Vrelo world record, child poverty, the electoral commission's emergency contract, poisoned soil with no law

Vrelo in Matka: the deepest explored underwater cave on the planet

The best news of the day comes from a few minutes outside Skopje. Vrelo cave in Matka has been explored to a depth of 338 metres, overtaking Font Estramar in France and Elefante Bianco in Italy. An international team of 15 divers from Macedonia, Poland and Italy pushed the limit 51 metres deeper than last year, and Macedonian divers built and installed an underwater air chamber on their own for the first time, eight to nine metres down. Two previously unknown channels were also discovered. The record belongs to one cave-diving club and its partners. The question left hanging is whether the state will know what to do with it.

Almost one child in three lives in poverty, and there has been no strategy since 2020

The Macedonian Platform Against Poverty sent the numbers to the government: 29.5 percent of children live below the poverty line, and there has been no national anti-poverty strategy since 2020. Only 19 percent of households with children receive child or family benefits, against 88 percent in the EU. On October 17 Skopje handed out more than 400 meals to people in need, and mayor Orce Gjorgjievski said solidarity should be an everyday duty. Fine. But a meal on October 17 is not a policy, and the strategy these organisations are asking for is exactly what is missing.

Brvenica votes on machines from an emergency contract

Brvenica elects a mayor today, and the State Election Commission signed an emergency deal worth around 200,000 euros without a tender for the biometric voter identification devices at 24 polling stations. The excuse is that it was squeezed for time: the support contract with the German firm Dermalog ran out in August. That deadline was known five years in advance. Nobody could have foreseen the mayor's death. The contract expiring, they could. As for the rest of the machines, which cost the state 11.2 million euros, the commission has only just started looking into them.

Lead, cadmium and arsenic, and the soil law sits in a drawer

Macedonia has at least 13 sites of historic contamination, from OHIS in Skopje and the smelter in Veles to Lojane and Jugohrom in Jegunovce. The NGO Eko-svest warns that the draft soil protection law is written, but the ministry will not publish it, while the rules on contaminated sites have been deleted from the Environment Law. Without limit values for soil, poisoned land is not legally a hotspot and the polluter has nothing to answer for. The law is ready. So what is the ministry waiting for?

A police officer without a licence and children beaten at school

The Interior Ministry's internal control unit has filed criminal charges against a police officer from Drachevo who drove without ever passing his driving test, in a car whose registration had expired. Good that the case was not buried. But the ministry won't say whether the officer is still on duty while the case runs. In the same police bulletin, over just two days, parents reported several attacks on children in or around schools. In Bit Pazar an attack was filmed and posted on social media on October 9, and only reported on the 15th. In Vrapchishte a 12-year-old boy was attacked in a school corridor, and it was the principal who stopped it. Where were the other adults?

Skopje without an amusement park, Chair with a plan but no price

The city cancelled the 10-million-euro amusement park contract over a ruling on the old contract, so Skopje enters a second decade without a funfair. In Chair, meanwhile, mayor Mexhiti called the Old Bazaar a priority and showed off the master plan on site, alongside Turkish urban planner Bayram Vardar. How much it will cost and when it will be finished, he didn't say.

Tourists go elsewhere, scooters stay here

In August the Belgrade region alone had 154,267 foreign guests, while all of Macedonia had 131,076, staying around two nights on average. The no-sea-coast excuse doesn't explain that gap. Meanwhile on our streets, in September alone, police recorded more than 2,600 offences on scooters, bicycles and motorbikes, with Bitola top for scooters at 290. The helmet usually stays at home.

The world: Hormuz, Patriots, an empty purse in Brussels and France in the streets

Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, and a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of oil is burning. The war with Iran has reportedly used up to 61 percent of America's Patriot missiles, so Washington is sending them to the Gulf while Ukraine heads into winter without interceptors. EU leaders failed to agree on the seven-year budget, as Zelensky asks for another 70 billion euros for 2027. In France more than half a million people marched against the cost of living, 1,200 were detained, and the Limoges town hall, built in 1883, burned down in a single night.

Sport: records over there, press releases over here

Haaland became the fastest to 100 non-penalty goals in the Premier League, while at home Arachinovo declared war on the football federation by press release. In handball, Vardar lost by a single goal for the third time this season, while Alkaloid head to Vienna with a nine-goal cushion.

The heavier part of the day shares one thread: the problems are known, the numbers are on the table, the documents are written, and the decision keeps waiting. A strategy for poor children, a law on poisoned soil, a new contract for the voting machines. The only Macedonian record of the day was set by people who didn't wait for anyone.