Environmental Protection Agency

Vetevendosje MPs have also joined protests in Lezha in Albania against the construction of hydropower plants.

Kurti and his colleague's visit to Albania came three weeks after his government came to power, and before he has even laid out his domestic programme for governing.

"Especially when it comes to activism, like-minded individuals and people who want to participate and learn will be drawn to houses and clubs, meaning we can all speak to and learn from each other in an environment that is encouraging of that."

Launched in April 2020, Clubhouse currently boasts more than eight million users worldwide.

Protesters attend a 'Free Media' demonstration in front of the Polish Television TVP building at the Warsaw Insurgents Square in Warsaw, Poland, 09 January 2016. EPA/LESZEK SZYMANSKI

Some 3,739 were convicted, including Valentina, but her brush with the law hasn't stopped her. Valentina's persistence is testimony to the deep roots of cannabis cultivation in rural regions of Albania, where poverty is rife and cannabis is seen as a financial lifeline. Police collusion also remains common.

A pedestrian passes a mural depicting doctors in a COVID-19 ward on the outside of the Children's Infectious Diseases Hospital in the Bulgarian capital of​ Sofia on April 9, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/Vassil Donev.

People walk through a snow-covered park in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on April 7, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/Fehim Demir.

Members of Turkey's parliament at a meeting at the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, 2 January 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/STR

The bill was passed by the votes of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP and by MPs from his far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party, MHP.

Surprise

Bulgaria's April 4 Parliamentary election was always going to produce an interesting result, given the strong polling of several populist or anti-corruption groupings taking part. Yet the final outcome was a surprise to most observers and many of the participants.

Albania's health minister has said that all COVID-19 patients who are treated at home will be reimbursed for medicines they buy during their treatment - but getting the money back has sometimes proved impossible.

Gezi Park is one of over 1,000 properties that the Directorate General of Foundations has taken over within the last few years, but undoubtedly the most symbolic one for Erdogan alongside Istanbul's landmark Hagia Sophia.

And contrary to expectations, voter turnout was not lower than usual, despite the pandemic, with long queues reported, particularly at polling stations abroad. By Monday afternoon, with 80 per cent of the ballots processed by the Central Election Commission, the notion of an election that could mark the upending of the status quo dominated by the GERB-BSP rivalry had become a reality.