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Surveys have repeatedly shown that a majority in the Czech Republic would favour of a ban on smoking in the country’s pubs and restaurants. Polling agency Ipsos, together with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University, has long mapped how people feel on the matter. Proposed anti-smoking legislation was killed in the lower house this week, causing a rift in the coalition and leaving the Czech Republic still isolated in Europe when it comes to regulating smoking.

The annual Days of Jerusalem in Prague festival is currently under way in the Czech capital. Established four years ago with the support of Prague and Jerusalem city councils, it offers a selection of dance, music, visual and culinary arts from the various communities in Jerusalem. Last year, the festival sparked criticism when a group of world renowned public figures claimed that it helped legitimise Israel’s political strategy.

The latest failed attempt to ban smoking in Czech pubs and restaurants has left the country’s government looking distinctly shaky. Since Wednesday’s lower house vote coalition partners ANO and the Social Democrats have each been blaming the other for the collapse of the much-discussed bill.

One of the biggest events of the English-language cultural calendar in Prague starts on Friday. For those not in the know – that’s the Prague Fringe Festival – and it continues for a whole nine days.

Former interim prime minister Jiří Rusnok was named as new governor of the Czech National Bank on Wednesday at Prague Castle. Rusnok, an economist who also served as finance minister and minister of industry and trade and is a friend of President Miloš Zeman, will begin his six-year mandate in July. While a revolution is not expected, the new governor will have to oversee an eventual exit from the low crown policy introduced two-and-a-half years ago.

The government is setting up a special team to curb the influence of foreign propaganda in the Czech Republic. The move comes in response to perceptions that Russia is making increased use of websites and social networks to get its message across to ordinary Czechs.

Members of the Czech military will no longer take part in joint patrols with the police at key sites in the Czech Republic; three-man teams became commonplace in areas including the airport, outside shopping centres and even outside Czech Radio since March. Police will keep up heightened patrols on their own.

A painting by famous Spanish mannerist El Greco, the Adoration of the Shepherds, will be exhibited in the Moravian city of Olomouc starting next week. The Olomouc Museum of Arts has acquired El Greco's masterpiece on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It will go on display on June 2 to mark the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Archdiocese Museum of Arts. I spoke to Miroslav Kindl, the head of the museum, and asked him to tell me more about the loan:

Czech children’s author Adolf Born died in Prague on Sunday at the age of 85. During his career, Born – whose work has been part of the lives of several generations of Czechs – illustrated more than 400 children’s books, and also had some of his works adapted into animated films.

May 19th marked what would have been the 107th birthday of Sir Nicholas Winton – the British humanitarian, who helped rescue mainly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in the run up to the Second World War. And the Czech Republic is participating in events staged in London to mark the birthday.