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In recent weeks people’s perception of the migrant crisis appears to have changed and more Czechs are now contacting NGOs and charity organizations with offers of help. Charity collections have been established in Prague and Brno and a web page has been set up to coordinate the effort. I spoke to Magda Faltová, head of the Association for Integration and Migration, and asked if she too had registered the change-of-heart on the part of many Czechs.

Slag heaps of broken rocks and stone are the clearest legacy of the uranium mining boom in the Czech Republic. But one company’s plans to get rid of some of the unsightly waste has sparked a heated argument about what to do with them.

The Czech Republic has promised to provide financial aid to Serbia to help it deal with a wave of refugees passing through the country on their way into Hungary and the EU. Speaking in Belgrade, the Czech interior minister also said he was considering a plan under which asylum seekers would be allowed to travel through Czech territory to Germany rather than being returned to Hungary.

The Education Ministry is aiming to promote more sports activities for schoolchildren. To that aim, the ministry has set aside half-a-billion crowns to encourage children to participate in team sports. Teachers should also see pay rises and the ministry also wants to improve what’s on offer on cafeteria menus.

With the swelling number of migrants surging through Eastern Europe, calls have intensified in the Czech Republic for better EU coordination in coping with the escalating migrant crisis. On Friday Prague will host a meeting of the Višegrad Group states which should coordinate the position of the four countries on the migrant problem.

American national Kevin Dahlgren is back on Czech soil, following a ruling by the US State Department allowing his extradition. The 21-year-old is the sole suspect in a quadruple-murder of a family in Brno in May 2013; a court is now to rule on whether he will be remanded in custody.

It’s probably been a week to write off for ANO leader Andrej Babiš. He has had to intervene in the crisis surrounding Prague’s mayor; relations with his coalition partners in government appear to have deteriorated even further, and the latest public opinion polls suggest his party is losing its long standing lead. And then there was the Austrian lorry in which more than 70 immigrants apparently suffocated to death.

The Czech Republic has had a poor reputation for relegating Roma children and children with disabilities to special schools for years. However, a recent survey carried out by People in Need and Palacký University in Olomouc suggests that the situation might be gradually improving. According to the outcomes of the survey, Czech teachers are increasingly more willing to include children with various handicaps in regular classrooms. But in order to do so, they need more finances as well as more guidance from the ministry.

Zuzana Hejnová has won the Czech Republic’s first medal at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, with gold in the women’s 400 metres hurdles. Indeed, despite suffering serious injury problems throughout 2014, she has become the first athlete ever to successfully defend the world title in the event.

Czech President Miloš Zeman will next week make his second visit to China in less than a year. He is the only European Union leader travelling to Beijing for commemorations of the end of WWII – and will even attend a huge military parade. For his part, Mr. Zeman highlights China’s growing economic importance and promises new business for Czech companies.