Radio Prague International - latest articles

If these two stop-motion puppet characters get their hands on something, you can be pretty sure it will go wrong. Pat and Mat, Czechia’s famously clumsy handymen, have been entertaining audiences for five decades, and their slapstick adventures have won fans around the world.

Wild boars are increasingly moving into urban areas across the Czech Republic. Once largely confined to forests, they are now appearing in city parks, gardens and residential neighbourhoods,scavenging for food.

Burned synagogues and smashed shop windows are some of the best-known images of Nazi persecution of Jews. But the Nazis also systematically confiscated Jewish books, hoping to build a huge collection that could be used to provide a ‘scientific’ justification for their racist ideology. During the war, more than half a million volumes were moved to the occupied Czech lands, where many remained for decades. An exhibition at the Klementinum in Prague, From the Shadows to the Light, now looks at what happened to these books and the efforts to uncover their stories.

This week’s solar eclipse and the Perseid meteor shower once again drew Czechs outside to look at the sky. They also highlighted something unusual about the country: Czechia has one of the densest networks of public observatories and planetariums in Central Europe. Its roots stretch from the astronomers of Rudolf II’s Prague through the rise of amateur astronomy and communist-era “people’s observatories” to today’s European space programme.

Drying wells and declining groundwater levels are affecting an increasing number of communities across Czechia. In some areas water utilities and fire crews have had to deliver drinking water to villages where inhabitants are dependent on their own wells.

Due to drought and heat, Czech farmers are looking for new crops that can better withstand such conditions. Increasingly, they are opting for sunflowers instead of rapeseed. In the eastern parts of the country there have even been attempts to grow figs or even olive trees.

It was built as a secret Soviet command post during the Cold War and hidden from the public for decades. Now the Jasyr bunker in the Karlovy Vary region in northwest Bohemia is open to visitors, thanks to a group of enthusiasts who have spent years restoring it.

One of the challenges of living abroad is gradually losing contact with your native language, and this can be even more difficult for children of expats. Various associations can therefore serve as a bridge to their native language and fellow countrymen, often run by volunteers who want to share their enthusiasm for their native language with children living abroad. One such organisation, focused on the youngest generation, is Krajánek ve světě.

Charles University is building its largest science centre in modern history. The nearly five-and-a-half-billion-crown Biocenter is due to open in Prague in just a few years, and the university is now looking for a world-renowned scientist to lead it.

Scientists from Brno University of Technology are preparing to observe Wednesday’s total solar eclipse from Iceland and Spain. Five teams equipped with cameras, dozens of lenses and special filters will have just two minutes to collect crucial images and data. While their colleagues in Iceland are battling rain and wind, one of the Spanish teams has already faced insects and a nearby wildfire.

Brno’s unique language variety, known as Hantec, has been added to the South Moravian Region’s list of traditional folk culture. It developed among the city’s lower classes in the 19th century and has survived in some everyday expressions. Its promoters now hope to have it recognised at national level and eventually by UNESCO.

The European Union plans to build a small network of huge AI computing centres as part of its effort to catch up with the United States and China. Czechia wants one of them to be built on the outskirts of Prague, where České Radiokomunikace is already developing a major data centre. Now, with the support of the government, the company bids to become part of the broader EU project.

The international broadcasts of Czechoslovak Radio were never just a one-way stream of news and music disappearing into the airwaves. From the very beginning, they formed a vibrant dialogue between Prague and the rest of the world. Thousands of letters each day, enthusiastic listeners in Africa and Latin America, remote listener clubs in Cuba, and Czechoslovak sailors in the middle of the ocean all found comfort, inspiration and a connection to another world through broadcasts from home. The following story takes you on a fascinating journey through the decades, brought to life by the memories of those who were there.

Who could be the greatest queer Czech? That is the question behind a survey currently underway, inspired by an international format. Its organisers are using the initiative to draw attention to the stories of queer people throughout Czech history.

A newspaper, banknotes, coins and –inevitably – a beer glass are among the items sealed inside a time capsule that was buried beneath the future tramline on Prague's Wenceslas Square this week. Intended as a message for future generations, it is meant to serve as a testimony of life today.

Czech film Volklore by Viktorie Štěpánová, a graduate of Prague's FAMU film school, has won a Student Academy Award in the Alternative/Experimental category. It is the first Czech film ever to receive the honour in that category. Like all Student Academy Award winners, Volklore is now in the running for an Oscar nomination in the short film competition.

