Second budget revision, State Lottery arrests, Bit Pazar stalls torn down, a wall on the Ohrid shore

A second budget revision and a pension fund that leaks

The government is preparing a second budget revision this year, and in less than a week the estimated revenue shortfall grew from 6-7 to 7-8 billion denars, or up to about 130 million euros. The reason, according to Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, is lower income from excise duties and VAT, which the government cut to keep fuel cheap. Where the cuts will fall, he didn't say. The opposition isn't buying it: SDSM leader Venko Filipče asks how revenue could drop that much if the price of fuel has gone up by more than 50 percent.

The wider view of public money came from the Fiscal Council. Its pension analysis shows the budget already covers 41 percent of the Pension Fund, and without reform the deficit would reach about 6.6 percent of GDP in 2035-2037. The cause, they say, is not demographics but across-the-board increases and indexation outside the legal formula. The budget revision is an answer for this year. Pensions are a question for the next twenty.

State Lottery: one hand arrests, the other trips in the courtroom

The Financial Police detained two people in a new investigation into the embezzlement of almost 80 million denars, about 1.3 million euros, at the State Lottery. Prosecutors are not releasing names, and according to unofficial information one of those detained is the lottery's former head of finance. Meanwhile, at the video-lottery trial of Perparim Bajrami, Artan Grubi and six other defendants, the prosecution's key witness changed his statement in the defendants' favour. If the new investigation ends the way that trial is going, who is going to answer for it?

A Task Force weekend: the drugs are seized, the network isn't

From 2 to 4 October the police acted in 13 cases and detained 20 people, including two foreigners, from Poland and the Czech Republic. The biggest haul was in Strumica: 59 cannabis plants, around 680 kilograms. In Singelić, an 18-year-old from Skopje faces criminal charges over almost 200 grams of cocaine. The numbers sound serious. The question is whether we will ever read an equally detailed statement about who organises the trade, not just who carried the drugs.

Sofia: we hear about the meeting from the Bulgarian side first

Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski and his Bulgarian counterpart Velislava Petrova-Čamova may meet on Thursday in Sofia, on the sidelines of the Corridor 8 conference. It was the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry that announced it, not Skopje, where there is still no official reply. The initiative came after advice from Ursula von der Leyen. Sofia's message is a familiar one: talks, yes, but no ultimatums and no departure from European policy.

Skopje: Bit Pazar is being torn down, and nobody says by whom

The stalls at Bit Pazar started coming down on 5 October, and there is no answer to who is doing it or why. The City says it is not responsible and points to Čair Municipality, which so far has no details. One of Skopje's oldest markets is changing its face in front of passers-by, and nobody has shown a plan. At the same time, the Stone Bridge is being cleaned of graffiti, and the floor fountain on the square is coming back after years of decay. Čair, meanwhile, is surveying the route of "Cvetan Dimov" boulevard: Mexhiti says the promise is becoming reality, but no deadline and no price have been announced.

Water: a wall on the Ohrid shore, a Vardar not fit for swimming

On the Ohrid shore near Biljana's Springs, at the former "Ajvan beach", a stone retaining wall is going up, and residents are asking who allowed it. The municipality isn't answering for now, just a few months after UNESCO gave the government another five years for Ohrid. The lake itself, meanwhile, is receding: the water level is only four centimetres above the long-term October average.

In Veles, tests by the Public Health Centre showed that the Vardar is not safe even for swimming: nitrites, the fifth and worst class for ammonia, and phosphates that point to untreated sewage. We know the water classes. When the water will start being treated before it reaches the river, nobody knows.

Holidays, a kindergarten and one sentence from 2004

The Chamber of Commerce wants fewer days off: instead of every religious holiday, workers would choose some, and a state holiday falling on a Sunday would no longer move to Monday. Indirectly, the number of days off would drop to 13. The unions reply that nobody mentions wages. In Tearce, the first kindergarten has opened, for 147 children: of just over 800,000 euros, the municipality put in 165,000 and the rest came from the EU. The speeches at the opening were home-grown.

And adopted people still have no right to find out who their birth parents are. Article 123-a of the Family Law, a single sentence that makes adoptions an official secret, still stands two years after the Strasbourg ruling in the Mitrevska case. The ministry's answer is a working group.

Motorway: a death we learn about from a podcast

A driver hit a man on the motorway and kept driving, and the man was found dead by the roadside. The case was confirmed by Interior Minister Pance Toskovski, as a guest on a podcast. There is still no official statement about the victim, the location or the vehicle. The police are looking for the driver.

The region and the world

In Serbia, two Austrian YouTubers walked through the Batajnica military base, climbed onto aircraft and nobody stopped them. The video has more than half a million views, and the Defence Ministry is silent. Viktor Orbán is no longer Hungary's prime minister, but he is still congratulating Dodik on SNSD's election win.

In Kyiv, according to Ukraine's foreign minister, Russian forces hit the two bridges six times across the Dnieper in just a few days. In the Black Sea, a grain ship sank after setting out from Izmail for Ravenna, and two people lost their lives. Kyiv says a Russian drone hit the ship, Moscow is silent. And Iceland has declared a possible collapse of the Atlantic currents a national security risk.

Sport: Lucerne tonight, Vardar win at home by nine

For the lighter part of the day: England put seven past Croatia in Rijeka, the heaviest defeat in Croatian history, while Macedonia go looking for their first goal in the Nations League tonight in Lucerne against Switzerland. In handball, Vardar crushed Ohrid 27:18, but after two rounds of the Champions League they are still waiting for their first point.

The heavier part of the day reads like a string of decisions with no explanation: a budget revision with no list of cuts, a demolition with no plan, a wall on the shore with no answer to who allowed it. From the budget to Ohrid, the question is not what is being done, but who is willing to say why.