A BIRN analysis shows Montenegro’s government and Environmental Protection Agency are waving through solar power projects despite warnings of damage to potential conservation areas and endangered species.

BIRN has identified Andreas Maul, a town councillor for Germany’s far-right AfD party, as the man behind a Serbian company sanctioned by the US for aiding a Russian alleged cybercrime service provider.

Court papers show how marijuana flowed across the North Macedonia-Serbia border declared as pillows, cakes and duvets.

As the EU awaits final approval for plans to set up ‘return hubs’ in third countries for migrants awaiting deportation, it’s predicted that Balkan countries could end up hosting such holding centres despite concerns about human rights violations.

In the Czech Republic there is a shortage of up to 3,000 places in shelters for victims of domestic violence. One alternative is renting on the open market, but this is expensive and single mothers can face discrimination in such situations.

A Serbian veteran of the conflict in Ukraine tells investigators how he ended up as a hitman for a Balkan drug clan.

Donald Trump’s second term has coincided with a significant increase in lobbying efforts by Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity, resulting, it seems, in the lifting of US sanctions on Milorad Dodik and his family and allies.

Prime Minister Edi Rama has blamed social media algorithms for fuelling the so-called Flamingo Revolution protests, but data obtained by BIRN shows that hundreds of fake accounts have been created to push the government’s own narrative and denigrate the protesters.

BIRN has documented at least 25 incidents of satellite navigation interference over Serbia in the past four years, sometimes coinciding with major anti-government protests and often messing with sensitive aircraft positioning data.

Stigma still cloaks the issue of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo, but even more so for survivors from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian minorities.