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The Constitutional Court has invalidated a controversial law on taxing money returned to churches in compensation for property stolen by the communist regime in the 1950s. The verdict by the highest court in the land is legally binding and there is no further means of appeal.

The new pipe organ for St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague resounded for the first time on Monday in a workshop near Barcelona, in Spain, where the instrument is being built. The pipe organ was commissioned by the Catholic Church and part of its cost, estimated at 80 million crowns, was raised in a public collection.

The Czech Republic has joined other EU member states in halting weapons exports to Turkey over its military offensive in northern Syria. The Czech foreign minister on Monday urged Turkey to halt the offensive and open the door to negotiations aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict.

In a speech at a Holocaust conference in 2015, President Miloš Zeman falsely claimed one of the nation’s most respected journalists had penned a pre-war article titled “Hitler is a gentleman”. Ferdinand Peroutka, he claimed, was an admirer of the Nazi dictator. On Monday, a Prague court ruled against his granddaughter, who had sued for an apology.

Flags are being flown at half-mast in the Czech Republic and public events have been toned down as Czechs observe a day of mourning for the late pop idol Karel Gott. The singer is being given a funeral with state honours, including a funeral mass at St. Vitus Cathedral, which is for invited guests only. Due to overwhelming interest from the public, people can watch the funeral mass on big screens placed outside the cathedral and Czech Television and Czech Radio will be broadcasting the event live. Karel Gott died on October 1st at the age of 80,

People from all corners of the country are streaming to Prague to pay their last respects to the deceased Czech pop legend Karel Gott, who died of leukaemia last week. Around 2pm, around 14,000 thousand passed by his coffin on public display at Žofín Palace, by mid-day Friday. The hugely popular singer is to receive a funeral with state honours, as Czechs observe a day of mourning on Saturday.

Few people today have heard of Bertha von Suttner, the Prague-born writer and activist whose message of peace stirred great powers to action. Yet her thoughts live on in today’s international organisations such as the European Union or the Permanent Court of Arbitration and her dreams of ending military conflicts through disarmament continue to be pursued by parliamentarians and civil society groups across the world.

The Czech Republic’s top officials met to clear up the country’s stand on a number of a hot foreign policy issues on Thursday, voicing condemnation of the Turkish military offensive in northern Syria and rejecting President Zeman’s proposal for the Czech Republic to revoke its recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.

A simmering row between Prague and Beijing has finally come to a head. After the former announced a decision to terminate a sister city agreement with the Chinese capital, the country’s embassy said late on Wednesday night that it had abrogated the document itself. But can the dispute actually harm Prague?

The Czech branch of Extinction Rebellion has joined a wave of climate protests organised by the environmental group around the world. Protests calling on politicians to take urgent action on climate change began in Prague on Thursday and will culminate on Saturday with a demonstration and a traffic blockade on Wenceslas Square.