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March 1 marks the beginning of the end for Prague’s Opencard, a multipurpose transit pass dogged by controversy, not least for its more than billion crown price tag. On Tuesday, Prague authorities began issuing its replacement, the Lítačka; all the same, it will be some time before the Opencard is fully phased out.

Newly-released health ministry data shows a marked increase in mandated closures of Czech food establishments by health and safety inspectors. During 2015, 259 restaurants and other food establishments were ordered closed across the county for various hygiene-related violations.

An armchair designed by Slovenian architect Josip Plecnik for Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was sold for a record sum at Prague’s Sýpka auction house on Sunday. The auction house says it is not at liberty to reveal whether the precious artefact was acquired by Prague Castle which has two other pieces from the collection.

A new campaign launched by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called “We ourselves were refugees” is attempting to show that the current refugee crisis, at its heart, is no different from when people in the former communist bloc tried to escape to freedom. Print, radio, and video clips retell dramatic escapes from the past, including that of a man who escaped Czechoslovakia with his little boy on a homemade hang-glider.

The Czech capital, Prague, has voted to become a sister city of the Chinese capital, Beijing. The agreement covers a series of areas of cooperation but also includes a controversial clause recognizing the concept of One China.

The Zika virus was first identified in humans in Nigeria in the mid-1950s and there have been minor outbreaks of the disease in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island since. But the current outbreak, which started in Brazil in April last year, spread rapidly, with the first cases reaching Europe in January this year.

Organisers are currently gearing up for this year’s One World festival of human rights documentaries, which kicks off in Prague on March 7. As every year, One World will give viewers a rare chance to see scores of though-provoking films from all corners of the globe. One of the key focuses of the 2016 edition will be the ongoing refugee crisis and I asked festival head Hana Kulhánková whether it had been easy to find high-quality documentaries on the subject.

The Czech Republic has come in for some criticism in Amnesty International’s latest annual report on the human rights situation around the world. Not for the first time, the organisation highlights the fact that many Czech Roma children are being sent to schools for children with mental disabilities. The report also points to shortcomings in the country’s treatment of refugees and migrants. I began with that particular aspect when I called the spokeswoman for the Czech branch of Amnesty, Martina Pařízková.

Wednesday marks the first anniversary of a shooting spree in a small Czech town which left eight dead and one seriously injured before the gunman turned his weapon on himself. Uherský Brod is set to commemorate the massacre in a subdued fashion. Both the police and government have sought to learn some of the lessons from the shocking event.

Eight years and six months was the sentence handed down to the head of the Czech Republic’s independent energy regulator for her part in a solar power scam costing billions of crowns. The feisty Alena Vitásková maintains her innocence and says she stay on in office and fight to clear her name.