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A heated debate between EU foreign ministers is expected at the European Council meeting this Monday regarding the possible diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in China. Several leading constitutional officials in the Czech Republic have indicated that they are in favour of following the Anglo-Saxon world in diplomatically boycotting the Games. However, within the European Parliament, Czech MEP’s are divided on the issue.

The Czech snowboard cross star Eva Samková suffered a major injury at the weekend, breaking both of her ankles during a competition in Austria. The question now is whether the popular sportswoman has any chance of making the Winter Olympics in Beijing in just two months’ time.

Karel Gott, who died in 2019, was by some distance the biggest star in the history of Czech pop music, selling tens of millions of albums not just at home but in Germany, Austria and Russia. In a newly published book entitled Karel Gott: Czechoslovak Story, Pavel Klusák delves behind the public image – the myth – that he says the singer carefully cultivated over the decades. I discussed various aspects of Gott’s life and career with the respected music writer.

The village of Ostrov in Central Bohemia may not be exactly a tourist hotspot, but if you happen to find yourself in the area it’s definitely worth a visit. Just a few months ago, a new museum opened in the village, boasting the country’s biggest private collection of Czech and Moravian traditional folk costumes.

The newly opened Café Nezisk is quite possibly the smallest café in the whole of Prague with big ambitions – to raise awareness of (and money for) Czech non-profit organizations. It is part of local coffee house chain Mamacoffee, the oldest “fair trade” roaster in the whole of Central Europe.

Architect Osvald Polívka designed many of Prague’s finest late 19th century and early 20th century buildings, including the Municipal House, New Town Hall and Topič House. The intricate details found on these landmarks are the focus of the freshly published book The Hidden Beauty of Detail: The Prague Buildings of Osvald Polívka, written by architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš and with photographs by Pavel Hroch. I discussed the architect’s work with the former.

Battle lines have been drawn in Czech politics. President Miloš Zeman says he will never appoint one of new PM Petr Fiala’s proposed ministers, believed to be foreign affairs nominee Jan Lipavský. Now Mr. Fiala says that if the president fails to name one of his candidates, he will take the matter to the Constitutional Court. I discussed the situation with journalist Andrea Procházková from the weekly Respekt, a law expert.

There is a city in Moravia built by immigrants. Until the 1920s Zlín was a small settlement in the eastern part of what is now the Czech Republic. Then two brothers Tomáš and Antonín Baťa founded a shoe-making company, based it there and changed history.

This December marks a quarter-century since the opening up of Communist-era State Security Service archives to victims of surveillance in Czechia. The move made it possible for Czechs to look up whether they were followed by the Communist secret police and who exactly informed on them.

For two decades, the Memory of Nations project has been collecting thousands of testimonies from eye-witnesses who lived through totalitarianism and war. The organisation is now setting up a web of institutes across the Czech Republic, which will offer visitors an immersive, multimedia experience of key moments in the country’s history. This Tuesday, it offered a sneak-peek into its new institute in Pardubice. To find out more about the project and what visitors can look forward to, I spoke to Martin Kroupa, the head of regional development for NGO Post Bellum which runs the Memory of Nations.