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At the foot of the Jizera Mountains, Libverda is the go-to spa town of the Liberec Region. The small resort specializes in carbon baths that promise to help guests with movement disorders and heart problems. Curiously, the main symbol of Libverda is not its colonnade but a restaurant in a giant beer barrel. Located in a protected landscape area, Libverda boasts stunning natural beauty.

The hectic evacuation effort aimed at getting Czechs and their Afghan co-workers out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is over, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced at a press briefing in Prague on Thursday. The head of government said the operation had been successful and thanked everyone who fought to save lives in extreme conditions.

Based on the number of positive PCR and antigen test results, around 17 percent of the Czech population has so far been infected with COVID-19. However, according to the results of the first phase of a study conducted by the RECETOX research centre at the Masaryk University in Brno, around half of the adult Czech population may in fact already have been infected with the virus and developed antibodies.

Luděk Němec is not your typical student of history. At the age of 21, he has already authored two books, both about ethnic Sudeten German settlements in the Šumava National Park region, forcibly abandoned during the “wild expulsions” following the Second World War.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which begins on Friday, prides itself on bringing titles from the former Eastern bloc to international audiences via its flagship East of the West competition. But how is the Covid situation impacting those efforts? And what does it mean for filmmakers from around the region hoping to personally present their works at Karlovy Vary? I put those questions to the head of East of the West, Lenka Tyrpáková.

A second Czech aircraft, intended for transporting evacuees from Kabul to Prague, landed in the Afghan capital on Tuesday. Like other NATO states, the Czech Republic is struggling to evacuate its Afghan co-workers from the possible wrath of Taliban forces which entered Kabul last week. Meanwhile, a debate has flared up on the Czech political scene about whether the government is doing enough to help Afghan interpreters who helped Czech troops.

On a visit to Cyprus you may come across a craft mini-brewery serving “Pivo” the Czech word for beer. Although it is not a brand you would find in the Czech Republic, the beer is made from Czech ingredients and the three young men producing it learnt the art of brewing good beer during their studies in the Czech Republic.

Following the rapid advance of Taliban forces, the Czech Republic has begun evacuating its personnel from Afghanistan. The first Czech aircraft, carrying diplomats and embassy staff arrived in Prague on Monday morning. In total, it is expected that close to 100 Czechs and Afghan support staff will be evacuated from the country.

Pecka Castle, whose foundations date to the 13th century, is known as the “Pearl of the Krkonoše Mountains”, thanks to its Gothic ruins, later Renaissance splendour, and stunning surroundings. Its founder was likely the Bohemian king Přemysl Otakar II. An enduring mystery is why a raven-haired woman was entombed in its walls roughly a century after his rule.

Bořek Lizec has been serving as the Czech ambassador to Canada since 2019. This summer he returned to Prague for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Radio Prague International caught up with him to discuss Czechs in Canada and bilateral relations. I began by asking him what it’s like to lead an embassy during a pandemic.