A sniper rifle and an ISIS flag from 12 Skopje addresses

Assault rifles, a sniper rifle, handguns, a tactical vest and an official ISIS flag. That's the haul from 12 locations across Skopje, including Singelic, Chair and Brest, after a joint operation by the Interior Ministry, the National Security Agency (ANB) and the Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Corruption. Five people have been detained, and the main suspect, K.I. (34), faces a criminal complaint for terrorism. According to the ministry, he had been indoctrinating young people since 2023.

The heaviest sentence in the statement isn't about the weapons. The ANB says religious facilities where radical Islam is practised, and online radicalisation, are the "initial triggers" for recruiting young people. If the services know those places, what's being done there before the next seizure?

A mediator with Sofia, while Macedonia is missing from the roadmap list

A few days before Ursula von der Leyen's visit, Skopje wants talks with Bulgaria to continue with a European mediator at the table. At the same time, Politico reports that the EU is preparing accession roadmaps for Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova - without Macedonia. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski calls that illogical and says his information is different.

Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005, Ukraine and Moldova since 2022. A mediator will mean something only with a clear mandate and a deadline. Without that, we get yet another counter to queue at, with a European stamp on it.

Inflation "half" as high? The numbers say a fifth lower

At a rally in Brvenica, Mickoski said inflation here is "50 percent lower" than in Europe. The figures he cited himself, 2.6 versus 3.2 percent in August, give a difference of about a fifth. And lower inflation doesn't roll prices back, it just pushes them up more slowly. The unions' minimum consumer basket reached 69,432 denars in September, more than 20,000 denars above the average net salary of 48,499 denars.

A dam, a data centre, a national park - and the missing numbers

Chebren is an idea from 1964. After 14 failed tenders, the state will now be the investor itself, and the foundation stone has been promised for next year. Mickoski mentions the American DFC as an interested institution, but there's no closed financing structure, and the prime minister himself admits the project "will last through several governments."

The same pattern shows up with the data centre worth at least 100 million dollars: promises of industrial water from underground sources and closed cooling systems, but how many litres and how many megawatts, nobody is saying yet. Pelister got a contract for state money for wildfires, trails and eco-tourism, but the amount appears nowhere in the press release. Macedonia's oldest national park deserves to have it known how much the state is really spending to protect it.

The Ikarus contract surfaced after a month of questions

The contract for 150 electric buses is worth almost 60 million euros and was signed on September 9, but the public only saw it after a month of questions. The first 30 buses are due by March 2027. Skopje will believe the deadlines when it sees the first bus.

Bit Pazar and Shuto Orizari: clean-ups with an expiry date

Inspectors, municipal officers and police cleared the boulevard from Mavrovka to Bit Pazar: 500 kilograms of food seized, every illegal stall removed. How long the pavement will belong to pedestrians is another question.

In a single week, 915 cubic metres of waste were cleared from illegal dumps in Skopje, and tyres and textiles ended up in the sewers of Shuto Orizari. A free drop-off centre for bulky waste exists, but the forest and the canal are still somebody's first choice.

Pelagonia lost more than 16,000 young people between two censuses

The region has lost more than 16,000 young people aged 15 to 29. The answer so far is the Regional Youth Platform: 24 proposed measures, 13 of them already delivered. Minister Gjoko Velkovski wants the model rolled out in every planning region. It's good that young people are finally being asked, but does anyone leave because there's no youth council - or because of the salary and the flat?

Telma: a redundancy with only one name on it

According to the journalists' union SSNM, Telma's new job structure abolishes just one position - Bobi Hristov's. The union is standing fully behind the veteran editor. When "redundancy" has only one name on it, it's hard to believe this is just a reorganisation.

The average municipality is 39 percent open

The 2026 Openness Index shows the average municipality in Macedonia is only 39 percent open, one percentage point less than last year. Kriva Palanka comes first with 73. The best performers use a digital platform, but openness isn't something an app can fix.

Kaliningrad, the Tu-95 and France's move

In an informal document sent to Brussels, Russia said it is ready to use its "entire arsenal" over Kaliningrad, and the Russian embassy in London openly raised nuclear weapons. NATO condemns "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric." In the Amur region, a Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber crashed, killing six people, and the first version about a "transport plane" didn't last long.

France is moving 2.5 million government computers from Windows to Linux, after Microsoft cut off the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor from his email. Europe has started asking where its data is stored. Is anyone in the Balkans asking the same question?

Sport: 607 minutes without a goal, and Cervar back in Europe

The Macedonian national team has now gone 607 minutes without a goal, with nothing since last November, and coach Sedloski is asking for patience. A brighter picture comes from handball: Pelister open their European campaign tonight, with 76-year-old Lino Cervar on the bench.

The harder part of the day has a common denominator: the announcements arrive before the numbers. The dam is waiting for financing, the data centre won't say how much power it will use, the sum for Pelister hasn't been published, and the buses so far have a deadline only on paper. With the ISIS operation, the question is heavier: will it end with a verdict, or just with another photo of weapons laid out on a table?