North Macedonia

An official agreement was signed with Bulgaria for the construction of a cross-border tunnel completing the long-discussed railway connection along Corridor VIII; the signing ceremony took place at the Gyueshevo station, near the border

After local election runoffs, ruling VMRO DPMNE party won in 21 out of the 33 municipalities where second rounds were held, confirming its overall dominance: in total the party is set to govern 54 of North Macedonia's 81 municipalities

Government wants to require journalists and others to seek permission to use open data from public institutions, heightening concerns about transparency; experts say a new bill on open data risks introducing new restrictions on transparency

Nearly 13 years since construction began, the Church of St. Constantine and Helena in central Skopje has been inaugurated and the square fully refurbished

As a new school year began, Minister says deep-seated problems in North Macedonia’s education system - shortage of free-of-charge textbooks, inflated grades, outdated university courses and old curricula - will take years to sort out

Local elections due in October are shaping into more than a simple contest in North Macedonia's ethnic Albanian bloc, as it split into two groups, each claiming to be the community’s ‘authentic’ representative between two main political forces

More inclusive websites will be developed at government level for people with visual impairments and hearing disabilities, but a lot of work remains to be done in North Macedonia for access to both physical and virtual sites

State postal service is declining, service and business wise; experts say to revers the trend money and political will would be needed, and both are lacking

Construction on the biggest-yet North macedonia wind farm has begun; a €430 million investment by Luxembourg-based Alcazar Energy near Stip, it will host 55 turbines generating 400 Megawatts of energy, enough for 100.000 households out of a total 580.000

The village of Galicnik hosted a memorable Galicnik Wedding last weekend: the public ceremony honours traditions and has become an annual cultural event; lasting for two days it brings back life the nearly abandoned village emptied by migration

A lack of specific regulation for cryptocurrencies in North Macedonia is fueling abuse, from anonymous transactions to a black market that is fertile ground for tax evasion, fraud and money-laundering

Newsrooms in North Macedonia are shrinking and media production is increasingly reliant on PR and social media content, ‘ready-made’ sources, for lack of financial and human resources; professionals lament a lack of discovery, analysis, contextualization

The two former directors of a COVID-19 modular hospital in the city of Tetovo were given jail sentences for endangering public safety over a fire that on 8 September 2021 killed 14 patients for a lack of fire extinguishers