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The number of registered cases of HIV in the Czech Republic jumped rapidly: in the first four months of 2014 almost one hundred new cases were registered. Although the Czech Republic still has a relatively low incidence of the deadly virus, the rising number of cases is a cause for concern.

The Czech Republic’s minister of defence wants to see an increase in the country’s military spending, reversing a trend of recent years. Justifying this call, Martin Stropnický said on Thursday that the crisis in Ukraine was a warning that a military conflict in Europe was not out of the question.

It is one of the flagship measures of finance minister Andrej Babiš aimed at stamping out the country’s rampant tax evasion and filling the state coffers. And even before it is officially supposed to be up and running the special tax evasion unit, popularly dubbed Kobra, is already at work and looking forward to changes in the law that will make its task easier.

A survey released by the Czech Statistics Office released this week has shown that the standard of living in the Czech Republic continues to lag behind western counterparts. Although salaries have gone up, so have expenses and in real terms many households are earning less. Meanwhile, roughly 1.5 million people are living on – or well under – the poverty line. The only good news there is that the number there has gone down by one percent year-on-year.

On Tuesday, the European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction released its European Drug report for 2014, mapping trends in illicit drug use and related threats to public health. For the Czech Republic, the news is sobering but not altogether surprising: that the country has the highest rate of methamphetamine consumption in Europe.

One of Prague’s most distinctive art spaces is reopening after a major renovation, with the Mánes gallery hosting its first art show in more than two years from Wednesday. But will the venue be able to regain the significance it held in the past?

The most noteworthy aspect of elections to the European Parliament in the Czech Republic was not who won, but the fact that only 18.2 percent of the country’s eligible voters bothered to take part. Why did Czechs choose to ignore the European elections –and could the country’s past explain people’s distrust of decisions made outside the country’s borders? Political commentator Jiři Pehe says both the distant past and present-day politics played a role.

Locals in the municipality of Lubenec, opposed to the possible siting of a nuclear waste storage facility in the area, have gained a new argument in their favour: the protection of an endangered salamander in the vicinity. The species S. salamandra was only recently spotted in the area again, and environmentalists and inhabitants are saying the need to protect the slippery fellow should see Lubenec struck off the ‘possible locations’ list.

In an interview before the results of the European election were announced, businessman turned politician Andrej Babiš expressed doubts his ANO movement would win, suggesting a knock on the chin would be a wake-up call ahead of communal elections this autumn. But the party leader spoke too soon: ANO maintained just enough momentum, edging both the opposition party TOP 09 and fellow coalition partners the Social Democrats.

Czechs started voting in elections to the European Parliament on Friday with over 800 candidates in the running for the country’s 21 seats in the assembly. While the number of parties and groupings fielding candidates in the European elections has grown, voter turnout is traditionally expected to lag behind the EU average.