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Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Wednesday that Justice Minister Pavel Blažek has received a warning from the party leadership over his meeting with Martin Nejedlý, the controversial political lobbyist and former advisor to ex-president Miloš Zeman who is believed to have close ties with Russia. Many of the government's coalition partners and civic action groups are calling for Mr Blažek to resign over the incident. The prime minister told journalists that in making his decision about whether the minister would be allowed to keep his post, he took into account Mr Blažek's good work heading the Justice Ministry.

On Wednesday morning, Mr Blažek explained the circumstances surrounding his five-hour encounter with Mr Nejedlý at a Prague restaurant last week, which he says was coincidental, to the leadership of the Civic Democrat party, which both he and the prime minister belong to. He also defended himself before the Senate on Wednesday, saying that he had ducked into the restaurant to take cover from a heavy storm, and the reason for his long stay was simply his talkativeness. He told them that the content of his conversation with Mr Nejedlý was not political or anything to be ashamed of, and also pointed out that Mr Nejedlý was not the only person he spoke to in the restaurant. However, he admitted that he didn't sufficiently think through the political implications of his actions.

The coalition party leaders are due to discuss the affair at a meeting on Wednesday evening.

The upper house of the Czech parliament approved an amendment to the law dealing with health insurance for foreigners on Wednesday. The change will allow people from non-EU countries who have residence in Czechia to take out health insurance with any insurance company they like, rather than being mandated to have it with the largest health insurance company in Czechia, VZP, as is the case at present.

The bill will now go to the president to be signed, following which it is expected to come into effect in September. Non-EU citizens who already have insurance with VZP will be able to terminate their contract with the company within three months of the law coming into effect.

The Czech police have extradited Barbora Plášková, the convicted associate of the man nicknamed "Guru Jára", from the Philippines to Czechia. The pair had been on the run since 2012 to avoid serving prison sentences for rape. "Guru Jára", whose real name is Jaroslav Dobeš, was extradited via Taipei to a Prague prison on August 9. Police said at the time that the same fate would await his associate within a few weeks.

Plášková faces a five-year prison sentence for helping Dobeš to rape a number of women between 2004 and 2007. According to the court ruling, she assisted him in pressuring his female pupils into having ritualised sex with him under the pretence of offering lessons in yoga and Eastern philosophy. Some of the victims suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.

The pair were arrested in the Philippines in 2015 and then spent over eight years in an immigration detention centre in Manila. The final decision on their extradition took the local authorities over seven years, as they took advantage of all the available possibilities for appeal and judicial review, and also tried applying for religious asylum in the Philippines. All court proceedings therefore had to take place in their absence.

Chimneysweeps are once again in demand and their numbers are rising, according to the Czech Chimneysweepers Association. In the last four years, the number of chimneysweepers increased by more than a tenth to 3,351. They reportedly have more work than they can handle, because due to higher energy costs, people are increasingly switching back to wood and coal heating.