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Czech Radio’s youth and alternative station Radio Wave has just begun broadcasting from a glass-fronted studio right on Vinohradská St. that allows it extremely close contact with the public. What’s more, the futuristic-looking studio will be launched with a free street party on the adjacent Balbínova St. this coming Saturday. As preparations for it were being finalised, I asked Wave’s director of programming, Robert Candra, how the public had been reacting to such proximity to the station’s studio.

The Czech government on Monday failed to take a position on a proposal to tax the state’s financial compensation to the Church for property seized by the former Communist regime. Under a property settlement reached four years ago, the state is paying out 59 billion crowns adjusted for inflation over 30 years.

Police President Tomáš Tuhý has apologized to the dean of the Czech Film Academy (FAMU )for the behaviour of two police officers on the academy’s premises during the recent visit to Prague by the Chinese president. In an incident reminiscent of communist-era practices, the officers entered the premises and demanded to know who was responsible for hoisting the Tibetan flag on the building.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer is in the Czech Republic on a two-day visit. His talks with Czech top officials are expected to cover security issues, bilateral cooperation and the migrant crisis. I asked foreign relations expert Michal Kořan from the Institute for International Relations to assess the present state of Czech-Austrian relations and to what extent they are burdened by issues such as the Beneš decrees or nuclear power.

Friday, April 8, is International Romani Day, celebrating Roma culture and raising awareness about Roma issues. This week, organisers behind the Sobě blíž (Closer Together) project for high school children – brought interested kids to Lety, South Bohemia, to see performances by Roma groups, but also to learn about a dark chapter in Czech history. Lety was the site of a Romany internment camp in WWII where more than 300 people died and many more were sent to the death camp Auschwitz.

Scientists from the Faculty of Fisheries and Water Protection at the University of South Bohemia have successfully bred a new breed of carp – the most common fish in Czech rivers and ponds. The Amur Mirror Carp is the first new fish breed created in the Czech Republic in more than twenty years and as its name suggests, it is related to a carp living in the remote Amur River in Asia.

Amidst a deepening refugee crisis in Europe, the EC on Wednesday proposed new common asylum rules that would replace the so-called Dublin Regulation, under which people must claim asylum in the first EU state they enter. The two options proposed both envisage an automatic redistribution of migrants which the Czech Republic has consistently rejected.

The worst industrial accident the world has ever known – that is one description of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. And it was with the looming 30th anniversary of the nuclear reactor explosion in the former Soviet Union in mind that a conference was called in Prague this week to examine the ongoing health risks from the incident.

The Czech Republic is trying to re-establish itself as a prime destination for international film and television projects. During his recent trip to the United States, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka met with American film representatives to discuss the incentives programme for foreign filmmakers hoping to attract more foreign productions to the country. RF has more:

Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek returned to the Czech Republic on Tuesday from a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Autonomous Territories. The visit was aimed at deepening long term economic ties with Israel as well as development projects in the West Bank.