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In recent days, European universities have been the target of a Russian disinformation campaign claiming that they are expelling Russian students in a wave of Russophobia. Charles University this week categorically denied claims that it was expelling or discriminating Russian students in response to the war in Ukraine.

The most successful novel to date by leading Czech writer Kateřina Tučková is coming out in English this Sunday. Tracing the story of a community of women in the White Carpathians, The Last Goddess is – characteristically for the author – based on extensive historical research.

Russia’s decision to suspend gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria has raised concerns about the consequences of a cut in deliveries to this country. Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that while there were no immediate signals that Czechia was at risk of a gas supply shutdown, the country must be prepared for a worst-case scenario.

Almost everyone has heard of the Great Egyptian Pyramids of Giza, the oldest-known of which was built around 2600 BC; most people in the West have heard of England’s Stonehenge, believed to have been constructed somewhere between 3000 BC to 2000 BC; and some may even have heard of Newgrange in Ireland (Sí an Bhrú in Irish), a grand passage tomb built around 3200 BC. But very few people know about Central Europe’s ‘roundels’ – Neolithic circular enclosures, the construction of which between 4600 – 4900 BC makes them far older than all of the more famous prehistoric sites mentioned above. Radio Prague International spoke to archaeologist Jaroslav Řídký about these ancient structures.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the Czech Republic’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine at a Tuesday meeting with Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský in Washington D.C. Both heads of diplomacy reiterated the importance of maintaining Ukraine’s sovereignty, while also condemning alleged Russian atrocities.

For the Ukrainian war refugees newly arrived in Czechia, finding long-term housing, work or a school for their children is becoming increasingly difficult. A new map by the NGO People in Need and Charles University’s Faculty of Sciences wants to make this process easier by highlighting which regions or cities have already reached their capacity limits and which are ready to accept more refugees.

A new study suggests that about half the populations of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary are concerned about media freedom – and a majority in the Visegrad Four support national or EU legislation to safeguard it.

The remains of Czechoslovakia’s World War II head of intelligence, General František Moravec, are being ceremonially reburied in his home town of Čáslav this Tuesday. The spy chief died in exile in the United States and was buried for decades in Washington D.C. However, through the efforts of his family, he is now being moved back to his home country amid much pomp and circumstance.

A special conference for children addressing the war in Ukraine took place at Czech Radio’s building in Prague on Monday. Among the speakers, who answered the children’s questions was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Vít Rakušan.

The Mesolithic-Neolithic site of Shaqadud in Sudan is one of the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ flagship sites. First found in the early 1960s by German archaeologist Karl-Heinz Otto, Shaqadud became known as a famous prehistoric archaeological site after a Sudanese-American joint expedition helped publicise it in the early 1980s. The Czech Academy of Science’s Institute of Archaeology started investigating the site in 2021. I spoke with Dr. Ladislav Varadzin, who has been heading the excavation, working in an international team including five Czechs (one of whom is his wife, Lenka Varadzinová). I started by asking him about the aim of the excavation.