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The biggest public event marking the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia was a concert that filled Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Tuesday evening. The culmination of the free show came with Marta Kubišová’s rendition of A Prayer for Marta, a song that came to symbolise the 1968 invasion.

One of the key events marking Tuesday’s anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion was a memorial at Czech Radio, scene of the worst violence on August 21, 1968. However, the ceremony was partly overshadowed by a raucous demonstration against Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

Finns Pentti Avomaa and Markku Pekonen were students when they visited Prague in August 1968, keen to learn about Communist Czechoslovakia’s liberal reforms at first hand. However, soon after their arrival they found themselves caught up in a Warsaw Pact military operation to crush the Prague Spring. Now in their early 70s, the pair have come back to Prague to take part in events marking the invasion’s 50th anniversary.

To mark the anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia of 1968, Czech Radio’s Creative Hub Group, in cooperation with Brainz digital agency, has prepared a special virtual reality studio. Visitors to the Czech Radio building can get a first-hand experience of what it feels like to stand in streets that are being invaded by Soviet tanks. I asked Edita Kudláčová, head of the Creative Hub Group, to tell me more about the project.

Czechoslovak Radio was a focal point of the Soviet-led invasion of 1968, with the streets around the station seeing the worst violence and the highest number of deaths. Today’s Czech Radio is marking those momentous events with a special 13-hour broadcast featuring both archival materials and new interviews with eye-witnesses.

Dozens of events are planned for Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic in connection with Tuesday’s 50th anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Exhibitions, film screenings, concerts and more will recall the violent suppression of the Prague Spring reform movement.

The National Museum on Prague’s Wenceslas Square has for years been a symbol of the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia, with its façade riddled with bullet holes from invading soldiers attacking the building. But there have been suggestions a recent renovation of the façade, set to be unveiled next week, has made the marks barely visible.

The Czech Republic, like most of Europe, continues to face serious problems related to the drawn-out period of drought. Nearly 60 municipalities around the country have already introduced measures restricting the use of drinking water. The cabinet addressed the issue at its first session after the summer holidays on Wednesday.

The upcoming 50th anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia has sparked controversy on the Czech political scene. Right-wing parties see the anniversary as an opportunity to protest against what they see as President Zeman’s pro-Russian orientation and the fact that the Communist Party is regaining an influence on national politics, while the Communist Party, which faces renewed hostility on the anniversary, is trying to play down Russia’s responsibility for the invasion.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Czech Republic has joined forces with artist Toy_Box to launch a new exhibition on Prague’s Artwall Gallery. I visited the opening in Letná Park to learn about the collaboration—and received a lesson in public health as well.