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Balkan developments

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Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti pays unofficial visit to Tetovo and Skopje


Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti paid an unofficial visit to Tetovo and Skopje at the invitation of the municipal mayors. During his visit, PM Kurti said that “North Macedonia should stay closer to Kosovo, Albania and Bulgaria and further away from Serbia, which has not distanced itself from either Slobodan Milosevic or Vladimir Putin". According to Kurti, this will bring Skopje closer to EU membership and make the Balkans safer. North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski and the country’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski expressed their indignation with the fact that there were flags of "Greater Albania" at the events. Stevo Pendarovski demanded sanctions for the organizers. In an interview for Pink TV, Serbia’s President said that “what happened in North Macedonia was a scandal of scandals”.

Anti-vaccine activists storm Romania’s Ministry of Health


Anti-vaccine activists, supporters of the nationalist party “Alliance for Unity of Romanians”,  stormed the Health Ministry in Bucharest, DiGi24 TV reported.

They tried to reach the office of Romania’s Health Minister Alexandru Rafila but were stopped by the gendarmerie. Earlier, Minister Rafila refused to receive a delegation of anti-vaxxers who oppose an alleged mandatory vaccination bill. Protesters demanded the minister's resignation and shouted "Vaccines are poison", "No dictatorship" and "Freedom".

"I assure you that the majority of those present here, the elderly, were vaccinated as children. They were not intoxicated, but I think that a political party that is irresponsibly attacking the foundations of public health is intoxicated", said Minister Rafilla.

Greek authorities to reform associations of organized team supporters


Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the associations of organized team supporters will close and only one official association will remain open for each team and operate at each football club’s headquarters. The statement came after the prime minister's meeting with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, Greek ministers and owners of the football clubs Olympiakos, AEK, PAOK and Panathinaikos, ert.gr reported. The entrance through the stadium gates will come under the jurisdiction of the police. The prime minister warned that if necessary, as an ultimate measure, teams could be excluded from the European club competitions. The measures came after the match between Dinamo Zagreb and AEK Athens on 7 August when a supporter of AEK was killed in a clash between football fans. Athens strongly condemned Croatian President Zoran Milanovic's words on the detention of football fans in Greece who said: “These people are being detained as if there was a war".

Serbian TV uses artificial intelligence for political satire


The Serbian TV Pink broadcast videos created by artificial intelligence. The satirical series feature fake statements by opposition politicians in which they insult their colleagues with artificially generated words. Dragan Djilas told the daily newspaper “Danas” that "this is not satire, but a classic deception of the citizens". He will sue the media to stop broadcasting the montages. Artificial intelligence and its use in media is not regulated in Serbia. The owner of "Pink" TV Željko Mitrović announced on Twitter that he is preparing a new TV channel called "Glavna TV". It will have no employees and will be entirely run by an artificial intelligence. 

Published and translated by: Kostadin Atanasov

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