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Final preparations are being made for the ninth edition of the Prague Pride festival. For the first time this year the LGBT rainbow flag will be flown at the city’s Town Hall during the week-long event, which culminates with a massive city centre parade on Saturday August 10. I discussed the theme of the 2019 Prague Pride, and more, with spokesperson Bohdana Rambousková.

Czech archaeologists are using plain white sugar to preserve what may be the oldest wooden structure ever discovered in Europe – a water well made of oak trees felled some 7,000 years ago. The well was unearthed earlier this year during the construction of the D35 highway as an isolated find, bearing marks of construction techniques used in the Bronze and Iron ages.

Months after tendering his resignation, Antonín Staněk finally steps down as arts minister on Wednesday. He will be replaced in a temporary capacity by a deputy minister, though what will happen next at the Ministry of Culture remains most unclear.

A new study carried out by an international team of scientists, including experts from Palacký University in Olomouc, has ascertained that animals are not responding fast enough to the changing environmental conditions. The alarming findings have been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications.

After weeks of speculation regarding the Czech Republic’s nominee for European commissioner, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš arrived for talks with European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen with a single name in his briefcase: Věra Jourová, the current commissioner for justice, consumer protection and gender equality. The prime minister is hoping that her experience could help the country acquire a more ambitious portfolio.

President Miloš Zeman is due to remain in office until early 2023. But that hasn’t stopped names of possible successors already appearing in the media. Mr. Zeman’s defeated opponent in last year’s runoff, Jiří Drahoš, says a second run is definitely “in play”, while ex-sports star Dominik Hašek has also signalled his interest.

A large piece of graffiti on Charles Bridge, which was recently sprayed on the famous structure by two German tourists, mysteriously disappeared over the weekend. Official clean-up works on Charles Bridge, which were expected to take about two weeks, got underway on Saturday morning. However, someone secretly removed the graffiti that same night.

The interdisciplinary study of archaeology and genetics can bring about many new discoveries, some of which have helped shed new light on periods previously clouded in myth. One of these is a more precise understanding of the ancestors that make up today’s Czech population, which is apparently more pre-historic than Slav.

The Senate has passed a draft law that would make it easier for the children and grandchildren of exiles from Communist Czechoslovakia to obtain Czech citizenship. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by the president, pertains to descendants of those stripped of their own citizenship prior to 1989. ‘Krajané’ – Czech compatriots and their descendants – have long lobbied for the move, and hundreds are expected to apply.

As elsewhere in the developed world, the average life expectancy for Czech men and women has been growing, but the sad news is that they are not spending their old age in good health. The Czech Health Ministry is ringing alarm bells and focussing on campaigns that will raise awareness of the health risks responsible for serious illnesses in the aging population.