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Tree alleys are a typical feature of the Czech rural landscape, but with the intensity of traffic increasing they have become a battleground between the road maintenance authorities and environmentalists who are trying to prevent their systematic felling.

The fourth edition of the reSite festival and conference, focusing on urbanism and the rethinking of public space, has just gotten underway in Prague. Over the course of Thursday and Friday, the festival will be hosting dozens of guests from all around the world who will be debating the use of shared space in the city. I spoke to Milota Sidorová, one of the festival’s organizers:

While the Czech Republic has not been in the forefront of the immigrant crisis facing Europe, fears and political controversy have flared up. Rifts have emerged within the government coalition and some opposition parties accuse the Ministry of Interior of keeping them in the dark and not taking the proper steps to discuss or deal with the issue. The differences should be fully aired in a special session of the lower house of parliament on Thursday evening.

The biggest football tournament ever held in the Czech Republic gets underway on Wednesday evening with the opening game of the European Under-21 Championship between the hosts and Denmark at Prague’s Eden stadium. Who are the star names to watch out for? And how far can the Czechs go? I put those questions to journalist Michal Petrák. But I first asked him what hosting the U21 Euros means for Czech soccer.

Prague City Hall has made good on the promise to improve conditions for public transport passengers. As of Wednesday, anyone buying the city’s annual transit pass will pay 1,100 crowns less. According to Prague Public Transit, the lower price should see a significant increase in yearly ticket sales.

A group of experts from Czech zoos has left for the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to help the city’s zoo, which was hit by a devastating flood last week. Prague Zoo, which experienced similar disasters in 2002 and 2013, will provide advice as well as practical help.

Finance Minister Andrej Babiš has presented a revised proposal for next year’s state budget which has already raised the ire of some ministers. The proposal sees around half of the government ministries working with fewer funds, among them Health, Agriculture, and Culture.

Relations between Czechs and the Catholic Church have been strained for hundreds of years. One of the factors was undoubtedly the burning of the religious reformer Jan Hus at the stake 600 years ago. Now Pope Francis has spoken of the Catholic Church’s need to seek forgiveness for the killing in what some are seeing as the biggest step towards reconciliation so far.

The former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright on Friday paid a visit to the Terezín Memorial where she unveiled a plaque to members of her family who died in Nazi concentration camps in WWII. The former US secretary of state only found out about her Czech roots when she was 59-years-old and has since made an effort to trace her family’s tragic past in Czechoslovakia.

Brdy, a stretch of hills and forests between Prague and Plzeň was originally talked about as the possible site for the first Czechoslovak national park. History took another turn and it became an ever expanding military exercise area. Now the process is being reversed with an end of year target for most of the transformation to take place.