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Despite the Czech Republic still being heavily affected by the second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, a slight majority of Czechs does not plan to make any changes to their standard Christmas plans, according to a newly released survey conducted by the Median agency for Czech Radio. Nevertheless, a sizeable group among the population is looking to limit contact with friends and family.

Over 700 Czechs have already undergone training organised by the Czech Red Cross to become voluntary healthcare assistants. The course was launched in September amid a surge of new coronavirus cases, which left the country’s hospitals and social care facilities facing a serious shortage of medical staff.

The eleventh day of November is Armistice Day and Europe remembers the end of the First World War. But in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, Saint Martin’s day is a celebration of wine. While the country is deservedly famous for its beer, there is a whole world of wine to be tasted and savored in the south-eastern region.

November 17 is a national Czech holiday, marking the beginning of the Velvet Revolution of 1989 – a series of mass peaceful protests, sparked by a brutal crackdown on university students in demonstrating in Prague, that in just ten days’ time would bring an end to over forty years of communist rule.

To the joy of many parents, schools around the Czech Republic will reopen this Wednesday for first and second grade elementary school children after being closed for more than four weeks. Distance learning will also end at schools for children with special needs. However, it is not yet clear when other students will be allowed to return to their classrooms.

Faced with a lack of staff during the coronavirus crisis hospitals are getting help from all sides – students of medicine, medics who had long left the profession and soldiers. However a hospital in the town of Hořovice, west of Prague, has gone a step further.  The staff there is being ably assisted by a humanoid robot.

A New Shift is a captivating new documentary about a laid-off Czech miner who, approaching 50, attempts to retrain as an IT specialist. The film started out as the graduation work of student Jindřich Andrš – but still managed to win the national Czech Joy award at the recent Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. I spoke to the director, who is in his mid 20s, about the experience of making the ultimately uplifting A New Shift at our studios last week.

Do you have any idea how many products that we use daily are dependent on bees and pollinators in general? With the alarming decline in insect populations thousands of people are coming together from across the European Union to call for a bee-friendly agriculture to the benefit of farmers, health and the environment. The Save Bees and Farmers campaign aims to get the European Commission to propose legal acts to phase out synthetic pesticides which are killing insects and adversely affecting people’s health by 2035, to restore biodiversity, and to support farmers in the transition. I spoke to Jan Skalík, from Friends of the Earth, Czech Republic about the decline in insect populations and the aim of the Save Bees and Farmers campaign.

The Laka lake in the Šumava mountain range was severely damaged by acid rain in the twentieth century. Now the quality of the water is improving again and several dozen trout have been detected in the lake. A science team is conducting research to find out how they got there.

A Czech member of the U.S.-led multinational peacekeeping force in Sinai was one of the seven peacekeepers killed in a helicopter crash over Tiran Island in Sinai on Thursday. The Czech Republic is mourning its first woman killed in a foreign mission.