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Last year the placing of pianos in public places became a huge hit in Prague and other Czech cities. Now the man behind the project, Ondřej Kobza, has made a fresh move – on Monday the urban activist and café owner unveiled a public chess table at Prague’s Náměstí Míru, with other sites are set to follow soon.

Czech javelin-thrower Barbora Špotáková clinched the only medal which had still eluded her on Thursday- gold at the European Athletics Championships. The two-time Olympic champion and world record-holder in the women’s javelin, though, was not at her best and it took until her 5th throw to pull away from fellow competitors.

As of Wednesday morning, the elephant pavilion at Prague Zoo has a new addition. The 31-year old Indian elephant male, named Ankhor, was transported to the capital from Berlin during the night. Prague Zoo has acquired the bull with a view to increasing its elephant breeding. I spoke to the zoo's mammal curator Pavel Brandl and started by asking what measures were used for transporting the four-tonne mammal:

The West’s tough sanctions on Russia have come in for criticism from the Czech president, Miloš Zeman, who argues that such measures do more harm than good. Mr. Zeman also says that he will push for EU compensation for Czech food producers affected by Moscow’s counter-sanctions.

The authorities are looking at new means of clamping down on reckless, drunk or aggressive drivers, known in the Czech press as ‘pirates of the road’. On Tuesday, the country’s ministers of the interior and justice announced they had launched a review into how reckless drivers were most often sentenced when found guilty, as well as whether their vehicle was confiscated. The idea is to test whether existing legislation is too lenient and – if so – to introduce tougher measures.

The casemates of Brno’s castle Špilberk, once the most feared prison in the Habsburg Empire, will be open to sleep in for one night this Saturday. The offer is part of weekend celebrations of the 369th anniversary of the defence of Brno against the Swedes during the thirty years war. The project is in its pilot stage but, if successful, organisers plan to make it a permanent part of the castle experience.

Officially, members of the cabinet began a two week summer vacation but behind the scenes no one is kicking back yet. On Monday, Finance Minister Andrej Babiš launched negotiations with the heads of the individual ministries on next year’s state budget, some of which will not be easy. The finance minister has promised 12 billion from the budget so far, which next year should include a deficit no greater than 100 billion crowns.

A travelling exhibition “Kdo postavil Libušín” (Who built Libušín) has just opened in the town of Valašské Meziříčí. One of its aims is to support the restoration of historical chalet in the Beskydy Mountains in the east of the country, which was seriously damaged by fire this March. The reconstruction of the national heritage site is expected to cost some 80 million crowns.

The Czech government is considering supplying arms to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to assist their struggle against the jihadist group Islamic State, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek has said. The move is now being discussed by several Czech ministries along with plans to increase the country’s humanitarian aid to the region.

Czech MPs have taken two weeks to finalize a civil service act, following a breakthrough compromise on the legislation reached by the coalition and opposition parties earlier this week. However, the latest deal has already drawn fire from some quarters for not going far enough to de-politicize the state bureaucracy