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The former military base in Milovice, northeast of Prague, is gradually being turned into a patch of wilderness. A herd of 14 wild horses from Britain’s Exmoor National Park was introduced into the area in January of this year within a project initiated by the Czech Landscape organisation. And recently they were joined by seven European bison from Poland. I asked Miloslav Jirků of the Czech Academy of Sciences, about this latest stage of the nature project:

The Czech government began to debate on Monday new tougher regulations on the possession of firearms by members of the public. The move comes in reaction to two separate incidents – a mass shooting by a deranged gunman in the town of Uherský brod back in February, in which eight bystanders were killed; and a series of explosions at a munitions storage facility in Vrbětice late last year, which caused mayhem when local authorities were unable to determine exactly what was being stored at the site. I spoke with Jan Bartošek, a security policy legislator

The Czech Republic appears to have got itself in hot water after the government refused to back a letter from seven Central European countries attacking a German-Russian project for a new gas pipeline. The Nord Stream II link under the Baltic would bypass both Ukraine and make Slovakia a backwater for gas transport.

The non-profit organisation Post Bellum has published a call warning against growing intolerance in Czech society. Numerous polls have suggested that a large part of Czech society has little sympathy, for example, for the plight of refugees from Muslim countries. The so-called Advent Appeal, signed by around 5,400 people including about 50 prominent figures, was launched as an alternative – primarily hoping to remind people of humanistic values.

South Korean president Park Geun-hye is in the Czech Republic on a four day visit. South Korea is the third largest investor in the Czech Republic and the top-level talks are expected to give bilateral relations another significant boost with South Korean and Czech companies expected to sign agreements worth billions of crowns.

Expensive and embarrassing problems at one of the Czech Republic’s two nuclear power plants has shot up the political agenda with leaders of the coalition government parties now due to discuss the shutdown of most of the Dukovany reactor. And there is a possibility that heads at the top of the state-controlled power giant ČEZ could roll.

Hamburg has decided to pull out of the competition to host the Olympic Games in 2024. The news casts doubt over the future of a rundown port lot in the German city owned by the Czech Republic since the late 1920s. Prague had been hoping to swap it for another site in the city.

While women in the Czech Republic enjoy one of the longest paid parental leaves in Europe, the generous policy also presents some serious drawbacks. A new study carried out by Gender Studies organisation along with CERGE and Sociological Institute shows that a significant number of women find it impossible to return to the labour market after spending up to four years at home with their children.

Journalist Janek Rubeš has long reported on crooked cabbies in Prague who overcharge visiting tourists many times the regular amount. Taking an apparent cue from the internet programme Prague vs. Crooks, the police conducted an operation which has now seen seven people – six taxi drivers and a former civil servant at City Hall – arrested. The gathering of evidence took months and the cornerstone was testimony from tourists themselves.

As the Czech Republic tightens border security in connection with the migrant crisis police officers are returning to the old border check-points of the pre-Schengen era. However many of the buildings are now in private ownership and they find they have no base from which to operate.