Thousands protesters blocked roads in Montenegro to halt the enthronement of a new Serbian Orthodox Church archbishop. Angry crowds attacked the police with stones and demolished security fences around the monastery in the city of Cetinje where the ceremony had to take place, BBC reported.

Kosovo on Tuesday postponed the beginning of the school year for students up through high school by two weeks following a surge of coronavirus infections due to the delta variant, and new precautions were taken in other Western Balkan countries like Albania and Serbia, news wires reported. Perparim Kryeziu, the spokesman for the Kosovo government, told the Associated Press that “we have put up some new restrictive measures,” which include postponing classes until Sept. 13, imposing a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. nightly curfew, having restaurants and bars only operate outside and mandatory mask-wearing both indoors and outside.

Police in Montenegro said they seized over 1 ton (2,000 pounds) of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas. The seizure is the biggest in the history of Montenegro, police said Friday on Twitter.

North Macedonia has expelled a Russian diplomat, the second this year, authorities confirmed on Tuesday, without offering any explanation for the decision, news wires reported. Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said the Russian ambassador was summoned last week and informed of the decision concerning one of his senior diplomats.

North Macedonia has reimposed restrictions on access to cafes, restaurants and public events in a bid to subdue a fresh spike in Covid-19 infections and force citizens to get vaccinated, prompting public anger and protests, news wires reported.

The Turkish authorities announced a massive search and rescue operation as floods killed 31 people along the country’s Black Sea coast areas. Dozens more are missing under the debris, BBC elaborated. Kastamonu province is the worst-hit area as it accounted for a total of 29 deaths so far. Floods caused some buildings to collapse, smashed bridges, and blocked streets with wrecked cars. The power supplies were cut off. This month Turkey has also had to battle huge wildfires in the south.

A German diplomat on Monday took office as the top international envoy to Bosnia, facing opposition from the country's Serbs, who have rejected both his appointment and a ban on genocide denial brought by his predecessor, AP reported. Christian Schmidt took over from Valentin Inzko, an Austrian diplomat, at a ceremony in the capital, Sarajevo. The Office of High Representative (OHR) that Schmidt will run was established after Bosnia's 1992-95 war to oversee peace implementation and promote reconciliation and development.

Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev launched a €2m development fund in partnership with the Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDI) to support Roma businesses and address the issue of unemployment in the community. 

Open Balkans will be the new name of the regional initiative which had been informally called Mini-Schengen, MIA reported. This was announced at today's Economic Forum on Regional Cooperation in Skopje, attended by Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania Edi Rama and President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić.

Authorities in several southeast European countries have issued weather warnings before a heat wave in the region expected Thursday that is set to push temperatures to as high as 43 C (109.4 F) in inland areas.