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The Municipal Library of Prague marks its 130th anniversary on Thursday. The Public General Library of the Royal Capital of Prague, as it was called in the old days, opened to the citizens of Prague on July 1, 1891. Today, it has 44 branches around the city and offers more than 1700,000 items, including books, maps, newspapers and ebooks.

The last 12 Czech soldiers stationed in Afghanistan as part of a NATO mission to fight the Taliban returned home on Sunday afternoon, thus bringing to an end the longest operational deployment in Czech Army history. In total, some 11,500 Czech soldiers took part in the mission, some repeatedly, while 14 of their comrades-in-arms died in the line of duty.

As Europe braces for a wave of the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, the Czech Republic is racing against time to inoculate as large a segment of the population as possible before its inevitable spread in the country. The list of no-go states is quickly growing and the government is preparing to tighten the rules for people returning from foreign holidays.

The 55th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will open in August with Zátopek, David Ondříček’s much-anticipated biopic of the running legend. Meanwhile, among the 12 works in contention for Best Film this year will be three Czech titles – including, for the first time, a documentary. I spoke to Karel Och, artistic director of the region’s biggest cinema event.

Just month ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Czech Olympic Committee unveiled its official collection for the opening ceremony. The outfit in national colours, with white and blue predominating, was inspired by the UNESCO-listed tradition of indigo dyeing with block printing, known as modrotisk.

The Czech Republic offers patients a very high standard of medical care. However the sore point in Czech hospitals is the food – still prepared according to dietary norms from 1955. The Health Ministry is now promising a revolution in hospital food – a diet that is healthy, tasty and nutritious.

Czech President Miloš Zeman has made headlines again with another of his controversial comments, this time aimed at the transgender community, women’s rights activists and the #MeToo movement. Critics say his words could impact the mental health of members of sexual minorities.

Remember when a doll of the Czech cartoon character Krtek, or Little Mole, left the Earth’s atmosphere on a Space Shuttle mission? The person to thank for that is Indira Feustel, wife of US astronaut Drew Feustel. Indira, who describes herself as the leader of Team Feustel, has a Czech-born mother and is extremely proud of that connection – as she told me when I spoke to her at the family home in Houston, Texas.

The Czech Republic have caused the biggest upset so far at the European Football Championship, after knocking the Netherlands out on Sunday evening. Their impressive 2:0 victory in Budapest sets up a game against Denmark for a place in the semi-finals.

Financial as well as material aid is pouring into South Moravian villages hit by the devastating tornado on Thursday. While the government has allocated emergency funds to cover immediate needs, people have already donated dozens of millions of crowns to public collections set up by the country’s NGOs.