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Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and other members of the government as well as the opposition have condemned Czech President Miloš Zeman’s rejection of EU sanctions against Russia. The head of state told the Council of Europe on Tuesday that, in his view, sanctions were not working and called Russia’s annexation of Crimea “irreversible”.

The environment group Greenpeace has weighed into a political row over the extraction of the valuable lithium ore in the Czech Republic. It says the country risks getting seriously short changed under the current mining royalty rules.

Czech President Miloš Zeman on Tuesday addressed a session of the Council of Europe and took hard-hitting questions on issues of human rights versus economic diplomacy, the Czech stand on migration, and his opposition to sanctions against Russia.

This Thursday marks the start of the four-day 2017 Signal Festival, an annual light show in Prague, billed as the biggest cultural event in the Czech Republic. The festival, which began in 2013, celebrates light art, with various dazzling installations from a variety of global artists wowing visitors around the capital. I spoke with festival organizer Martin Pošta and began by asking him to describe what is in store for this year:

Sixteen people received official acknowledgement of their resistance to the pre-1989 communist regime in a ceremony in Prague on Monday.

Bosses at the Czech Republic’s biggest car maker and biggest manufacturing concern, Škoda Auto, have moved to try and calm fears that some production could be moved to Germany to ease the fact that local plants are working full out.

A new report from the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addiction has presented an alarming picture of half a million so-called problem gamblers in the Czech Republic with average debts of 1.2 million crowns. And, the report suggests, the problem is getting worse.

The Festival of Democracy, an associated programme of the upcoming Forum 2000 conference, is kicking off in Prague and other Czech cities. In its first full year, the event broadens issues examined at the conference for an even wider audience, adding a cultural component with live music, discussions and film screenings.

Czech ice hockey veteran Jaromír Jágr has just landed another NHL season, probably his last, with the Canadian Calgary Flames. And although not so keen on the snow after Florida, the player and team are upbeat about his contribution for the new season.

Two rare treasures have been discovered by chance this year in South Bohemia. One of them, consisting of hundreds of silver coins from the 11th century, has now gone on display at the Museum of Prácheň in Písek.