key during the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of the year. Numerous aspects of the Ukraine conflict came up when Mr. Lipavský visited our studio this week, but the conversation also took in the Visegrad Four, China – and several other issues.

The dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 is poetically known as the Velvet Divorce, carrying with it connotations of a marriage that went sour but ended amicably. This belies the fact that there were – and are still – many real-life Czech-Slovak couples whose relationships lasted, or began, despite the ending of the union between their two countries.

This week saw the Czech U20 National Ice Hockey team reach the World Championship finals for the first time in 22 years. Despite eventually losing 2:3 to Canada in overtime, the result is being hailed as a significant success in Czechia and as a source of hope that the next adult ice hockey generation may restore some of the past glories achieved two decades ago.

A team of scientists from Brno has announced a unique discovery that could contribute to an innovative and sustainable way of lighting in the future, possibly even replacing electric light bulbs. The results of their study, based on the inner mechanisms of a bioluminescent sea coral, was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Catalysis.

The European Commission recently approved a new prostate cancer drug called Pluvicto, co-developed by a Czech researcher. The revolutionary treatment, designed for patients with advanced prostate cancer for whom other treatments have proved ineffective, is being administered in Czechia as part of a clinical trial at the Olomouc University Hospital.

“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.” This is the maxim often cited to explain the sometimes arbitrary distinctions between languages and dialects. So what about the case of Czech and Slovak, which are generally considered to be mutually intelligible? Were they always considered to be separate languages, even when Czechoslovakia was one country? And has anything changed linguistically since the nations went their separate ways politically?

Demand is falling and the economy is headed for recession according to the head of the Czech National Bank Aleš Michl. Meanwhile, the IMF’s chief Kristalina Georgieva has said that half of the European Union will experience a recession in 2023. So is a recession coming and how hard will Czechia be hit? Those are some of the questions I put to Cyrrus bank economist Vít Hradil.