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The Ministry of Education has fined six foreign “universities” or their branches for offering education in the Czech Republic without obtaining the required permission. In two cases, criminal complaints have also been lodged over an apparent scam targeting prospective students from southeast Asia.

Much uncertainty still remains about the form the UK’s departure from the European Union will take. However, Czech politicians are already preparing for the possibility of a chaotic Brexit, drafting legislation that would protect British citizens in this country for a transitional period.

One in six of the Czech Republic’s state attorneys are ex-members of the pre-1989 Communist Party, Czech Radio’s iRozhlas news website reported on Monday. But defenders say it is unfair to judge them, as some prosecutors were blackmailed into getting a party card.

Fifty years ago this January, Jan Palach doused himself in petrol and set himself alight on Wenceslas Square to protest the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. Prague City Hall is now looking to buy the former hospital where he died – slated to become a luxury hotel – and turn it into a “museum of totalitarianism”.

When Andrej Babiš’s government published its manifesto in June 2018, it vowed to come up with new measures to combat corruption, including laws protecting whistleblowers and the regulation of lobbying. However, some of the country’s leading anti-corruption NGOs say the ANO-led government have been slow to deliver on those promises.

The first ever public bird census got underway in the Czech Republic on Friday. Over the course of the next three days, people can observe bird flocking on the feeders in their gardens or parks, identify the species and send the findings to the Czech Ornithological Society’s website. The purpose of the event is to discover more about the development of the country’s common birds.

This time of year, everyone is naturally taking stock of 2018 – the highs and lows of the past year – and what may lie ahead. Meanwhile, in Brussels, the EU’s direct initiative to identify, debunk and counter Russia’s disinformation campaign has come out with a list entitled “What did not happen in 2018?”

Supermarket chains in the Czech Republic must continue providing unsold goods for free to food banks. The country’s highest court has thrown out an appeal from a group of senators, who argued that the practice was a form of taxation and anti-business.

Czechs are increasingly concerned about threats related to climate change, suggests a freshly published survey. According to the study by the Median agency, they are mostly worried about drinking water becoming scarce and the impact of drought on the food harvest. On the other hand, Czechs are less afraid of terrorism than in the past, the poll indicates.

Not since 2013 has a seated Czech president addressed the nation on New Year’s Day: the current head of state, Miloš Zeman, has taken to delivering an address on the day after Christmas. This year, for the first time, the heads of both houses of parliament have taken up the mantle, calling for greater civility in 2019.