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Many of Prague’s historic and architectural jewels opened to the public this weekend within the Open House Prague festival, now in its fifth year.

Visitors can admire the interiors of more than 80 of the city’s Gothic, Baroque and Modernist buildings as well as spaces usually inaccessible to the public such as gardens, sports stadiums and railway stations.

The festival first took place in the Czech Republic in 2015 and has gained increasing popularity over the years.

The Czech indie-pop band Lake Malawi will compete in Saturday’s final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.

The popular band, fronted by singer-songwriter Albert Černý, reached the final with the song Friend of a Friend.

They will be up against finalists from Albania, North Macedonia, Russia, Sweden and The Netherlands, among others.

Černý said he and the other band members mainly wanted to savour the experience.

Lake Malawi has played over 300 gigs in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria and Britain.

The police have proposed filing charges of hate speech against an unnamed individual in connection with verbal attacks posted online in connection with the Christchurch attacks in New Zealand.

According to the internet daily Denik N the police are investigating several other people in connection with similar offenses, based on two dozen posts which appeared in the wake of the attacks.

They were condemned in the strongest terms by both Interior Minister Jan Hamáček and Police President Jan Švejdar who warned that hate speech and propagating terrorism online would not be tolerated.

A Prague district prosecutor's office which received three lawsuits against President Zeman’s chancellor, Vratislav Mynář, based on suspicions that he had tried to influence court decisions, has said there are no legal grounds for pressing charges.

State Attorney Jan Lelek said that while the chancellor’s meetings with judges presiding over cases in which the president’s office or the president himself had a vested interest were not “standard” behaviour they did not constitute a criminal offense.

The National Centre for Fighting Corruption and Organised Crime which was asked to investigate the matter arrived at the same conclusion.

The Czechs thrashed Italy 8:0 at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Bratislava on Friday night, edging the team closer to the quarterfinals.

Milan Gulaš, who is playing his first championship scored the opening goal, with Radko Gudas, Michael Frolík, Jan Kovář a Dmitrij Jaškin scoring another four in the second period.

Another three goals in the final period from Dominik Simon, Jaškin and Frolík sealed Italy’s fate. The Czech team next faces Austria on Sunday.

The Pirate Party plans to sue the European Commission for failing to decide on complaints over the alleged conflict of interests of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) regarding EU subsidies to the holding Agrofert.

The European Commission has conducted an extensive audit at Czech ministries regarding the subsidies amounting to some two billion crowns for Agrofert, which Mr Babiš founded but has placed in trusts.

Transparency International warned of Mr Babiš’s possible conflict of interest last year, saying he continued to benefit from the holding despite. Czech authorities were set to receive the results of the audit in mid-May.

The Pirates said in a press release on Friday it will file its suit at the European Court of Justice. The opposition party says the European Commission should have decided on the matter already in January and claims it is giving Mr Babiš preferential treatment.

Swiss electricity producer Alpiq has agreed to sell its two Czech coal-fired power stations to Sev.en Energy, owned by investor Pavel Tykač, the companies announced on Friday.

The Swiss buyer paid 280 million euros for the plants in Kladno, central Bohemia; and Zlín, southern Moravia.

It said the units can use a fuel mix that includes biomass and two flexible gas turbines, in line with EU environmental standards.

A film festival being held in tandem with the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Masaryk University kicks off in Brno on Friday.

The three-day Munifesto Film Festival will feature 19 screenings leading school personalities in education and other fields, as well as student films.

Among those invited is filmmaker Martin Huba, who directed a biopic of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first Czechoslovak president.

US Senator Rand Paul will try to block the sale of helicopters to the Czech Army, despite the sale having been approved by the US State Department in early May.

The Republican lawmaker from Kentucky has put forward several resolutions in the upper house of Congress to prohibit the agreed sale of military equipment also to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Czech Army is looking to buy 12 combat or multipurpose helicopters from the American companies Bell Helicopter and General Electric. According to the Czech Embassy in Washington, Senator Paul’s chances of stopping or delaying the sale are slim.

The Czech national hockey team rallied against Latvia on Thursday night. Down by two goals in the first period, they scored four times in a row in the second one, and put the Group B game away. The final score was 6-3.

Although in third place in Group B with nine goals in total, the Czechs still have a good shot at making the quarterfinals. On Friday they next face Italy, the weakest team in the world championship.