Mayor Izet Shaban dropped an emergency declaration for Ardino after massive rain hammered the area and wrecked the infrastructure connecting six villages. The concrete bridge over the Arda River near Kitnitsa got totally swamped, which cut off Rusalsko, Lyubino, Latinka, Avramovо, Pesnopoy, and Spoluka from the rest of civilization since that bridge was literally their only way in or out.
The order bans vehicles from rolling through the sketchy zones while they figure out what to do about the flooded republican road network. Meanwhile, Petrich and Sandanski are still dealing with their emergency situations from the same weather event that caused all this chaos.
Associate Professor Velev explained that when kids run hot, it actually means their immune system is doing its job and creating a hostile environment for whatever bug invaded their body. Parents shouldn't freak out and start throwing antibiotics at viral infections just because the thermometer hits 38 or 38.5 degrees Celsius, though anything near 39 in toddlers under two warrants a doctor visit pretty quick.
He pointed out that small kids naturally run warmer and more erratic temperatures because their brain's thermostat is still figuring itself out, and their faster metabolism pumps out more heat. The normal range sits between 36 and 37.2 degrees, but mornings around 4 am show the lowest readings while evenings can push past 37...
Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev walked out of detention around noon and immediately got emotional with his wife Kamelia before telling reporters his kids were getting the first hug. He said the city needs to get back to regular business, but his family comes first.
Kotsev basically told everyone this whole situation should be a wake-up call about what can happen to anybody, and there's still a trial coming where he hopes everything gets revealed. He mentioned there are lessons to learn from this mess, but he's not rushing into hot takes just yet since people are still figuring out what actually went down.
Bulgaria wrapped up everything they needed to do for the Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing back in 2023, but Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev told parliament the holdup is on Greece's end with admin stuff and technical paperwork. He was responding to questions about why the checkpoint still isn't open, even though Greece published the commissioning notice for its border section. Georgiev mentioned Bulgaria keeps bringing this up at every bilateral meeting with Athens, and the Greeks say they want to get it done but have been dealing with tough terrain, construction delays, and court appeals.
The checkpoint will start with light vehicles under 3.5 tons when it finally opens. Bulgaria sent a note through its Athens embassy asking for a...
Political analyst Arman Babikyan told Bulgarian National Radio that Peevski and Borisov are still playing hot potato with the budget and who actually runs things. He thinks the BSP leader's recent statement was basically Peevski sending messages to Borisov through back channels, since nobody spelled out which social demands they were actually talking about.
Babikyan said Peevski kept cranking up the pressure by tossing in an extra 2 billion for sketchy foreign property deals, plus the Lukoil situation and Sports Totalizator stuff. All that buildup finally got people mad enough to hit the streets. Borisov felt the squeeze and pulled back the budget, then scrambled to talk with employer groups and unions to cool things down. The analyst...
PP-DB reps told journalists the draft budget needs to get pulled back. DSB leader Atanas Atanasov said whoever submitted this thing has to yank it during their morning meetup, then do the whole legal song and dance with the Tripartite before bringing it back for parliament's first reading.
Asen Vassilev from We Continue the Change pointed out they've passed budgets in four weeks before, and if they pull it back right away, it could still get done before the New Year. He said his crew would grind through the holidays just like regular Bulgarian workers do, but the correct move is scrapping this version and building a new macro framework. Without major revisions to satisfy citizens and businesses, he's expecting more protests to pop off...
Vasil Pandov from the Continue Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition is taking Slavi Trifonov to court after the There Is Such a People party boss accused him of stirring up violence during protests. Pandov said both Trifonov and Delyan Peevski are running coordinated smear campaigns against him with straight-up lies, and he pointed out that health officials plus the family of a dead cop already cleared him of any involvement in that officer's death. The lawmaker said he was nowhere near the Ministry of Health incident where provocateurs showed up, and police chiefs confirmed there were agitators planted at the demonstration.
If Pandov wins the defamation case, he plans to donate whatever compensation he gets to groups that help women...
Four municipalities in Blagoevgrad are still under disaster status after heavy rain caused rivers to jump their banks and trash infrastructure plus private property. Sandanski got hit the hardest with villages like Novo Delchevo, Dzhigurovo, and Leshnitsa dealing with flooded homes and streets sitting underwater. Teams are out there cataloging the wreckage so they can start fixing things once the water backs off.
The Beli Breg dam near Sandanski is doing controlled releases right this second, but officials say there is zero threat to people because the water gets funneled through a ravine that skips towns entirely and dumps straight into the Struma River. Weather forecasters are warning that more rain is about to pound the region...
Former economy minister Nikolay Vassilev told bTV the 2026 budget is not actually dead but sitting in limbo while politicians hash out revisions. He said Bulgaria keeps pretending to run 3% deficits but really starts at 5% and ends up hitting 8%, and the country needs to ditch deficit spending entirely and get back to surplus budgets. Vassilev thinks public money gets dumped into pointless projects instead of going where it matters.
He backed employers who bounced from the Tripartite talks and agreed the government should not jack up social security payments or dividend taxes. Vassilev wants massive cuts and reforms across the public sector, and he said politicians could walk out right this second and fire 10,000 state admin workers...
