ROB CAMERON

Jezeří castle sits on the border between two worlds. Surrounded by lush forest, it’s a splendid example of Bohemian baroque – Beethoven’s Third Symphony was performed here for the very first time. But just a few hundred metres away is a barren, moon-crater landscape – site of the largest open cast lignite mine in the country. And local villages find themselves under threat.

A brown bear that injured five people during a rampage in a Slovak town has been shot dead, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba says. However, opposition politicians believe hunters may have shot a different bear, and are calling for answers. Controlling Slovakia’s bear population has become a highly politicised issue under the new populist-nationalist government.

The United States is the world’s most powerful economy, but most of that power is still derived from fossil fuels. When I toured the marshalling yards of Nebraska in 2006, more than half of the country’s electricity was still being produced by burning coal. Twenty years later it’s slipped into second place behind gas – but Americans still rely on the black stuff for 19% of their power.

Catastrophic floods have swept through Central Europe, leading to dozens of deaths and widespread destruction of houses and infrastructure. In the Czech Republic, the worst flooding has been in central and eastern parts of the country, especially North Moravia, where around a dozen people have lost their lives. Towns such as Krnov and Jeseník have been completely cut off.

The Slovak government has approved a plan to shoot around a quarter of the country’s brown bears, after a man was mauled to death while walking in a forest. A total of 350 out of an estimated 1,300 animals will be culled under the plan. “We can’t live in a country where people are afraid to go into the woods,” Prime Minister Robert Fico told reporters after a cabinet meeting.