Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

RERUN: Listeners Tribune

In the 5th round of RSI competition, we take you to the Liptov region. We present to you some of the significant personalities named Ján.

On the Wednesday edition of Slovakia Today we continue the series dedicated to the mills as technical monuments. In the third part we visit the Upper Šariš region of north-western Slovakia, with mills on the river Torysa. Canadian coach Craig Ramsay extended his contract with the Slovak national hockey team. Following the succesful Olympic performance, what are his next plans? We will also briefly commemorate 60 years since Czechoslovakia won silver at the World Cup in Chile.

As countries develop weapon systems that can now reach into outer space, and countries have shown that they can target satellites with missiles, the very future of space exploration is in jeopardy. Space debris from destroyed satellites can potentially render entire orbits unusable for decades or even hundreds of years. Jonathan speaks with space debris expert Jiří Šilha about the uncertain future of space research in light of such weapons. – Repeat: Did you know that your life depends on tiny organelles called ‘mitochondria’? Jonathan speaks with Cambridge PhD researcher Petra Páleníková about these important but little-known organs at the cellular level and why scientists are keen to learn more about them.

Greenpeace Slovakia has published a proposal for 10 measures to reduce dependence on Russian oil. They also call on the government to demand a plan to reduce consumption instead of an exemption from the embargo. Dorota Osvaldová, Climate Campaign Coordinator from Greenpeace Slovakia will present five short-term and five long-term measures in the transport sector, which consumes almost two-thirds of the oil in the European Union. Waterproofing measures, community gardens or green vegetated roofs. This is how small towns in Slovakia improve the climate conditions in their area. How are such measures implemented and are the inhabitants interested in environmental issues?

Slovak athletes of the Special Olympics competed at National Games for their spot at the World Games. The town of Poprad received the most modern swimming facility in Slovakia. The Slovak state-owned company Konštruka-defence extending its production to help Ukraine and the Slovak Armed forces.

Report from transporting some of the 200 sorts bred by Slovak breeder Szilvester Gyori from his now abandoned garden to an international rose show. Presenting bilingual English/Slovak poetry book is its author Ivana Komanicka and its publisher Jan Gavura.

The British wildlife TV presenter, naturalist and filmmaker Nigel Marven is in Slovakia documenting its unique wildlife. We sit down with Nigel to discuss his work, eco tourism, bears as well as the silver lining of the pandemic.

Repeat - So-called 'filter bubbles' have become a major source of concern in cyberspace, particularly on social networking platforms which are incentivised to show you content that you will like or agree with, thus keeping you engaged and increasing their advertising revenues – while at the same time, however, preventing you from seeing content that might challenge your current views. With Artificial Intelligence algorithms playing a major role in this, Jonathan caught up with AI expert Robert Moro of the Kempelen Institute of Intelligent Technologies, who researches filter bubbles, to get a better understanding of these new technologies and what impact they're having on society. The existence of species of bacteria on earth that are nearly impossible to kill have suggested to scientists that there may be similar forms of life present in the extremely harsh environments of nearby planets like Mars. Jonathan speaks with astrobiologist Tomáš Paulech of the Astronomical and Geophysical Observatory in Modra.

How not to give in to the fear of climate change? Experts answer questions on why climate anxiety arises. We will also find out why it arises in the first place and who suffers from it the most. In the second part we will learn more about young environmental activists and who Greta Thunberg is.