Five cars burned in Skopje, and the Interior Ministry answers with one sentence

A Mercedes on John Kennedy Street at 3:05, a Chevrolet and a Golf on Finska at 6:05, a Toyota and a Hyundai in Karpos the day before. Five vehicles burned in a little over a day, nobody injured, and for every case the Interior Ministry offers the same line: measures are being taken to fully clear up the matter. Not a word on the cause, not a word on whether any of the fires was deliberate. A video is circulating with a voice making accusations, while the citizen who parks on the street learns everything except the one thing that matters.

Six years of licence categories written in over a counter

From September 2020 to August 2026, a junior adviser for travel documents used her official codes to enter categories for people who had never passed the test. Six people are charged and another 21 are under investigation. Drivers with added C and D categories took the wheel of buses and trucks on international routes. That is not an administrative slip, it is a risk to every passenger. The question is how one code could write categories for six years with nobody checking.

Three lives in three hours on two ordinary roads

At 18:29 on the Bitola - Prilep road a seventeen-year-old girl was killed. At 21:35 on the motorway near Agino Selo two passengers aged 49 and 71 died. Seven were injured, among them a seven-year-old child, and the Mercedes driver was taken into custody. The police bulletin carries the standard sentence that the causes are subject to investigation. The question for the state is not who was driving, but whether these spots are on any blackspot list and what has actually been done there.

Mavrovo is run on a map older than the state

Borders from 1952, zoning from 1988, a revaluation deadline that expired in 2010. Pelister and Galicica completed the process, Mavrovo did not. The study has been ready since 2013, the draft law was pulled from the ENER portal in 2015 with no explanation, and the Bern Convention last year recommended halting the hydropower plants. The Ministry's answer: we are open to a public debate at the request of the organisations, which requested exactly that in writing on 9 September. So much for urgency.

The signature from Washington is worth up to five million dollars

Data centres, Cebren, Galiste, a 200-billion portfolio - the list the prime minister brings home from Washington is long. Checked item by item, one project is actually contracted: up to five million dollars for preparation and assessment of the Krstov Dol mine. Everything else is a communication channel and talks. On Bulgaria the message is that the constitutional amendments remain on the table, only now an EU representative is wanted at that table too.

The basket grows faster than the wage

September's union basket reached 69,432 denars for a family of four, and nearly 85,000 with rent. The union federation is asking for a 600-euro minimum wage. On the same day Tinex passed into Kosovar hands - the Competition Commission gave the green light to Proeks, a group with 235 million euros in turnover, seeing no problem for competition in the very market where people fill that basket.

The Balkan AI race is passing us by

Greece signed with AWS, Bulgaria is building an AI factory, Serbia has a state data centre. Kozani is getting 300 megawatts with Amazon, while Pehcevo rejected one with nine votes against - without the public knowing beforehand what was being rejected. Meanwhile Skopje is waiting for 100 electric buses and first has to strengthen the power supply in Avtokomanda, while line 35 is being extended to Radisani on a trial basis.

From Tetovo to Kisela Voda, the small things nobody closes

Tetovo beans have fallen from 300-400 kilos per decare to 300 from two decares - the canal is closed, the field needs seven waterings, and there is no schedule for water. In Kisela Voda, a third case in a few days of rubble dumped beside the containers, the mayor writes zero tolerance on Facebook, the cameras are in procedure. In Veles, for once, something was done rather than announced - 30 cataract operations in under two months, with no travel to another city.

The lighter part of the day

Real took the first EuroLeague Super Cup, Kawhi Leonard said goodbye to the Clippers, and Doncic brought the Lakers to Slovenia. In football Isak answered his critics with a goal, while Dimitrievski and Elmas had a rough weekend. In handball Macedonia bid for the 2034 Euros while Tikves went out at home in Kavadarci. Sophia Loren turned 92.

The day passed with institutions that have a ready sentence for every case and not one answer. The fires are being cleared up, the causes are subject to investigation, the Ministry is open to debate, the signature is announced. Tomorrow someone will park on a street in Skopje again, will board a bus whose driver may have passed the test, and will wait for one of those processes to finish.