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Animal rescue stations around the Czech Republic are filling up with hedgehogs. The animal shelter in Prague’s Jinonice district, for instance, took in more than 650 hedgehogs since the start of November. Although animal activists appreciate people’s good intentions in helping the spiny mammals, they also say not every hedgehog found in the wild really needs help.

The Czech Army is planning for its biggest restructuring and rearmament effort since the country joined NATO twenty years ago. Top military brass and politicians, convened for their annual meeting, both stressed the need to modernise the army to face 21st century threats.

Czech prisons are crowded with people serving multiple sentences. According to a new survey carried out by Charles University’s Faculty of Law, nearly fifty percent of prisoners in the Czech Republic are currently serving at least two sentences. The study also points out that many Czechs spend years behind bars for repeated petty criminal offences.

Prague police have asked the municipality for a green light to activate automatic facial recognition cameras at six locations. That’s a red flag for some personal privacy advocates, who fear a Big Brother scenario. But law enforcement officials say an upgrade of the Czech capital’s closed-circuit television system is overdue, and controls will be put in place to prevent any abuse.

Retired forward Václav Nedomanský has become the second Czech to be inducted into ice hockey’s Hall of Fame. A member of the Czechoslovak world championship winning team in 1972, was the first player from behind the Iron Curtain to defect and play in the NHL. Nedomanský joins goaltender Dominik Hašek, who is the only other Czech to receive this accolade.

The Stag Moat (Jelení příkop) at Prague Castle, which is currently under reconstruction, opened to the public on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the return of democracy to the country.

The Czech government has followed the example of other European countries in approving a digital tax on Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. The proposed 7 percent tax on services provided in the Czech Republic should bring in approximately 5 billion crowns of additional revenue a year.

The Czech Republic’s minister of foreign affairs, Tomáš Petříček, bestowed Medals of Merit for Diplomacy on 12 individuals on Monday. Nine of them, including the late Jiří Dientsbier, the country’s first post-communist foreign minister, received the honour for helping advance diplomacy and foreign policy in the period since the Velvet Revolution.

On Sunday, Czechs commemorated 30 years since the start of the Velvet Revolution. Emotions were high at times as politicians paid tribute to the demonstration on November 17, 1989 that resulted in the eventual fall of the communist regime. For the most part, however, it was a day of celebration, marked by a wide range of events.

Organisers Million Moments for Democracy said around 300,000 people attended their latest demonstration against Czech PM Andrej Babiš on Saturday. But having evidently achieved the biggest protests they can, and with winter approaching, what is next for the group?