Amid a continuing shortage of a key breast cancer drug, the Czech Republic is temporarily relaxing its drug rules. Pharmacies will be allowed to dispense tamoxifen products that are not registered in the Czech Republic, but authorised in other European Union member states.

Czechia has been named Europe's fastest-growing tourism destination in a major international study, a result that CzechTourism sees as confirmation that its efforts to reshape the country's image abroad are paying off. Rather than simply attracting ever larger crowds, the agency says its goal is to encourage visitors to stay longer, explore more of the country and bring greater benefits to local communities.

The iconic Villa Tugendhat in Brno is marking 25 years on the UNESCO World Heritage List with a three-day celebration starting this Friday. The programme includes concerts, art installations and a unique videomapping show on the facade of the villa, considered a masterpiece of Modernism.

More than a hundred students from around the world have gathered in Prague this summer with one goal: to study Czech. They're taking part in the annual Summer School of Slavonic Studies , a programme Charles University has been running already for 69 years. Ruth Fraňková went to talk to some of them and find out what brought them here.

Czech goalie Lukáš Horníček has completed a €30 million transfer from Portuguese side Braga to English Premier League club Newcastle United, signing a five-year contract. The transfer makes the 24-year-old the third most expensive Czech footballer in history.

Hungary has shut down its Paks nuclear power plant after prolonged drought and extreme heat caused the level of the Danube to fall further. The situation has raised questions about whether climate change could create similar problems for Czech nuclear facilities. Petr Šuler of the ČEZ nuclear energy division says Temelín and Dukovany use a fundamentally different cooling system and are therefore much less dependent on river flow and water temperature.

One of the oldest "patients" on record has undergone an examination at the St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno. Using computed tomography, doctors scanned the more than 700-year-old statue of the Žarošice Madonna, which depicts the Queen of Heaven holding the infant Jesus. Parishioners from Žarošice hope the non-invasive examination will reveal as much information as possible about the Gothic sculpture.

The annual Prague Pride festival gets under way on Monday with nearly 200 events across the Czech capital. This year's edition also brings a major change, with the festival moving from Letná Plain to its new main venue on Štvanice Island. I discussed the event with Prague Pride’s PR and media representative, Nikola Páleníčková.

Half tram, half train. Engineers in the village of Dětenice, in the Jičín region, are testing a vehicle that could make regional rail transport more efficient. Powered by onboard batteries, the prototype could begin carrying passengers within two years if everything goes according to plan.

The network of Czech Centres is heading for its biggest transformation in years. Newly appointed director Ivan Jukl says the goal is not to shrink the organisation but to strengthen its presence abroad while making it more efficient at home.

During the communist era Radio Prague functioned as a highly effective Cold War propaganda tool, tailoring communist messaging to audiences around the world, while operating under strict censorship and centralized control. Yet amid the ideological campaigns and bureaucratic machinery, occasional human moments and the haunting sound of a Slovak fujara closing the day's broadcast offered rare glimpses of authenticity behind the propaganda.

Longer and more intense heat waves are becoming a growing challenge for Prague, where the urban landscape traps heat long after sunset. City officials are responding with a range of adaptation measures, including an interactive map of cooling locations and plans to expand the network of public "cool zones."

The opposition Civic Democrats said this week that they were prepared to take a Czech government plan to loosen rules on fiscal responsibility to the Constitutional Court. For their part, the coalition say they will overturn a presidential veto of the relevant bill in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, 20 economists have called on the government to drop the whole idea. One of them, Daniel Münich, explained the reasons for this appeal.

A hospital in the south Bohemian city of České Budějovice has become the first in Czechia to perform brain surgery using a system that combines augmented reality, artificial intelligence and 3D glasses. The technology, currently used at only three centres worldwide, is designed to help neurosurgeons perform procedures with greater precision.

One of Prague’s lesser-known but all the more fascinating libraries is the Jiřina Šiklová Library, hidden in the city centre on the banks of the Vltava. Although it is one of the smaller libraries, it has something to offer even the most demanding readers and researchers.

The tragic death of the Irish rock musician Glen Hansard on Wednesday made headlines around the world. There has also been an outpouring of grief here in the Czech Republic, where Hansard touched countless lives on many visits over a 30-year period.

Czechs are among Europe's least mobile workers. OECD and Eurostat data show they are far less likely than many other Europeans to relocate for work, often preferring to commute instead. Regional geographer and university president Jaroslav Koutský believes geography, family ties and long-standing habits all help explain why.

