Diesel: the tax cut expires, the decision doesn't arrive

The reduced VAT on diesel, 10 instead of 18 percent, has applied since September 15 and expires at midnight. A litre of eurodiesel now costs at most 104.50 denars, and if the rate goes back to 18 percent, the tax alone adds more than seven denars per litre. Asked about an extension, Energy Minister Sanja Bozhinovska said: "We are discussing, we are looking, and we will consult at government level."

Deputy Minister Marjan Risteski calculated that the measure saved citizens up to 350,000 euros a day. A measure worth that much, and drivers will only find out what comes next when they pull up at the pump.

90,000 unemployed, and workers from Bangladesh

In the second quarter Macedonia had 90,020 unemployed people and 10,697 unfilled jobs. From January to August 19 the Employment Agency issued 1,837 opinions for workers from Bangladesh, 1,257 from Turkey and 787 from Nepal. The numbers are less contradictory than they look: when an employer says "there are no workers", it often means there aren't enough people who want that job, for that pay and under those conditions. The average net wage in July reached 48,499 denars.

A first-grader in the locker room: where was the adult?

At a primary school in Kočani, older children attacked a six-and-a-half-year-old first-grader, undressed him and filmed him with a smartwatch. The boy's father reported the case, and the prosecutor and the Social Work Centre have been notified. What exactly happened is for the authorities to establish. But the question of who was responsible for the children at that moment doesn't need an investigation to be asked.

And one detail that shouldn't be missed: some schools brought in stricter rules on mobile phones, yet the video was shot with a watch on someone's wrist.

Banks on the stock exchange: a drop with no explanation

Turnover on the Macedonian Stock Exchange rose 25.1 percent last week, but shares of the three most-traded banks fell: Stopanska Banka by 8.33, NLB by 7.88 and Komercijalna by 7.87 percent. Two block trades in Komercijalna shares made up more than a third of the whole week's turnover. The weekly reports give no reason for the drop, and for the small shareholders holding those shares that is not a side question.

Riyadh, Štip, JSP: announcements minus the main part

Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi is in Riyadh with the coordinators of VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM and Vlen, meeting the Consultative Council, whose members are appointed by the king. Macedonia's parliament is elected by citizens; the Shura is an advisory body in an absolute monarchy. The press release has an itinerary, but not a word about topics, expectations or who is paying for the trip.

In Štip, Jordanov stood in front of a party banner and presented a multi-storey car park for 50 vehicles and a hall for 1,300 visitors, without a single figure for what they cost. And Skopje's public transport company JSP announced a digital student card as a QR code in the SkopjeBus app: no counters, but for now no date either.

Vučić leaves the chair, not the race

Aleksandar Vučić signed his resignation as president of Serbia in front of a crowd with flares, and the same evening took first place on the electoral list for the October 25 elections. He hands the office to Ana Brnabić. His last signature was a pardon for 49 people, among them twelve from the Novi Sad group and eleven who took part in incidents against protesters, four weeks before the vote. In the Balkans, power rarely surrenders. More often it just changes chairs.

The gas, the ambassador and the Balkans

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, lobbied Balkan countries to buy American liquefied gas through the Greek company Aktor, whose lobbyist sat in on her meetings. Aktor won a six-billion-dollar contract in Albania, and in Bucharest one of her sentences was read as a threat: "We can do this to any country we want."

The wars don't rest

Russia sent 277 drones at Ukraine, and Kyiv spent 18 hours under air-raid sirens, while the news of a destroyed bridge existed, for now, only on Telegram. In Iraq, according to Baghdad, the US military pulled out 23 years after the invasion, and the Kurds are left under rockets with no air defence. The Balkans know that scene well: the big players leave, the small ones stay behind to count the rockets.

The clearest answer of the day

Zoran Ilijoski, a 14-year-old student from Kičevo, won bronze at the Junior Balkan Olympiad in Informatics in Sarajevo, among 55 competitors from 13 countries. It is his third international medal this year, across maths and informatics. In Bosnia the olympiad ran under the state's patronage, while in Macedonia the competition cycle that finds these kids has been organised for 37 years by the Computer Society of Macedonia, backed by the FINKI faculty and a few companies.

Sport: the net that won't shake

The national football team has gone five matches without scoring, while Iloski, a striker of Macedonian descent who keeps finding the net in MLS, said publicly that he is choosing the US shirt. A nicer picture came from Ilinden, where the first street race drew around 1,000 runners, 400 of them children.

In the heavier part of the day the questions are clear, and the answers are owed by the government, the school, the stock exchange and parliament. None of those addresses offered more than a press release today. The clearest answer came from a 14-year-old with a medal.