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Czechia’s national bone marrow donors register marks its 30th anniversary this year. Over the past three decades, the organization has helped find a suitable donor for more than two thousand people with leukemia or other serious blood conditions.

The number of children and adolescents suffering from depression and those self-harming has increased steeply in the last few years, which many experts ascribe to the period of social isolation during the Covid pandemic. Alarmingly, the society is ill prepared for this trend and the number of child psychiatrists is woefully inadequate.

The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, has been facing major challenges recently. Last March, following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was excluded from its ranks, reducing the number of member states from 47 to 46. Czechoslovakia became a part of the Council of Europe in 1991, and after the dissolution of the country, the Czech Republic joined as a newly independent state in 1993. Petr Válek has been the Czech ambassador to the council since last year. In an interview with Alex Rosenzweig, Mr. Válek began by explaining what his day-to-day work is like.

Today largely forgotten, Emil Fafek was a leading Czech news photographer for decades, covering everything from the Prague Uprising as a young man to his beloved sport. A new exhibition in Prague entitled Emil Fafek: On Guard aims to rekindle interest in his work.

The great Czech multiple Olympic champion Emil Zátopek was born exactly a century ago, on September 19, 1922. Regarded by some as the greatest runner of all time, Zátopek is known for both unmatched determination and an affable nature. However, though he suffered after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, some feel that political missteps took the sheen off his reputation.  I discussed the athletics great with Richard Askwith, author of Zátopek: Today We Die a Little.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala went on national television on Sunday to try to dispel growing public concern regarding energy costs in the coming months. He said he was confident that the cap on energy prices approved by the government and parliament last week would get the country through the winter and called on people to pull their weight and save energy wherever possible.

One of Antonin Dvorak’s greatest works, the opera Rusalka, is set to be performed during the ongoing Dvořák Prague festival by the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Semyon Bychov.

Daniel Matejča is one of the most promising Czech violinists of his generation. At the age of 17, he is studying at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and has already won a number of prestigious competitions, including the National Arts Primary School Competition and, most recently, the Eurovision Young Musicians 2022. I spoke to Daniel Matejča just two days after his appearance at the Dvořák’s Prague festival and I started by asking him what it was like to perform on stage of the Rudolfinum:

Exactly 150 years ago, on September 16, 1872, the first passenger train was launched on the so-called Prague Semmering, the most picturesque railway line in the Czech capital. The line, which is listed as a cultural monument, earned its nickname due to its hilly profile, resembling the famous Austrian mountain railway.

News outlets on Thursday evening reported that a Czech diplomat with top security clearance had been caught handing classified information over to the Russians. However, a legal loophole means that the alleged mole could well evade prosecution.