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With property prices soaring, more and more Czechs are finding it hard to find affordable housing. Now the government has come out with one possible solution – a programme of major investment in state apartments that would be rented out by municipalities.

Dozens of people gathered outside the Russian embassy in Prague on Tuesday to demand the release of jailed Ukrainian film maker Oleg Sentsov and other prisoners of conscience. The gathering lasted exactly 107 minutes, symbolizing the 107 days that Sentsov has been on a hunger strike in a Siberian prison.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said that to bring a halt to illegal migration a comprehensive action plan for the entire European Union is needed – and the Czech Republic is ready to prepare just such a proposal. To stem the tide, he has even floated the idea of the protection of EU borders being transferred to the Nato level.

At a meeting of Czech ambassadors in Prague on Monday, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš stressed the importance of being a reliable and active partner in the EU and NATO. At the same time the head of government defended the country’s stance on migration and its decision not to join the Eurozone in the foreseeable future.

Jaroslav Volařík, a wine-maker from the South Moravian town of Mikulov, has just won this year’s title Winemaker of the Year. Nearly 60 Bohemian and Moravian producers took part in the 16th edition of the prestigious competition, sending in over 540 samples of wines.

A joint effort by two Czech universities claims to have developed the most accurate plant image recognition system in the world. Able to identify thousands of different kinds of plants and mushrooms, the software has already won three international competitions, beating human experts in the process.

Hip Hop Kemp, the largest music festival of the genre in Central and Eastern Europe officially kicks off on Thursday night at the massive open-air site Festivalpark on the outskirts of Hradec Králové. But thousands of fans, including hundreds from abroad, particularly Poland, have already begun descending on the city. Along the way, scores have found themselves caught up in police searches for illegal drugs and contraband.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, Czech and Polish dissidents, including Václav Havel and Adam Michnik, held clandestine talks in the Krkonoše Mountains, which forms part of the border between the two countries. This Saturday a new tourist trail will open to mark those legendary meetings.

Among many events held in connection with the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia was the premiere of a new film about Jan Palach. The student famously took his own life in a bid to rouse the nation from apathy, five months into the Soviet occupation.

The biggest public event marking the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia was a concert that filled Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Tuesday evening. The culmination of the free show came with Marta Kubišová’s rendition of A Prayer for Marta, a song that came to symbolise the 1968 invasion.