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If you want to find out about ongoing exhibitions but also the importance of contemporary art in the Czech Republic, this week you can make use of a special helpline. From now until Sunday, well-known curators are picking up the phone to field questions. The temporary helpline is a project created by students at Prague’s Academy of Arts, Design and Architecture in conjunction with the Tranzitdisplay gallery.

The Prague region had the lowest unemployment rate in the entire European Union last year with 2.5 percent, according to freshly published data from Eurostat. It shared top spot on the list with Germany’s Upper Bavaria. But why is the Prague region doing so well in this respect? That’s a question I put to economist Daniel Münich.

The pilots of two Gripen fighter jets on Monday conducted the first flyover above Prague Castle in more than a quarter century, launching, together with a military honour guard on the ground, a slew of commemorative events marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. And, on Monday, Prague Castle opened a new unique exhibition of never-before-seen photographs of Czechoslovak serviceman during the war.

A 30-member Czech trauma team is ready to be flown out to Kathmandu to join the extensive rescue operation in the wake of Saturday’s devastating earthquake. The team will be deployed upon arrival and is expected to start working within an hour of setting up base.

The Czech Republic has joined international efforts in aid of Nepal where a devastating earthquake killed close to 4,000 people over the weekend. The government is sending a 36-strong emergency team of firefighters, doctors and nurses to assist with rescue operations over the next fortnight, while humanitarian organizations have sent groups of aid workers to the region and opened accounts for public donations. Among the first Czech NGOs to respond to the natural disaster was People in Need. I spoke to the head of its humanitarian program Marek Štys

Czech hockey club Litvínov on Thursday clinched their first-ever Extraliga title, downing opponents Třinec in a deciding game 7. Litvínov at one point led the series 3-1 but Třinec clawed back to force a nail-biting finish.

EU leaders have been holding an emergency summit following the latest mass drowning of migrants attempting to reach Europe across the Mediterranean. Among those in Brussels has been Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka. He backs an EU plan aimed at reducing the number of migrants attempting the perilous journey – but continues to oppose quotas for the acceptance of refugees.

As EU leaders debate Europe’s policy on migrants, NGOs and charity organizations are trying to drum up more support in aid of the millions of refugees displaced by the crisis in the Middle East. The Czech branch of the Catholic charity Caritas, which runs a humanitarian aid project in Erbil, is sending two seasoned journalists to Iraq and Syria to document the plight of people in the war-stricken region.

The future of some 470 children who were placed in children’s homes operated by the Fund for Children in Need is uncertain. To this day, the charity owes the state more than 22 million crowns in overdue social and health insurance payments for its employees, and currently faces a threat of property seizure.

The “Trabants across Australia and Southeast Asia” expedition appears set to start from Perth at the weekend after the authorities allowed the nine-member crew of Czechs, Poles, and Slovaks access to their vehicles. The cars, sometimes labelled the ‘world’s worst’, were once the apple of the eye of the East German car industry. The team made its name previously using the vehicles to travel across Africa and South America.