- World Report 2024: Serbia/Kosovo (hrw.org)
Independent journalists continued to be subjected to threats and intimidation in 2023. War crimes prosecutions remained slow, inefficient, and marred by delays. Attacks and threats against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and organizations continued. Serbia and Kosovo signed a joint declaration on missing persons in May as part of an EU-brokered normalization process, but relations deteriorated after clashes in northern Kosovo later that month linked to a contested election.
- Iran–Israel war (Wikipedia)
The ongoing armed conflict between Iran and the Houthi movement in Yemen against Israel and the United States began on 13 June 2025, when Israel launched a surprise series of attacks on key Iranian military and nuclear facilities. In the opening hours of the war, Israelis forces assassinated some of Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, and politicians; and damaged or destroyed Iran’s air defenses and some of its nuclear and military facilities. Iran retaliated by launching missiles at military sites and cities in Israel. The Iran-allied Houthis have also fired several missiles at Israel, in an adjunct of the Red Sea crisis. For the first nine days of the war, the United States refrained from military activity other than defending Israel against incoming Iranian missiles and drones, but on 22 June, it took offensive action by striking three Iranian nuclear sites. The Houthis took the American strikes as a “declaration of war” and unilaterally ended its May 2025 United States–Houthi ceasefire.
- Kosovo (Wikipedia)
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition. Kosovo lies landlocked in the centre of the Balkans, bordered by Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest, and Montenegro to the west. Most of central Kosovo sits on the plains of Metohija and the Kosovo field. The Accursed Mountains and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Kosovo’s capital and largest city is Pristina.
