UEFA WC Qualifiers

Live (1st Half):

🇦🇩 Andorra 0–0 🇦🇱 Albania (29’)
🏴 England 0–0 🇷🇸 Serbia (28’)
🇲🇩 Moldova 0–0 🇮🇹 Italy (28’)

Final Scores:

🇦🇲 Armenia 0–1 🇭🇺 Hungary

FT Results:

🇦🇲 Armenia 0–1 Hungary 🇭🇺
🇦🇩 Andorra 0–1 Albania 🇦🇱
🏴 England 2–0 Serbia 🇷🇸
🇲🇩 Moldova 0–2 Italy 🇮🇹

—I would spend hours studying these maps.

Balkan history is amazing!

Chinese control of Greece’s Piraeus Port—Europe’s fourth-largest—is expected to come under renewed scrutiny after Athens said it is in discussions with the United States about new investments in its maritime infrastructure.

Serbia will sign a contract with France's Alstom by December 15 for the construction of the first line of the planned Belgrade metro system.

Croatia has proposed major changes to its Foreigners Act and its asylum legislation to align with new EU rules on migration and single permits.

Foreigners Act – Key Points

Longer valid status during unemployment; easier employer changes after 6 months.

Permit processing extended to 90 days.

Up to 7-day detailed border checks under new EU Entry/Exit rules.

Mandatory Croatian A1.1 language exam after one year of residence.

Student residence permits may last up to 3 years.

Residence and seasonal permits could last up to 3 years; seasonal work allowed up to 9 months.

Digital delivery of documents; previous permits remain valid.

Extensions can be denied to employers on a “blacklist.”

Asylum & Protection Act – Key Points

Designed to reduce secondary movements and improve EU-level Dublin procedures.

Clearer rules for reception conditions, including allowances and protection for vulnerable groups.

Easier access to healthcare, education, and work.

New rules on movement restrictions and detention to curb system abuse.
Extra safeguards for minors; stronger guardian roles.

Integration obligations (language courses, workshops) for protection beneficiaries; non-compliance may reduce certain social rights.

Mandatory language and cultural courses for asylum seekers in reception centres.

New controlled-movement centres and faster Dublin transfers.

EU-wide safe-country list and binding solidarity mechanism (relocation, funds, or operational support).

The Dublin system is an EU framework (Dublin III Regulation law) that decides which single member state is responsible for examining an asylum application—usually the country where the person first entered the EU. If someone applies in another state, they can be transferred (“Dublin transfer”) back to the responsible country.

Bulgaria’s state administration salary reached 3,088 leva (€1,580) in Q3 2025, up 417 leva from 2024. It ranks 5th among economic sectors, with the highest pay in IT/telecom, finance, energy, and scientific professions; and the lowest in hospitality, agriculture, and other services.

Across the first three quarters of 2025, public-sector wages rose 14.2%, outpacing the private sector’s 11.3%. The overall average salary for Q3 2025 was 2,549 leva (€1,320), slightly down (0.9%) from Q2. Year-on-year, wages grew 12%, with the strongest increases in administrative support, construction, and education.

Employment fell by 28,900 (-1.2%) from June to September 2025, mainly in hospitality, agriculture, and real estate. Compared to a year earlier, total employment rose by 30,100 (+1.3%), led by health and social work, construction, and trade, while manufacturing and agriculture recorded the biggest declines.

Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry plans to request a postponement of €361 million from its 2026 installment for the second batch of F-16 fighter jets, citing major funding shortages.

Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov told Parliament that the army’s modernization program is strained by a €210 million shortfall in capital spending under existing contracts.

Bulgaria is scheduled to pay about €653 million in 2026 under a payment plan proposed by the U.S. when the deal was agreed in 2022. Zapryanov said Bulgaria will seek to renegotiate and reschedule these obligations but did not confirm whether the final payment deadline of 2031 will still be met.

He added that planned defence spending under a European loan for 2026 totals €151 million, also below expectations. Bulgaria has already received several of its ordered F-16s, with aircraft arriving in April, June, and October 2025.

👀

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced plans to sue the EU over its decision to phase out Russian gas imports by 2027.

Orbán stated, “We do not accept this obviously unlawful solution contrary to European values, which was chosen by Brussels to shut down a national government that disagrees with it,” adding, “We are turning to the European Court of Justice.” He argued that sanctions require unanimous EU approval, whereas this decision was made by a majority vote, calling it “a trade policy measure” rather than a sanction.

Orbán also revealed ongoing negotiations with the US to secure a sanction waiver on Russian oil, which he discussed with US President Donald Trump. He claimed the exemption would last “as long as Donald Trump is the president of the United States and there is a national government in Hungary.”

Hungary remains at odds with the EU over Ukraine, refusing to send military aid or support Kyiv’s EU membership, arguing that such moves would draw Hungary into the war.

The European Commission is reportedly proposing to change unanimous voting on sanctions and foreign policy related matters to a qualified majority vote.

This would mean two things.

1. The EU could disregard Hungary and Slovakia's veto of Ukraine arms shipments

2. The EU could create new sanctions against Hungary separate from the US sanctions for buying Russian oil.

Page 2695

Q. In your statement, in paragraphs 47 and 48 — if you could kindly turn to those paragraphs in your statement. Please have a look at this.

In your statement you talk about tourist shooters. After that, you talk about “burgermeisters” who would pay money to go to Sarajevo to shoot people from the Serb side.

Mr. Jordan, do you remember having said that in your statement in August of last year? And could you tell us where you got this information from at the time?

A. Yes, ma’am.

Q. And could you tell us where you got this information from at the time?

A. I had witnessed on more than one occasion personnel who did not appear to me to be locals — by their dress, by the weapons they carried, by the way they were being handled, i.e., guided around by the locals. I saw this in Sarajevo on a number of occasions. Some of my other personnel had seen it in the Mostar area.

The term “burgermeisters” is a slang term that refers to the fact that Croatia, being allied, friendly — i.e., Germany — that’s where the tourists came from on that side. Up by us, it was kind of hard to get a tourist into Sarajevo to shoot uphill, so the tourists shot downhill.

Q. I understand that you established a visual distinction between the locals and the foreigners in Sarajevo. This is what I can conclude on the basis of your statement. Is this true? Did you actually establish this distinction?

A. You can assume from my statement that I am a trained observer and can tell when one guy, who is obviously not familiar with an area, is being led — literally almost by the hand — around an area by people who are familiar with it. This is where the term “tourist shooter” came from. The guy was not from the neighborhood. He did not carry arms that were typical of the neighborhood.

Q. Precisely. You saw these people doing the job.

A. I saw— I never saw one of these tourist shooters take a shot. I just saw them being handled and moved around known sniper positions. I never actually saw one take a shot. But again, it was clearly obvious that the person being led by men who were familiar with the ground was completely unfamiliar with the ground, and his manner of dress and the weapons they carried led me to believe they were tourist shooters. It was an expression that I ran into for the first time in Beirut, where we saw the same thing happening around the Green Line.

https://www.icty.org/x/cases/dragomir_milosevic/trans/en/070222ED.htm

Serbian energy minister says NIS oil firm gets three-month US approval to secure exiting of its Russian owners.