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The number of common birds in the Czech Republic continues to decline, according to the annual report on the environment for 2015. The report suggests diminished biodiversity and modern intensive farming methods are among the main factors behind the trend. The total number of birds in the Czech Republic has dropped by nearly six percent since 1982, with farmland species down by over 30 percent.

Six months after the Czech government approved Czechia as the official geographical name for the Czech Republic we look at whether the short, snappy name for the country has caught on.

This year’s Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, which came to a close on Sunday, was the 20th edition of an event that brings almost the entire Czech documentary community – and a host of noteworthy international guests – to the Vysočina town. In this roundup of Jihlava 2016, we meet a main prize winner, the head of the festival, leading US experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison, and Rebecca O’Brien, who has worked closely with Ken Loach for almost 30 years.

A plaque commemorating Pavel Kravař, a Czech scholar and Hussite emissary from Bohemia, was recently unveiled in St Andrews in Scotland, close to the spot in Market Street where he was burned at the stake for heresy in 1433. The university master was the first of a succession of religious reformers who were martyred in the town during the Protestant Reformation. The commemoration was initiated by Paul Vyšný, a British historian of Slovak origin who worked at the University of St Andrews and who has long studied the trial of the Czech scholar. I

Gideon Klein has been known mainly as a Czech Jewish composer who was interned in Terezín and later died in Auschwitz. A new international performance, which has its Czech premiere at the Prague Conservatory on Tuesday evening, wants to present Klein in a new perspective: as a fascinating young individual who was very much part of the pre-war vibrant Prague music scene.

An exhibition on the Vltava river bank in the centre of Prague has launched a series of events called Old’s Cool. Organised by the NGO Elpida, the annual event aims to present inspiring seniors as role models and change public opinion in favour of old age. The main theme of the festival’s fourth edition is ‘Slow Up’ and the main event, a fashion show of recycled and upcycled fashion pieces presented by senior fashion models, is set to take place in mid-September at the National Gallery’s Veletržní palác.

Snail poo paper, glowing fibre or fabrics made of metal: these are just some of the hundreds of material samples that can be found in the Library of Materials, located at Prague’s district of Břevnov. The aim of MatériO is to serve as an inspiration for students, designers and other creative professions. They can either search its online database or come to the library to be able to touch the samples stacked on its shelves.

Czech scientists researching forests in Šumava National Park in the south of the country have recently discovered what is believed to be the Czech Republic’s oldest tree. The spruce, found near the lake of Plešné, witnessed the reign of Charles IV as a sapling, and is believed to have reached more than 600 years of age.

Sociologists from the Czech Academy of Sciences are carrying out a unique survey of the homeless communities in Prague and Pilsen. The HOBOhemia project is the first comparative research on homelessness in the Czech Republic and focuses on previously neglected topics such as specific timing of the activities of the homeless. It also uses some less traditional research methods, such as GPS tracking, and invites the homeless to take active part in collecting the data.

Thousands of fans of extreme metal will be flocking to the Czech Republic in just a few weeks’ time for the annual Brutal Assault music festival. Established in 1996 as a small show with mainly Czech and Slovak bands, the festival gradually evolved into one of the major events of its kind, with nearly 18,000 visitors coming to last year’s 20th edition. This August, the Brutal Assault festival will again take place at an old Army Fortress in Josefov, some 130 kilometres east of Prague. Over the course of four days the festival will showcase over