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The Czech prime minister vetoed a Polish proposal to invite a Belarusian opposition leader to Visegrad Four talks, which have taken place on Friday. Andrej Babiš said this would be too “hasty” and could give ammunition to Belarusian propaganda, adding that the EU should take the lead on the issue. However, his stand has been met with criticism. I asked Pavel Havlíček, an expert from Prague’s Association for International Affairs, if he felt the PM had made the right move.

A street in the UK town of Ipswich was officially named Ivan Blatný Close on Thursday, in honour of the great Czech poet. Blatný, who defected from Czechoslovakia after the Communist takeover, spent decades in a mental hospital that stood in the same location. I asked Martin Reiner, author of the late poet’s biography, about Blatný’s relationship to Ipswich, where he spent time in different institutions.

The Vltava river winds its way through the picturesque foothills of the Šumava mountains. At its southernmost end, close to the Austrian border, lies the town of Vyšší Brod. As the name which means “higher ford” indicates, its history is inextricably linked with the river. The Cistercian order came to this part of the country from nearby Austria at the invitation of the local aristocratic family of Rožmberks.

Despite a sudden uptick in coronavirus cases nationwide, so far Prague is the only Czech region designated a “medium-risk” or “orange” zone under the national traffic light map system. Meanwhile, Germany has joined Belgium in placing Prague on its “red list” of risky travel destinations.

A new film that enters Czech cinema distribution on Thursday, Bohdan Sláma’s Shadow Country, opens a thorny subject in the country’s modern history – massacres of ethnic Germans at the end of World War II.

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon, which was signed on June 4, 1920, making the region of Carpathian Ruthenia part of the Czechoslovak Republic until 1939. Before and throughout the interwar period, the region was inhabited by one of the largest Jewish populations in Central Europe. William West, who turns 101 years old in September, was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in the town of Velké Loučky, five kilometres outside of Mukačevo in Carpathian Ruthenia. West recalls what life was like in Mukačevo before World War II and the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia changed everything.

The Czech Olympic Committee has launched a campaign encouraging people to boost their health by living a more active lifestyle. The campaign, called ‘Silnější pro život’ or ‘Stronger for Life’, focuses on people who are not currently practicing any sport, particularly the older generation.

From Thursday any time Czechs enter a building that is not their home they will be required to cover their mouths and noses. The return of face masks at national level follows a startling one-day rise in the number of positive Covid cases and reflects a marked deterioration in the public health situation.

A team of geologists from the Czech Academy of Sciences say their research shows that the world’s deepest cave – Hranice Abyss in Moravia – is twice as deep as previously measured. One of the team’s geologists, Radek Klanica, spoke to Radio Prague International. I began by asking him about the significance of their research.

In June 2019, the Prague-based Story Theatre produced an original play called “Journeys” based on the true stories of the ancestors of the children from the theatre group. Written by Leah Gaffen, and accompanied with original songs by Bára Dočkalová, the play won the national round of the Czech children’s theatre festival Dětská scéna. Earlier this month, they released an album with the songs from the performance so as to keep the stories from the project alive.