Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers arrive in Kyiv

Three EU leaders express ‘unequivocal support’ for Ukraine after making perilous journey by train to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters “with allies like this we will win this war” after the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia made a perilous train journey to Kyiv to offer their support.

The comments from Ukraine’s president followed an extraordinary meeting with the three EU leaders in a capital which is close to being encircled by Russian forces. They are the first western visitors to Kyiv since the war began two weeks ago.

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‘We must welcome them’: how Europe is helping Ukrainian refugees

Unlike the UK, EU countries have offered open sanctuary to the millions fleeing Russia’s attack in biggest refugee crisis since second world war

Over the past few days, images of desperate Ukrainian families being turned away by officials have thrown the UK’s response to what has been termed the biggest refugee crisis since the second world war into stark contrast with its European neighbours.

So far the UK has refused to match the EU’s decision to offer Ukrainians open sanctuary, instead operating a limited family reunification and humanitarian sponsorship system.

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Cheers erupt as Ukraine president addresses huge protest in Prague via video link – video

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed crowds in several European cities remotely, appealing for support as the Russian invasion of his country continued. 

Zelenskiy appeared via video link in cities including Prague, Paris and Frankfurt. He appealed for people to do what they could to support Ukraine, and led the crowd in a moment of silence for those who had died in the conflict, according to local media

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What I learned about addiction from a Czech crystal meth cook | Barbora Benešová

The rural back yards of the Czech Republic hide Europe’s biggest methamphetamine problem. Users like Lenka have a complex story to tell

  • Barbora Benešová is the director of Lenka, a Guardian Documentaries film

I was researching ideas for a documentary when a friend told me about a village in a rural region of the Czech Republic. He half-joked that when people in this place visited their family, the grandma wouldn’t bake fresh cakes to serve with coffee, as is the custom, but fresh meth. Most people in the village were on meth, he said, even those with children.

I grew up in 1980s Czechoslovakia when it was still part of the Soviet bloc. As a teenager I read Memento by Radek John and Zoo Station by Christiane F, both about meth and heroin addicts. When I was 20, I discovered that one of my childhood friends had become a heroin user. He was the only one from among his group who lived.

Barbora Benesova is the director of Lenka, a Guardian Documentaries film

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Lack of English speakers embarrasses Czech coalition

The new government risks being isolated, particularly in the EU where English remains the working language, warn critics

When a new five-party coalition took office in the Czech Republic a week before Christmas, it was expected to herald a reaffirmation of the country’s Europhile and western credentials after years of ambivalence and hedging under an outgoing populist government.

Instead, the new administration – headed by Petr Fiala, a former political science professor who replaced the former oligarch Andrej Babiš as prime minister – has found its carefully crafted outward-looking image tarnished by embarrassing revelations about its members’ poor English-speaking skills.

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Czech president swears in Petr Fiala as PM behind glass screen

Milos Zeman performs inauguration ceremony from cubicle after testing positive for coronavirus

The Czech president, Milos Zeman, has appointed the leader of a centre-right alliance, Petr Fiala, as prime minister in a ceremony he performed from a plexiglass cubicle after testing positive for Covid-19.

Fiala leads a bloc of five centre and centre-right opposition parties that won an election in October, ousting the incumbent Andrej Babiš and his allies.

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Czech PM to step down and signal end to political uncertainty

President to accept resignation of Andrej Babiš and ask centre-right leader to form new government

The Czech Republic’s ailing president has signalled an end to prolonged political uncertainty in the country by saying he will accept the resignation of its prime minister, Andrej Babiš, following a general election defeat.

In his first public comments since being rushed to hospital nearly a month ago, Miloš Zeman said he planned to invite Petr Fiala, the leader of the centre-right grouping Spolu (Together) to form a new government.

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Czech parties agree coalition deal as president remains in hospital

No new details about president Miloš Zeman’s condition as centrist and centre-right parties reach power-sharing agreement

Czech centrist and centre-right parties reached an agreement on forming a majority coalition government and its key agenda, the chairman of the strongest party in the new coalition said.

The five-party coalition faces elevated inflation, mounting debt, an economy curbed by a global shortage of semiconductors and surging energy prices, and a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic which has been gathering pace in recent weeks.

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Czech politics in crisis as police called in over ill president’s aide

Police investigating possible ‘crimes against republic’ as senate prepares to vote on transferring Miloš Zeman powers

The Czech Republic is facing a full-blown political crisis after the prime minister, Andrej Babiš, demanded the resignation of the chief aide to the country’s gravely ill president and police said they were investigating possible “criminal offences against the republic”.

It came as the senate’s constitutional committee voted on Tuesday unanimously in favour of suspending the powers of the president, Miloš Zeman.

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Czech hospital angered by unauthorised visit to see ailing president

Police on alert and inquiry launched after speaker of parliament pays visit to Miloš Zeman without permission

Police in the Czech Republic will stop unauthorised hospital visits to the country’s ailing president, Miloš Zeman, after doctors treating him in intensive care complained that a leading political figure had called on him without their knowledge or permission.

Prague’s central military hospital launched an internal inquiry after the speaker of the country’s parliament, Radek Vondráček, revealed he had seen Zeman on Thursday and described him as being in good spirits.

