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Czechia has a treasure not known to many visitors. It is a unique network of hiking trails over 40 000 kilometers (or 25 000 miles) long. The trails are very well marked out and regularly maintained by members of the Czech Tourist Club. Whereas other countries have various hiking trails, the Czech network is very systematic, easy to understand and unified all over the country. As Vít Pohanka reports, the system was developed for over a century.

The wildcat is a small carnivorous species that once inhabited the Czech Republic’s forests, before it was hunted down at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. However, images of the wildcat recently captured by camera traps in some parts of the Czech Republic suggest that the rare feline may once again be settling in the country.

Forests in the Czech Republic are suffering. Frequent periods of prolonged draught have weakened trees, leaving them prone to harmful bark beetle infestation. Moreover, severe storms in recent months and years damaged large areas of woodland and foresters have had to cut down many more trees than the sawmills are able to process. As a result, the price of wood has now fallen to a half of what it was a year ago. Vít Pohanka met foresters and experts from several European countries at a seminar they held in Czechia.

The manuscript of Antonín Dvořák’s famous cello concerto has gone on display at the Czech Centre in New York, launching a month-long celebration of the centenary of Czechoslovakia.

The Czech Republic is one of the few countries in Europe whose incumbent presidents appear on postage stamps. A first such stamp was issued in 1920, featuring the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. Since then, almost every Czech head of state has been pictured on a stamp.

Czech pilot Roman Kramařík has completed a flight around the world in a small Cessna airplane marking the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia. Over the course of 46 days, the one-time aerobatic pilot crossed three oceans and three continents, covering over 40,000 kilometres. I met with Mr. Kramařík just a few days after he landed in Prague and I first asked him what made him set out on this adventurous journey:

Actor and puppeteer Vít Hořejš was born in Czechoslovakia but spent most of his life in the United States, where he emigrated in his late twenties. He worked for the legendary Black Light Theatre before establishing his own Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre. The group, featuring puppets and live actors, performs contemporary pieces as well as plays based on traditional Czech fairy tales.

The Turkish Supreme Court this week upheld a six-year prison sentence for two Czechs convicted on charges of terrorism in 2017. The Czech couple Marketa Všelichová and Miroslav Farkas, humanitarian workers who vehemently denied the accusations that they had assisted the Kurdish militia YPG, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization, have thus exhausted all the legal possibilities of appeal in Turkey. I spoke to their close friend Janusz Konieczny to find out what conditions they are being held in and how they feel about this latest

Klára Váňová is the owner of Barberette, Prague’s first gender-neutral barber shop. Its philosophy is that all customers, regardless their gender, should pay the same price. Klára started her concept in London in 2012, when she left her comfortable office job to launch her own business career. The barber shop picked up very quickly and a few years later, in 2017, she decided to open another salon in her hometown Prague.

Czech hydrogeologist Jiří Šíma is a leading expert in the field of water management. Since the mid-1980s, he has been involved in various water management and environmental projects in Africa, mainly in Ethiopia. He created a series of hydrogeological maps documenting the country’s water resources and has been cooperating on various projects with the Czech Development Agency and the NGO People in Need.