—🇭🇺🇸🇰❌🇪🇺 NEW: Hungary and Slovakia will file separate lawsuits at the EU Court of Justice against the bloc’s ban on imports of Russian gas and plan to coordinate their legal actions, Slovak PM Robert Fico said.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇪/🇪🇺 NEW: Montenegro has now closed its 13th EU accession negotiating chapter, more than one third of the total, consolidating its status as the frontrunner in the current enlargement wave and putting it in pole position to become the next EU member.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇧🇬/🇪🇺 NEW: Former Bulgarian president Rumen Radev said Europe has become a “hostage” to its ambition for moral leadership in a world “without rules,” warning that this approach exposes the EU to mounting security and geopolitical risks.
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✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇭🇷 NEW: Croatian PM Andrej Plenković said Zagreb will first examine the legality and other implications of US President Donald Trump’s proposed international “Board of Peace” before deciding whether Croatia will join the initiative.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇺🇸/🇷🇸 NEW: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance expects Belgrade to establish who is responsible for the September 2023 Banjska attack in northern Kosovo, as well as for the attacks on KFOR troops in May 2023.

➡️ He stressed that Serbia must clarify accountability for both incidents as part of its obligations toward regional security and stability.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇰 WATCH: Foreign workers from South Asia have begun arriving in North Macedonia after the government approved up to 10,000 work permits for 2026, a move authorities say is needed to address labor shortages.

➡️ The opposition has accused the government of enabling a “migrant invasion,” a claim officials firmly reject.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🇧🇬🐕Cut marks on dozens of canine skeletons found at archaeological sites in Bulgaria suggest that people were eating dog meat 2,500 years ago

Stella Nikolova, a zooarchaeologist at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences says:

Dog meat was not a necessity eaten out of poverty, as these sites are rich in livestock, which was the main source of protein

Evidence shows that dog meat was associated with some tradition involving communal feasting

While the practice is considered taboo in contemporary European societies, this hasn't always been the case. Historical accounts mention that the ancient Greeks also sometimes ate dog meat, and archaeological analysis of dog skeletons from Greece has confirmed those stories