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Churches and other religious sites across the Czech Republic will open their doors to the public this weekend for the annual Night of Open Churches festival. The event, which attracts thousands of visitors each year, offers a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of places which are usually closed to the general public. This year, you can board a special ‘spiritual tram’ or try your hand at ringing a church bell as part of the festival offer.

Three Communist MPs in Russia’s Duma have proposed that soldiers who served during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia should be granted war veteran status, in order to gain extra social benefits. The MPs said the aim of “Operation Danube” had been to supress a coup prepared by the Czechoslovak opposition with the support of Western states. I asked historian Jan Adamec how he interpreted the initiative of the Russian MPs:

This Saturday a Czech artist living in the UK is set to revive an ancient British custom in a suburb of Birmingham. Tereza Bušková will lead hundreds of people in “clipping the church”, which centres on the formation of an outward-facing ring around a place of worship. Bušková will add a Czech flavour to the event, decorating the church with ornate Bohemian pastries that will also be carried in a procession. On the line from England, the artist discussed the unusual project.

Czech-American economist Jan Švejnar, businessman (and music industry legend) Michal Horáček and others have let themselves be heard they are considering running in the Czech presidential election in 2018. For the moment, only one person (a largely unknown businessman by the name of Igor Sládek) has unequivocally announced his intent. Others are still weighing their options before they declare.

A photographer has for the first time taken a photo of a golden jackal on Czech soil. What’s more, the picture has been taken just outside the Czech capital. According to experts, the animals are migrating from their original habitat in Turkey and the Balkans and their sightings in the Czech Republic have become increasingly more common.

The cabinet is this week due to discuss legislation aimed at increasing equality for Czech women, who make up the majority of university graduates but are far less visible in the highest echelons of business and politics. The new plan envisages a gradual approach to increasing female representation.

Pipedream or reality? The idea of turning some of the major rivers in the Czech Republic into short cuts for transporting goods from Asia to the main seaports of Northern Europe and across the continent is still mostly on the drawing board. But one part of that ambitious plan does seem to be shaping up and that's focused on the south Moravian border town of Hodonín.

Three-time Olympic speedskating champion and time trial cyclist Martina Sáblíková may be out of the upcoming Rio Games. On Thursday the UCI published a comprehensive list of all countries which had qualified for the event; but Sáblíková, her coach and others were shocked to learn the Czech Republic was not among them.

Teachers have for years been the lowest paid professional people in the Czech Republic. Hoping to rectify that situation at least somewhat, they are now demanding a salary increase of at least 10 percent from next year. The finance minister is being circumspect about how much more they can expect but does say he regards teachers’ pay as a “priority”.

Every year the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Association of Czech Libraries awards the title Knight of the Order of the Beautiful Word to over a dozen children who have discovered the joy of reading and to selected actors and writers who have helped to bring the magic of the spoken or written word to the youngest generation. This year, for the first time ever, one of those admitted to the select club is a member of the Czech expat community abroad – nine-year-old Jerry Mech from Chicago.