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The Czech Philharmonic launched its new season on Thursday night with a concert at Prague’s Rudolfinum featuring the world-renowned US violinist Joshua Bell, who performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. The orchestra, which is to perform the same concert again on Friday, has also marked the new season – its 121st – with the release of two special albums. I spoke with the head of Czech Philharmonic, David Mareček, about the plans for the upcoming season, but I started by asking how the cooperation with Joshua Bell came about:

Current Czech president Miloš Zeman and his predecessor Václav Klaus were due to travel to Greece together on Thursday for a conference organised by an associate of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The pair have been criticised for attending the event, but their supporters say the matter has been blown out of proportion.

The European Union’s law enforcement agency, Europol, has warned of the relentless threat of cybercrime, identifying eight major trends in an annual report: from payment fraud to crime-as-a-service which it says could be accessed by terrorist groups. In recent years, the Czech Republic, like other countries has seen a rise in cyberattacks – doubling last year since 2012.

It started off four years ago as the Day of Czech Beer – but for the second time now this celebration of beer and pub culture has been expanded into a week-long festival. It runs from September 23 until October 1, with over 6,000 pubs, restaurants and breweries around the country taking part.

The Czech and Slovak governments met for a joint working session in Bratislava on Monday to discuss the state of bilateral ties, cooperation in security and defense and their position on key European issues. Twenty-three years after the Velvet Divorce, the two neighbors say their relationship is better than ever.

There are plans to build a memorial dedicated to the parents of the so-called Winton children, who escaped death in Nazi gas chambers when they were sent abroad from Czechoslovakia shortly before the outbreak of WWII. A group of surviving “Winton children” want to pay tribute to their parents, who had the courage to let them go in order to save their lives. The memorial is to be situated at Prague’s Main Railway Station, close to a statue of Sir Nicholas Winton, who organised the transports of 669, mostly Jewish children.

A saga involving President Miloš Zeman and legendary Czech journalist Ferdinand Peroutka has taken another twist. The president’s office had faced a court order to apologise to Peroutka’s granddaughter over false accusations that he admired Hitler. However, Prague Castle has made a last-minute appeal, arguing an apology could spark a flood of lawsuits.

Czech President Miloš Zeman addressed the UN General Assembly on the subject of terrorism on Wednesday, calling for a military strike against the “nerve center” of international terrorism. Mr. Zeman said the time had come to put to use article 47 of the UN Charter which enabled the creation of a joint military force to combat a global threat.

Regional and senate elections are just around the corner in the Czech Republic and although campaigns are in full swing, local issues have not come to the fore. In many ways, the discourse has mirrored topics dominating national or international politics: the problem of migration and threats to security. Some, such as analyst Radko Hokovský of the think-tank European Values, argue that the upcoming elections, despite their local character, will be dominated by positions taken by candidates on migration and terrorism.

The Czech government on Wednesday approved its draft budget for 2017. The proposal envisages a deficit of 60 billion crowns and promises wage hikes for civil servants, doctors, nurses and teachers. While the opposition has criticized it for “excessively generous handouts”, the government’s comfortable majority in Parliament should secure the bill’s approval.