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Newly released Czech automobile production figures for the first half of 2017 point to a continued boom in an industry that has been driving the economy in recent years. After record output in 2016, the first six months of this year saw domestic auto manufacturing grow by a further 5.1 percent.

The country’s culture minister, Daniel Herman, has said that the government could buy out a controversial pig farm in Lety, South Bohemia, in a matter of weeks. If completed, it would mean the removal of a farm which has been an insult to victims of the Romani genocide for decades: the farm stands largely on the site of a former labour and WWII concentration camp where Roma citizens were interned and hundreds died.

Last week, a coalition pact between the Christian Democrats and Mayors and Independents parties appeared on the brink of collapse after the Christian Democrats invited their coalition partners to run on the Christian Democrat ballot in the autumn elections. But on Tuesday, the smaller party instead voted to go-it-alone.

Britain and the rest of the EU are at the start of the Brexit negotiations and in some sense both sides are still exploring where there are major differences and where there is agreement. Britain’s Brexit negotiator, David Davis, was in Prague on Tuesday for talks with the Czech foreign minister over its take on the talks so far and how they should proceed.

Around one hundred historical trains, including a mid-19th century steam locomotive, have been placed on display to the public at a locomotive depot in the northern Czech town of Chomutov. It is the first time the collection has been open to the public for an extended season.

Judicial reforms in neighbouring Poland have come under fire in the Czech Republic, but the government in Prague has so far not expressed an official stance on developments in its Visegrad bloc neighbour and partner. But the Czech Republic could well be put on the spot thanks to its current presidency of the human rights body, the Council of Europe.

Just one year ago, a photographer snapped the first-ever photo of a golden jackal on Czech soil. This week, a camera trap in the Milovice area in central Bohemia documented the fact that the species has settled down and started breeding in the Czech Republic. I discussed the latest discovery with Miloslav Jirků of the Czech Academy of Sciences:

Animal rights activists have reason to celebrate. After years of controversy, both houses of the Czech Parliament have approved a ban on fur farms that should take effect in January 2019. According to the bill, which was approved by the Senate on Thursday, the owners of fur farms will be able to claim compensation from the state. Opinion polls suggest that over 80 percent of Czechs support the move. I called animal rights activist Lucie Moravcová from the NGO Freedom for Animals to get her reaction to the news.

At the moment the Vltava river in Prague is mainly used by tourists but the state waterways authority and city council are looking seriously at the possibility of making it once again a working waterway that could ease traffic and noise in the centre.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu caused a stir at a Visegrad Group summit in Budapest on Wednesday, slamming the EU for what he described as its “crazy” approach in dealing with his country. He urged Visegrad leaders to lobby for a change of attitude in the interest of all parties.