Anyone visiting Charles Bridge recently may have noticed workers suspended from ropes high above the Vltava or operating from boats below. They are carrying out regular maintenance to help keep one of Prague's most iconic landmarks in good condition.

Although it has been almost two weeks since the Prague premiere of what is likely to be this year's biggest blockbuster, Prague's IMAX cinema is still packed. The screening schedule for the 180-minute epic The Odyssey by director Christopher Nolan has even been expanded to include midnight showings. As a result, the last moviegoers leave the IMAX at Prague's Flora shopping centre after three o'clock in the morning.

The Czech government is merging CzechTrade and CzechInvest agencies into a single agency called CzechBusiness. Officials say the move will simplify services for companies, strengthen support for exporters, investors and startups, and reduce administrative costs while preserving existing services.

Historic writing instruments often form only a small, supplementary part of permanent exhibitions at castles and châteaux, despite the undeniable historical and artistic value of these frequently overlooked objects. A current exhibition at Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle seeks to change that. Among its highlights, visitors can also see an original letter written by the composer Antonio Salieri.

A unique restoration project is underway in the north-eastern city of Opava, where conservators are rebuilding the glass-block dome of the historic Breda department store. The dome is made up of thousands of individual glass blocks weighing around five tonnes altogether.

Traditional extremist movements weakened in Czechia last year. But the Czech Interior Ministry in its new report warns that online radicalisation is becoming a growing security threat. The document has also sparked political debate by omitting the governing Freedom and Direct Democracy party, which featured in previous editions.

Pavel Jungwirth, one of the country's leading chemists and an internationally respected researcher, has died at the age of 60. Renowned for his pioneering research, he was equally admired for his exceptional teaching and science communication.

The well-known artist, musician and arts administrator Milan Knížák has died at the age of 86. Knížák was part of the Fluxus art movement and was active in the Czechoslovak underground, before heading Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts and the Czech National Gallery in the post-1989 period.

Ninety years after the legendary Slovak Arrow first connected Prague and Bratislava, Czech journalist and author Michaela Vetešková is keeping its legacy alive. Inspired by a rare journey aboard the iconic train, a children's book she wrote celebrates not only one of Czechoslovakia's greatest engineering achievements, but also the life of its visionary creator, Josef Sousedík.

Czech researchers are developing a custom-made, 3D-printed implant with a porous structure that can be infused with drugs and release them gradually over time. To support the project, the Prague team has acquired a state-of-the-art 3D metal printer. Czech patients could soon receive joint implants that not only replace damaged joints but also deliver medication directly into the body.

The 2026/2027 season in Czech football kicks off after the summer break on Saturday. Slavia Prague look like the team to beat, as they go for three championship titles in a row, while their city rivals Sparta will be out to end a two-year trophy drought.

Czech President Petr Pavel has vetoed a controversial amendment to the country's budget rules that would allow the government to exceed the approved state spending framework by up to CZK 200 billion. The ruling coalition is determined to override the veto, arguing that the lack of extra funds planned would put at risk the country’s economic growth, defense capabilities and health care.

Graphic designer Pavel Fuksa has worked with some of the world’s top brands, including Nike, Lego and Google. Now Fuksa has turned his skills to a different field, designing the 2026–2027 strip collection for reigning Czech football champions Slavia Prague, the club he has followed all his life. I spoke to him ahead of the start of the new top flight season this weekend.

The 22-year-old Miss Czech Republic, Sophia Osako, will represent the country at Miss Universe in Puerto Rico this November. Born to a Moravian mother and a Japanese father, and raised speaking mostly English, she spoke to me about how the competition has deepened her connection to Czech culture, why beauty pageants still matter, and how she hopes to showcase Czechia on the world stage.

The monument to Field Marshal Josef Václav Radetzky is set to return to Prague's Malá Strana after more than a century. While the decision has broad political backing, some history minded members of the public still question whether the location is appropriate.

Czech lower house speaker Tomio Okamura has headed to Beijing for the last part of a visit to China. His trip comes against the backdrop of the arrest of a Czech citizen in China – and amid suggestions China could seek to exchange him for a Chinese national accused of spying in Prague. I discussed the matter with Kateřina Procházková of China-watchers Sinospis.

The Czech government has approved a proposal to ban the use of mobile phones in schools. Starting in 2027, the ban would apply to children in nursery, primary schools, grammar schools and conservatories. The opposition and the Children's Ombudsman oppose the proposal, arguing that it is unnecessary.