On 29 December 2022, the blockade in Jarinje and Bernjak crossing points in the North Kosovo region1 bordering Serbia ended after 19 days, following lengthy negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo with assistance from the European Union (EU) and the United States. However, the uneasy peace remains a cause for concern, …

Serbia is poised to cut the minimum age of criminal responsibility after a 13-year-old went on a shooting spree in a Belgrade school, reaching for the kind of ‘tougher punishment’ response it has deployed before. Studies, however, raise doubts about the deterrent effect. When, in the hours that followed an …

Months after government servers were hit by sophisticated cyber-attacks, questions remain over Montenegro’s readiness to confront the next inevitable assault, experts say. First they blamed Russia, then a gang called Cuba Ransomware. Months later, authorities in Montenegro still have no definitive answer as to who was behind “unprecedented” cyber-attacks in …

Croatia and Bosnia say the expulsion of hundreds of migrants and refugees from the first to the second country are regulated by a bilateral agreement – but NGOs, rights groups and a legal expert question its legality. Since the end of March 2023, hundreds of migrants and refugees have been …

Shrewd political ploy or justice served? Just why did Hungary’s president pardon Gyorgy Budahazy, a notorious extremist convicted of terrorism. Upon his unexpected release from prison, Gyorgy Budahazy, a notorious far-right activist, jumped on a horse and rode away triumphantly – straight to the nearest pub. What seemed like a …

There is the real prospect of the pro-Russian nationalist-populist Robert Fico returning to power after the September election. Slovakia is set for its third government in as many years after Eduard Heger stepped down as prime minister on Sunday. Even though the full details of the interim technocratic government that …

On May 9, China’s General Administration of Customs released the latest data on the country’s foreign trade, revealing changes in the situation facing the Chinese economy and its relationship with global economies. In the first four months of this year, the total value of China’s foreign trade imports and exports …

Middle Eastern battlegrounds are alive and kicking even though rivals seek to balance contentious relations. Take efforts by the United Arab Emirates, and more recently Saudi Arabia, to bring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in from the cold in a bid to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran and address …

In early May, Reuters published a report that truly captured my attention. “European savers are pulling more of their money from banks, looking for a better deal as lenders resist paying up to hold on to deposits some feel they can currently live without,” the article reported. Over in the …

Money supply growth fell again in March, plummeting further into negative territory after turning negative in November 2022 for the first time in twenty-eight years. March’s drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years. Since April 2021, money supply growth …