A Czech political prisoner detained in Venezuela since 2024 has been released with other foreign nationals, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said at an impromptu press briefing on Friday. The minister signaled that the Czech Republic is ready to begin restoring diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

Iran’s regime is facing another wave of mass protests, with reports indicating that hundreds of demonstrators have already been killed. The country is once again grappling with a near-total communications blackout, strict censorship, and severely limited access to verified information. In this interview, Hannah Kaviani of Radio Farda—the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty based in Prague—explains among others how the current unrest differs from the 2022 protests and how contact with people inside Iran is being maintained from the Czech capital.

The Chamber of Deputies will begin debating a vote of confidence in the three-party coalition cabinet on Tuesday. Given the high number of MPs seeking to speak in the debate, the vote itself is expected no earlier than Wednesday evening. The new cabinet, led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), is widely expected to win the confidence vote.

Motorists’ Party MP Filip Turek says he will file a civil lawsuit against President Petr Pavel, seeking an apology for remarks explaining why he was not appointed environment minister. The case recalls earlier legal challenges faced by Czech presidents — rare, but not without precedent.

Maliina Abelsen is a former Finance minister of the Greenlandic government. She has now her own business, which focuses on consultancy and is also the honorary consul of the Czech Republic in Greenland. Radio Prague International spoke with Abelsen about how Greenlanders are experiencing the current pressure from Washington and what it means for the island’s future.

The Czech ammunition initiative, which has delivered millions of artillery shells to Ukraine, will continue under the current government. This is despite the fact that the coalition, led by ANO, previously questioned or opposed the project during last year’s election campaign. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš now says Czechia will stay on as coordinator, provided the initiative is funded by foreign donors and remains transparent.

Czech lower house Speaker Tomio Okamura's New Year speech has ignited a major dispute on the Czech political scene less than a month after the new government took office. The address, peppered with insults against both Ukraine and the EU, has sparked outrage among opposition politicians, who are calling for Okamura’s dismissal from the third highest post in the country.

With New Year’s Eve fast approaching – a night of fireworks for many – you may want to familiarise yourself with the rules on pyrotechnics in Czechia, especially following recent regulatory changes. Not only is the sale of New Year’s rockets and firecrackers now more restricted, but additional local bans have also been introduced.

France has handed over to Czechia three wooden statues stolen in the early 1990s. At the time, Czech churches were experiencing looting on a scale comparable to the Thirty Years’ War or the Hussite period. The statues were officially returned this week at the Czech Embassy in Paris.

Commemorating exactly fourteen years since the death of former president Václav Havel, candles and flowers are laid in remembrance – not only of a president, but also of an artist, playwright, dissident, and public figure. Havel has come to symbolise the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, in which he played a key role. Yet, political analyst Jiří Pehe, who served as Havel’s advisor and knew him well, argues that his legacy goes far beyond this and is increasingly important today.