Tinex Sold, Six Police Officers Suspended Near Saraj, Public Debt at €10.7 Billion, Kumanovo's Garbage at Drisla

Tinex has a new owner, and the price stayed in the drawer

The supermarket chain that has been part of everyday shopping in Macedonia for more than three decades now belongs to Proex International, a company from Pristina that had already taken over Interex. The sale of Tinex also covers SuperTinex, Konto and Spot, and the new owner promises fully stocked shelves and competitive prices. How much the chain cost, nobody said. Shoppers will judge the new owner by what is on the shelves, but the employees and the suppliers deserve more than a nicely worded press release.

Saraj: six suspensions, two versions and footage the public has not seen

The Interior Ministry announced that six police officers have been suspended over the beating of two young men near Saraj, aged 21 and 23. Internal control found "a series of irregularities" four days after the incident, and only after the Albanian party DUI published photos of the beaten young men. The police union tells a completely different story: an anti-drug operation, an attempt to run officers over, a service weapon taken, and injuries sustained while fleeing. Both versions cannot be fully true. The footage the Ministry based its decision on is the only way to see which one is closer to the truth.

The police react once the video reaches the news sites

A Skopje man rode a motorcycle on one wheel down Partizanska boulevard without a driving licence, filming himself for TikTok. The ride happened on October 3, and the police went looking for him only after the clip appeared on news portals on October 10. Two criminal complaints are now on the way. Same sequence in Aerodrom, where a wedding convoy blocked Jane Sandanski boulevard: four cars stopped in the middle of the road to pick up the bride, and the drivers were fined only after the video reached the media. Meanwhile, the Safe City camera system goes live today in Ohrid, Struga, Kičevo and Debar, with 40 cameras along the lake alone. The cameras are there. The question is whether anyone watches them before TikTok does.

€10.7 billion in debt and planned flats shrinking to 78 square metres

Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrieska-Kočoska says that the public debt of €10.7 billion, or 58.8 percent of GDP, is "within projections". Two new rounds of borrowing are being considered for next year, and part of the money will go toward the Eurobond issued in 2023, which matures in 2027 with an interest rate above six percent. A new citizens' bond has also been announced, but so far with no known interest rate, maturity or subscription date. On the housing market, 1,030 new flats were planned in August, while the average planned flat shrank from almost 100 to 78 square metres. The number of flats jumped by almost 60 percent, their total floor area by only 25 percent.

October 11: a raised head, Strykers on the square and fireworks in Prilep

At the commemorative ceremony in Kumanovo, Prime Minister Mickoski sent a message to Bulgaria: Macedonia will enter Europe "with a raised head, not with a bent and humiliated spine". It is a strong line, but the European Commission still ties the next phase to the constitutional amendments, and a plan for what happens if Sofia and Brussels refuse to budge was not part of the speech. The Prime Minister also set a goal of bringing the average net salary close to €1,000; in July it stood at 48,499 denars. On the main square in Kumanovo, the Army showed off its Stryker armoured vehicles, while Prilep marked the anniversary with fireworks, a re-enactment of the 1941 attack on the police station and a programme running until November 3.

Garbage at Drisla, homeless people nobody counts and a train with an unknown number of passengers

Kumanovo's garbage ended up at Drisla after local villages blocked the Krasta landfill over a fire that, according to the mayor himself, comes back every year. The public utility had no equipment to deal with it, and cameras, thermal imaging and an eco-patrol are being promised only now. Macedonia, meanwhile, has neither a definition nor a register of homeless people: for Skopje there is only a 2022 Red Cross estimate of around 500 people. And the commuter train from Zelenikovo to Skopje makes the trip in 25 minutes and got praise in a Facebook video, but how many passengers it actually carries, nobody says.

The world: 13 dead in Riyadh, a mine in Hormuz, a truce without the Kremlin

A Houthi missile hit Riyadh's airport and killed 13 people, while the Saudi authorities barely said a word. In the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran, a supertanker struck a mine because it was sailing on an "unauthorised route". Trump declared an "energy truce", and a few hours later Russian strikes hit power plants in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Washington, for its part, eased sanctions on Russian diesel, which could earn Moscow almost $7 billion, while five European intelligence services are warning that Russia is planning assassinations of executives at companies helping Ukraine. Closer to home, a Thompson song turned singer Jakov Jozinović into a target in both Serbia and Croatia, ahead of his concerts in Belgrade.

Sport: a defeat in Europe and a rescue in the 93rd minute

Handball club Vardar suffered its third defeat in the Champions League, against Płock, and coach Čupić took the responsibility on himself - a rare sentence in a sport where the referees usually carry the blame. The fans stayed behind to applaud. Football club Vardar was rescued by Zakarić in the 93rd minute, and in basketball Strumica celebrated its first win in the Superleague.

The heavier part of the day has a common denominator: the one figure that should have come first is missing. The price of Tinex, the footage from Saraj, the terms of the citizens' bond, the number of passengers on the train. Institutions and companies keep talking, and keep the most important part to themselves. Who is going to ask for it?