Skopje

This overarching national issue has so far overshadowed the mayoral contest in Skopje, where there has been no direct TV duel between the two candidates ahead of the runoffs.

Arsovska is cross about the recent negative campaigning against her, which this week included an accusation by the Social Democrats that she has double, Bulgarian, citizenship.

The prosecution in Skopje has opened a preliminary investigation after parents of scouts accused a local scouting organisation in Skopje of organising "improper" sex education games at its recent camp, leaving their children traumatised.

Since early September Ilina Dimitrijevska has been walking endless kilometres every day, going door to door asking people to take part in North Macedonia's first census in nearly two decades.

Her task may be straightforward enough, but the census remains highly sensitive due to the potential impact on the nation's minorities.

Bulgaria expects effective actions from EU institutions to promote the values ​​of democracy and respect for human rights in the Republic of North Macedonia, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said during his meeting on Tuesday with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi. The meeting was not followed by a media briefing and Várhelyi left for Skopje later the same day.

"Skopje can get an answer from Sofia in December if Bulgaria has a government with a clear mandate, but the chance of that is very small," Vessela Tcherneva, deputy director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank specialised in EU foreign affairs, told EURACTIV.

The fire, which broke out around 9 pm, was extinguished.

Code orange for dangerously hot weather has been issued for 9 districts in Bulgaria for August 9.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said today that he was sorry that some in the region were against the "Open Balkans" initiative, because they would like to remain stuck in the 1990s and within closed borders.

The prime ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, Zoran Zaev and Edi Rama, are also taking part in the forum.
Vui was first handed letters of thanks for his help in the fight against coronavirus and donations of vaccines to North Macedonia. He thanked them and then announced the big plans that North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia have.

"We behaved normally, the way you would have behaved in this situation... We are not asking for anything from the Macedonians. Only brotherhood and friendship and to have the closest and best relations," Vucic said during his address to the media.