Displaying items by tag: Balkans

The Balkans, along with much of Europe, are enduring a prolonged heatwave, which has led to the unprecedented drying up of Serbia's Rusanda salt lake. An expert has warned that such heatwaves could become more frequent due to climate change. Temperatures in the Balkans have soared to 39°C (102°F), and the Adriatic Sea reached a record-high temperature of 29.5°C in Croatian coastal resorts. North Macedonia and Albania have deployed resources to combat forest fires, with North Macedonia declaring a state of emergency. The World Bank has highlighted the need for significant investment to mitigate the impact of climate change. Other European countries, including Italy, Greece, and France, are also experiencing extreme heat. In Ukraine, rain is forecast on 18 July, to break the pattern of several weeks of abnormally high temperatures; the country’s grain harvest is likely to be significantly reduced.

Catalonia's drive to separate from Spain is rekindling dreams of independence in ethnic pockets across the Balkans - a dangerous ambition in a region where nationalist violence claimed tens of thousands of lives in the 1990s. Among ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia and the Serbs of Republika Srpska, in the wake of the ‘banned’ Catalan referendum, separatist leaders are asking the same question: ‘Why don't we do the same?’ On the election day, graffiti of Catalan flags appeared several towns in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, along with the claim that ‘Vojvodina = Catalonia’. Meanwhile, in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar, a giant banner appeared near the cathedral showing the flags of Catalonia and Herceg-Bosna, the self-styled Croat entity, reading ‘Good luck. We are the next.’ Local media are saying, ‘The fact that one region (Kosovo) managed to secure independence has emboldened many like-minded leaders in the region’.