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The new Czech government, which takes up the rotating EU presidency in July, hopes to use the opportunity to develop deeper ties with countries outside of the Visegrád Four group. That loose alliance of post-communist central European states was formed 30 years ago, well before its members joined the EU or NATO.

Czechs are among the world’s major exporters of endangered and exotic animals and their share on the world market is growing, according to recent data released by the Ministry for the Envirnoment. The year 2020 saw 55,000 animal species registered within the CITES convention exported from the country, more than ever before. The number of intercepted illegal trades also grew.

The Czech Republic’s film fund has temporarily suspended incentives to attract foreign film productions to the country. While ongoing international film productions shouldn’t be threatened, some experts fear it could discourage other foreign productions interested in filming in the Czech Republic.

There are more than one million people with Czech roots living in the United States today. To reach this Czech ethnic minority, Czech American TV has been broadcasting regular educational programs, both on cable television and the Internet.

A new light installation, called ‘Visibility’, has been unveiled outside the Municipal Library in the centre of Prague. The lamp was created by Czech artist Jakub Nepraš in response to the growing amount of fake news stories circulating on the internet.

The Czech Republic’s many castles and chateaus, visited by millions of tourists every year, are going through hard times. The Covid restrictions together with the soaring price of electricity are proving an enormous financial burden.

On the backdrop of rapidly growing energy prices, businesses have registered growing interest in rooftop solar power systems among Czechs. With higher energy costs and a generous government grant programme, the return on investment into these systems currently ranges around eight years or less for most households.

Anti-vaccine protesters rallied in cities around the Czech Republic at the weekend, demonstrating against mandatory vaccinations for selected groups of the population, restrictions limiting the freedoms of unvaccinated persons and the regulation making respirators compulsory in enclosed spaces. The initiatives Iniciativa 21 and Chcípl pes, which organized the protests, said they plan to get more vocal in the days to come.

With Omicron becoming dominant in the Czech Republic, the government is shortening quarantine periods for those who are Covid-positive. It has also come out with a brand new concept aimed at ensuring critical infrastructure does not collapse: “working quarantine”.

This week marks exactly 80 years since the Soviet Union officially granted amnesty to Czechoslovak prisoners who were being held in Gulag labour camps. Thousands of young men escaped from occupied Czechoslovakia into the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II, only to be accused of false charges and sent to work in the notorious Soviet forced labour system. Those who survived went on to fight alongside the Red Army on the Eastern Front.