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Czech president still in hospital as analysts ponder PM’s election defeat

Doubts persist over whether Miloš Zeman, Andrej Babiš’s political ally, will be able to carry out duties

The populist Czech president remained in hospital on Monday as news sank in that Andrej Babiš, the billionaire prime minister, had suffered a shattering general election defeat days after the release of the Pandora papers and that Miloš Zeman, his main political champion, may be too ill to save him.

Zeman, 77 – whose constitutional powers invest him with a kingmaker’s role potentially allowing him to keep Babiš in office – remained in Prague’s central military hospital a day after being rushed there for emergency treatment for an unspecified chronic illness. Doctors said on Monday that they had stabilised his condition, although doubts persist about his future ability to carry out his duties.

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Czech president in hospital after shock election defeat for PM

Fears of a political crisis as Miloš Zeman, an ally of Andrej Babiš, is admitted to intensive care unit

The Czech Republic is facing political upheaval and a possible power vacuum after its billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, suffered a surprise general election defeat and then saw his most powerful backer and sole potential saviour, the country’s president, Miloš Zeman, taken to hospital, apparently gravely ill.

In a stunning upset that confounded pollsters’ forecasts, Babiš’ populist Action for Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) 2011 party finished second in this weekend’s popular vote behind the centre-right Spolu (Together) alliance, which previously vowed not to form a government with him.

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Czech PM’s party loses election to liberal-conservative coalition

Andrej Babiš’s populist ANO party narrowly behind Together three-party grouping in parliamentary poll

Prime minister Andrej Babiš’s centrist party on Saturday narrowly lost the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election, a surprise development that could mean the end of the populist billionaire’s reign in power.

The two-day election to fill 200 seats in the lower house of the parliament took place shortly after details emerged of Babiš’s overseas financial dealings in the Pandora Papers. Babiš, 67, has denied wrongdoing.

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Illegally sterilised Czech women to be offered compensation

Hundreds of mostly Roma women were threatened, tricked or bribed into being sterilised until 2012

Women sterilised without their consent are to be offered compensation in the Czech Republic after President Miloš Zeman signed a bill into law this week.

The women, most of whom were Roma, will be awarded 300,000 Czech crowns (£10,000) from the government as compensation.

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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Netherlands v Czech Republic: Euro 2020 last 16 – live!

The Dutch started vibrantly but the organised and athletic Czechs gradually grew into the game and it’s now very even between two contrasting side. I mentioned the Czechs famous win over the Netherlands at Euro 2004; well, that Czech team ultimately lost to Greece; and this Czech team has certain similarities with those Greeks. This is tricky for the Dutch.

Related: Revealed: shocking scale of Twitter abuse targeting England at Euro 2020

Related: Can Belgium’s world-beaters win a major trophy? It may be now or never | Jonathan Liew

Related: France hoping for a grand statement from Kylian Mbappé

45+2 min: Lovely move by the Netherlands, with virtually every player getting a touch. When it reaches Depay in the box, he rolls past Kalas at the right-hand side of the box and flips a pass through to van Aanholt ... who drags his shot wide from nine yards! Oh, he was offside anyway.

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Man captures moment tornado hits his house in Czech Republic – video

An eyewitness video captured the moment a tornado hit a house in the southern Czech city of Hodonín on Thursday evening. The footage shows trees being bent and broken by winds that knock through a wall and send debris flying through the air before the tornado hits the man's house, blowing a window in. At least five people were killed and hundreds injured after the tornado ripped through towns and villages around Hodonín, near the Czech Republic's borders with Austria and Slovakia. The man who filmed this footage says he was not injured

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Tornado hits south-east Czech Republic, razing houses and injuring dozens – video

A rare tornado has hit the south-east of the Czech Republic, razing houses and causing dozens of injuries. Winds hitting 267-322km/h were reported in the towns surrounding Hodonín. Villages were also hit by large hailstones, while the tornado caused widespread power outages

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Death of Romany man knelt on by Czech police must be ‘investigated urgently’

Council of Europe and human rights groups demand answers after footage shows man being pinned to the ground

Human rights organisations are leading calls for an urgent investigation into the death of a Czech man who died after being restrained by police, after footage of the incident went viral on social media.

The neck restraint technique used during the arrest of a Romany man was “reckless, unnecessary and disproportionate, and therefore unlawful”, according to Amnesty International, who also called on the local authorities for an immediate, impartial investigation and a ban on coercive techniques that severely restrict breathing.

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England beat Czech Republic to top group as Raheem Sterling strikes again

More than anything, it was a night when Gareth Southgate needed his attacking talents to express themselves. Safe passage to the last 16 at Euro 2020 had been guaranteed but could England show something to generate a bit of excitement, to fire the feeling that they might be able to cut through teams – a quality that had been wholly absent last Friday in the 0-0 draw with Scotland? Thanks in large part to Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka, who both came into the starting lineup for the first time at these finals, they did so during an enjoyable first half when England asked questions of the Czech Republic with their movement and interplay.

Related: Bukayo Saka’s versatility has Czechs flailing and England flying | Jonathan Liew

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