Fjori Sinoruka

After an initial attempt to send refugees and migrants for processing in Albania failed, owing to Italian court rulings, a second ship with eight on board arrived in Shengjin port on Friday.

After Italian judges scuppered a second attempt to send migrants for processing in Albania, critics say the ‘offshoring' agreement between the two countries is in deep trouble.

The COP29 climate change summit in Baku has proven a lucrative side hustle for the host – gas-producing, oil-rich Azerbaijan – with Balkan visitors lining up to strike deals.

The state promised everyone left homeless by a 2019 earthquake a new home in 2020. Some are still living in squalor.

Prosecutors are investigating an Elbasan-based organised crime group that trafficked drugs from Latin America and whose suspected members and associates include a former judge, a senior police official and two journalists.

The son of an army general in communist Albania, Robert Budina was part of the student protests that helped bring down the regime, only to flee to Italy on an overcrowded boat. The experience has informed his work ever since.

After being freed from house arrest, the opposition Democratic Party leader, Sali Berisha demanded the formation of a new technical government to steer the country ahead of 2025 elections

In his new book, political scientist Ermal Hasimja says Albanians have deliberately decided to ‘forget' the criminal nature of the country's former communist regime, as a kind of defence mechanism.

Opposition MPs claimed the government is ignoring Council of Europe experts' advice urging parliament to let the Constitutional Court review the mandate of a former minister who has been accused of abuse of office.

Musine Kokalari paid a heavy price for opposing Albania's slide into totalitarianism; a newly opened museum recalls her largely forgotten struggle for a more liberated society.