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Svíčková na smetaně, or simply svíčková, is unquestionably one of the most popular Czech meals. The recipe for the beef sirloin in a thick, creamy vegetable sauce was first mentioned in the famous cookery book by Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová, published in 1826. Two hundred years later, svíčková is still a staple on Czech menus, as you can find out in our new edition of Czech Food Classics.

On Roma Holocaust Memorial Day on 2 August, Brno’s Museum of Romani Culture is launching an exhibition at the Vítkov National Memorial, focussing on the Nazi persecution and genocide of Roma on the territory of present-day Czechia. Called The Roma Genocide during World War II, it serves as a tragic reminder of a period when almost 90% of Czechia’s pre-war Roma population was murdered, and the consequences this had for the generations that followed.

The biggest forest fire seen in the modern history of Czechia is now under control. But the blaze at a national park in the north of the country has drawn fresh attention to the issue of climate change, with a senior officer saying the fire service must respond to drought.

EU energy ministers made an agreement last week to reduce gas consumption by 15 percent in preparation for a potentially tough winter. However, the agreement has been criticized by some as being too weak, unfair, or inconsistent. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský responded to some of the criticisms in an interview with Czech Radio.

Photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková documented her own turbulent life, and minorities such as homosexuals and Romanies, in the final decades of communism in Czechoslovakia. Some of her best known pictures come from an underground gay and lesbian bar in Prague called T-Club. In those years Jarcovjáková had no real hope of showing her often raw, black and white work publicly. However she eventually did find acclaim, including through a major 2019 exhibition in France’s Arles that really made her name internationally. I spoke to Libuše Jarcovjáková, who is now 70, at our studios in Prague.

The 48th edition of the Summer Film School festival is kicking off this Friday in Uherské Hradiště in the south-east of Czechia. The festival will run until August 4 and will feature around 180 films including shorts. I caught up with programme director Jan Jílek just before the start of the festival and started by asking him about some of the highlights, such as a retrospective of Luis Buñuel.

A cross-party group of 54 MPs this week submitted a bill that would enshrine marriage in Czech law as solely being a union between a man and a woman. The marriage equality group We Are Fair have come out strongly against the move, asking on social media “is Czechia heading East?” I spoke to its spokesperson, Filip Milde.

The leading Czech artist Kateřina Šedá has recently launched an online database where anyone can submit bad habits. The symbol of the National Collection of Bad Habits is a two-tailed Czech lion holding a mobile phone in its paw. As of this week, the database is also accessible in English, with German and Ukrainian versions soon to follow.

A team of historians and scientists led by Sean Coughlin from the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences in Prague are working to rediscover the art and science of perfume-making of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. The project, called Alchemies of Scent, was launched in 2021, and one of its aims is to recreate five different perfumes used in the ancient Mediterranean world.

The second edition of the alternative music festival Pop Messe gets underway in Brno on Friday. The two-day event features international names such as Skepta, Ride and Kae Tempest, as well as a host of acts from this part of the world. I discussed the concept behind Pop Messe with founder Tomáš Kelar.