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The annual Czech Press Photo competition, which evaluates both professional and amateur journalistic photographs from around the world, has selected the winners of the 2017 competition. And for the first time, the winner is a photograph taken not with an expensive camera, but with a simple cell phone.

An article published on the website of Russian state-wide television channel Zvezda on Tuesday has drawn very sharp responses from Czech politicians, including Miloš Zeman, the Czech head of state. He called the article, which argued that Czechs should be grateful for the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, an insult to the nation.

Czech police have submitted a fresh request to the chamber of deputies for ANO leader Andrej Babiš and party deputy leader Jaroslav Faltýnek to be stripped of their parliamentary immunity so they can pursue a fraud case. During the previous session of parliament, the pair came under investigation for alleged corruption over securing an EU grant for a development project.

Czech president Miloš Zeman is in Russia on a five-day official state visit, taking in Sochi, Moscow and Yekaterinburg. He is accompanied by a 130-strong delegation of representing Czech businesses hoping to sign energy and transportation-related contracts worth 20 billion crowns. The visit has fuelled further criticism that the president is charting a separate “pro-Russian” foreign policy at odds with the official position of the Czech government. Dr. Mark Galeotti is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague. I began

The newly-elected lower house of Parliament is holding its first session on Monday, opening the way for the demise of the old government and the naming of a new prime minister. In view of strong opposition from the traditional parties to an emerging minority government headed by Andrej Babiš, the opposition parties are pushing for the lower house to be able to fully apply its role within the system of checks and balances.

President Miloš Zeman begins an official visit to Russia on Monday, with the largest Czech business delegation in 25 years, representing some 132 firms.

As a teenager František Suchý helped his father secretly record the names and hide the ashes of people executed by the Nazis and the Communists. He himself was later sentenced to 25 years in a communist jail. Now, aged 90, he is due to receive a Memory of Nations award on Friday’s state holiday.

The Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes has handed out its annual awards for contribution to freedom and democracy. Among this year’s recipients is the Belarussian opposition politician Vincuk Viačorka, or the Slovak photographer Tibor Kováč, who captured images of the Soviet invasion of the Slovak city of Košice.

One of the legends of Czech sport, tennis player Radek Štěpánek, has finally announced that he is hanging up his tennis racket as a competitive player. But other roles in the game could still be beckoning for the two times Davis Cup winner.

Twenty-three EU member states, including the Czech Republic, have signed up to a European pact on defence cooperation called Pesco (Permanent Structured Cooperation). The deal, to be formally launched in December, is likely to cover everything from troops and arms to new defence projects, with varying input from different countries.