Protests in North Macedonia’s capital continued for the third day in a row against the French proposal for solving the dispute with Bulgaria, which is expected to lift its veto on the start of EU accession talks with Skopje. According to the opposition, the proposal only means ‘Bulgarisation’ of the nation in a long-term EU accession process, and denies the existence of the Macedonian identity. Meanwhile, the protests in Uzbekistan left 18 people dead and the security forces detained 516 people.