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More than 40,000 Czech students cast their ballots in mock elections held at secondary schools across the country this week. The outcome of the vote, held a fortnight ahead of regular elections, showed that the future generation of voters would end the rule of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and place its trust in the opposition coalitions running against him.

The Czech Republic has until Wednesday to inform Brussels how the country has addressed conflicts of interest issues regarding the distribution of EU subsidies. According to the news site iRozhlas, the European Commission rejected a request by Czech authorities to extend the deadline by 60 days – until well after the parliamentary elections in mid-October.

The famous Manneken-Pis has gained world fame as the emblem of Brussels. Very few people, even here in the Czech Republic, know that one Czech town has a statue of a peeing boy as well. Nobody knows exactly when it was installed, but it is known to have been more than just an attractive decoration in the local railway station.

In the autumn of 1951, Communist authorities launched a massive wave of agricultural “collectivisation”, forcibly evicting thousands of Czech farmers from their land and homesteads. To mark the 70th anniversary of “Operation Kulak”, a monument to the victims was installed this weekend below Mount Říp – a place of symbolic importance in Czech mythology and history.

Thousands of people around the Czech Republic have begun receiving text messages informing them that they are in line for a third jab against the coronavirus. Over a million booster shots should be administered by the end of 2021.

A new exhibition of work by the famous children’s author and illustrator Peter Sís opened this week at the Czech Center in New York. Entitled The Wall, How I Grew Up Behind the Iron Curtain, the show helps confirm a return to relative normality at the Czech Center, which like others around the world was closed by Covid. I spoke to its director, Miroslav Konvalina.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jakub Kulhánek was in the Middle East this week with a Czech business delegation, looking to boost bilateral trade with two regional powerhouses: the United Arab Emirates and, more crucially, Saudi Arabia.

In the Prague district of Holešovice, a stone’s throw north of the Vltava River, lies one of the largest year-round marketplaces in the entire Czech Republic. The site covering some 11 hectares served as a slaughterhouse and cattle market from 1895 until the 1970s, when the latter was closed due to complaints about the stench. A move is now afoot to bring the half-empty Holešovice Market fully back to life.

A rare Renaissance shield, which was originally stolen by the Nazis from Konopiště Castle during the Second World War, is now being returned to the Czech Republic by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Representatives of both the museum and Czech institutions signed an agreement earlier this week, ending a several-year verification process.

Covid tests at the Czech Republic’s schools at the start of the new term did not produce particularly concerning results and such blanket testing will no longer be employed. However, they could be brought back at local level if isolated outbreaks occur, the health minister says.