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Czech filmmakers had a Karlovy Vary International Film Festival to remember this year: The Best Director and Best Actor prizes went to home names, while the first edition of the Proxima competition was won by a Czech documentary.

Czech tennis duo Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková won their second Wimbledon doubles title on Sunday, after beating Zhang Shuai and Elise Mertens in the final. It is the fourth out of the recent six major doubles tournaments that the pair has won and is all the sweeter given that they were prevented from taking part in the French Open.

For a short period of time, a quiet, unassuming block in Prague 7 became a vibrant hub of art and multiculturalism. Part art gallery, part café and part community space, NGO DEI is closing this July. However, this won't dampen director Loretta Lau's spirit to continue building a platform for voices from all over the world, writes RPI's expat contributor Kevin Loo.

This Saturday will see the start of the annual Czech Hitchhiking Championships (Mistrovství ČR v autostopu). Contestants will have to travel from Prague to Istanbul and back, only being able to travel by riding in strangers’ cars. Several checkpoints and accompanying challenges are also waiting for them on their journey. The competition was set up eight years ago and regularly attracts a diverse set of participants.

The top prizes at this year’s Karlovy Vary film festival will be announced at a glitzy ceremony on Saturday evening. Twelve works are in the running for the Crystal Globe for Best Film, while the all-new Proxima competition will get its first ever winners.

The story of Czechoslovak military involvement in World War Two is often told with a focus on a few heroic figures and pivotal events. However, one aspect that has gone largely overlooked in popular memory is the role of women in the fight against Nazism. This despite the fact that over a thousand women served in Czechoslovak Army units on the Eastern Front. Czechoslovak women also took on a variety of tasks in the female branches of the British military.

The origins of the Český strakatý pes, known as the Czech Spotted Dog or sometimes the Bohemian Spotted Dog in English, are rather sad from today’s perspective. Originally known as Horák’s Laboratory Dog, it was bred in the 1950s for use in medical experiments. But from these unhappy beginnings, the world gained one of its most easy-going, low-maintenance, and sociable dogs.

The European Union’s is currently facing many crises and its main task will be to mitigate their effects on EU citizens, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Mr Fiala highlighted Ukraine and the energy crisis as the main priorities of his country’s EU presidency. In a subsequent speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen paralleled Czech and Ukrainian experiences with invasion, saying that Czechia was assuming the rotating presidency of the EU Council at the right time.

A hotly discussed issue at this year’s Karlovy Vary film festival is tax incentives. Producers say the Czech government’s failure to earmark funds for such rebates will ultimately cost the state – and lead international movie and TV companies to look elsewhere. I discussed the situation with Pavel Strnad of Negativ Film Productions at Karlovy Vary.

If you live in the Czech Republic, you’ll have been enjoying two extra days off from work due to a pair of consecutive public holidays this week. 5th July, Saints Cyril and Methodius day, and 6th July, Jan Hus day, both have a connection to the way Czech is written – but what is it? And is Czech really easier to learn to read and write than other languages? Our reporter and amateur linguistics enthusiast, Anna Fodor, spoke to well-known Czech linguist Karel Oliva, to find out.