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A Trend agency survey finds up to 92% of Bulgarians rate drug use a serious issue for the country, nearly six in ten say narcotics are easy to obtain locally, and 65% want stiffer sentences for dealers. What the numbers actually measure, and what they mean for families here.
On 30 June 763, the Byzantine emperor Constantine V beat the Bulgar Khan Telets in a daylong battle near Pomorie, on the coast British expats now know for its beaches. It was a costly Byzantine win, and not the end of the story.
The agriculture minister wants the indebted Kabiyuk stud farm protected as a site of national significance, the statistics institute charts wages rising faster than prices, Varna's appeal court rules on a grim Shumen case, and Novi Pazar's library fills July with workshops.
Brief but heavy rain, thunder and possible hail cross Central Northern Bulgaria in the night into Saturday 4 July, before skies clear for a mostly sunny Sunday and Monday. The regional forecast, including the coast and the mountains.
Social insurance thresholds are set to rise by 12% to 70% under the draft State Social Insurance budget, with company managers squarely in the ministry's sights. What the new floors are, why the budget is not a done deal yet, and what it means if you work here or run your own EOOD.
Receipts, tills and post-euro price rises: what the National Revenue Agency's summer campaign turned up in its first three days on the southern Black Sea coast, and what it means whether you are buying the sun loungers or renting them out.
Police, gendarmerie and dozens of volunteers are combing the villages between Varna's southern hinterland and Provadia for Natalia Asenova, taken from her mother's home in Konstantinovo in the early hours of 30 June. Here is where the search stands, and what to do if you are in the area.
Dejan Bojkov, the Bulgarian chess grandmaster who coached a women's world champion and now trains players as far away as New Zealand, was born on the third of July, 1977. It is also the city day for Kuklen, near Plovdiv.
The EBU has confirmed Canada will make its Eurovision debut at the 2027 contest in Bulgaria, the first new country since Australia in 2015. The host city is still anyone's guess, the budget line is already real, and a Canadian has technically won this thing before.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich used a Sofia briefing to call Bulgaria a model of turning defence money into real capability, shortly before the NATO summit. Behind the compliments sits a plan to reach 5% of GDP by 2035, in a budget already under visible strain.
Asen Cholakov was one of thousands of young men who fought and died for the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation. He was killed near Smolari in 1924, on a date the records still cannot quite agree on. His near-anonymity is rather the point.
The popfolk star Anelia, a gadulka prodigy from Stara Zagora with 23 number-one singles to her name, was born on the first of July, 1982. It is also the name day for Damyan, Kuzman and Krasimir.
From 1 July, banks and Bulgarian Post start charging to change leftover leva into euros. Only the central bank keeps the service free, and the new flat fee bites hardest on small amounts.
Bulgaria's deep musical tradition did not appear by accident. Someone had to build the schools, the unions and the orchestras. Dimitar Hadzhigeorgiev, born on this day in 1873, was one of the people who did.
Food-safety inspectors seized and destroyed more than six tonnes of "Deutsche Markenbutter" that lab tests showed was over 95% non-dairy fat, including lard, and fined two companies more than 300,000 euros.
The 29th of June is a big one. It is Petrovden, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul and one of the country's largest name days, and it is also the date in 2023 that Bulgaria lost Angel Wagenstein, a screenwriter and novelist who lived a hundred remarkable years.
The weather service has put the whole country under a yellow heat warning for Monday 29 June, with lowland temperatures of up to 38°C, as the record European heatwave edges into the Balkans.
Presiyan Mihov reclaimed his European title in Scotland as Bulgaria left the first sumo championships ever staged in Great Britain with three medals, all decided against Ukrainian opposition.
Nikola Tsolov, 19, took his fourth Formula 2 win of the season at the Red Bull Ring, cutting Gabriele Mini's championship lead to two points. The next round is at Silverstone on 4 and 5 July.
A Market Links poll puts confidence in the Radev cabinet at around 45%, down five points, but the figures were taken before anyone had seen the 2026 draft budget.
Born on this day in 1880 in Kruševo, Nikola Kirov Traykov was a teacher, a revolutionary, and a writer who fought in the Ilinden uprising. He is also the kind of figure Bulgaria and North Macedonia have spent a century arguing over, which is part of why he is worth knowing.
The Council of the EU has formally placed Bulgaria under an excessive deficit procedure, capping spending growth all the way to 2029. The corrective measures land in the budgets due this autumn.
Born in June 1978, Emanuil A. Vidinski is one of contemporary Bulgaria's busier literary figures: short-story writer, novelist, editor, and a former member of an ethno-rock poetry band. Better still for a British reader, some of his work exists in English.
The weightlifting gold medallist joins Eurovision winner Dara as a goodwill ambassador in a campaign that wants the world to see Bulgaria as more than a cut-price beach.
Customs officers at Kapitan Andreevo seized 73 combat pistols from a Turkish truck bound for the Netherlands, a haul caught at the EU's busiest land frontier and, since 2025, its Schengen external edge.
The 26th of June is a quiet date with two small doors into Bulgaria: a northern town marking its own day, and a battle that the records file under 1877, from the war that brought the modern country into being.
A pack goes up by about 13 euro cents on 1 August, with two more rises to follow by 2028, as the government leans on tobacco duty to help plug a stretched budget.
Dimitar Peshev was born on this day in 1894. In March 1943 he led the parliamentary revolt that stopped the deportation of Bulgaria's 48,000 Jews to the death camps. It is one of the most important, and most complicated, stories the country has to tell.
Finance Minister Galab Donev's draft 2026 budget sets a 5.7% deficit, raises vignette fees by 30%, widens the tolls, and brings mandatory e-invoicing for businesses from 2027, with a pledge to get the gap down to 3% by 2028.
Prime Minister Rumen Radev says reports of a freeze on Bulgaria's minimum wage until 2028 are premature, with the wage and the social-security floors that track it heading back to the negotiating table in August.
Forget the database footnote that wants to make today about a warship. The 24th of June is one of the warmest days in the Bulgarian folk calendar: Enyovden, the midsummer herb-gatherer's holiday, and the name day for what feels like half your address book.
EU lawmakers were due to vote on the digital euro on 23 June. Bulgaria joined the eurozone in January, so this is no longer somebody else's money. Here is what it would mean for British expats, and why there is nothing to do yet.
Bulgaria's free lev-to-euro exchange at banks and post offices ends on 30 June. After that, fees are allowed, and only the central bank keeps doing it for nothing. Here is what British expats should do with that drawer of leftover cash.
Ask a Brit in Bulgaria to name a famous Bulgarian Olympian and you usually get a long pause. Here is the answer worth keeping in your back pocket: Maria Grozdeva, born in Sofia on this day in 1972, and one of the most decorated athletes the country has ever produced.
Ivan Shishmanov, born on 22 June 1862, was the rare scholar who helped invent a country's idea of itself: folklorist, education minister, and the man Bulgaria sent as its envoy to Ukraine in 1918. Here's why his name is still on a Sofia street.
New NSI figures show double-digit growth across most of the economy. If you are renovating, employing staff or paying for help on a sterling pension, the number matters more than it looks.
Bulgaria's governing coalition wants additional properties taxed at progressively higher rates while a primary residence stays put. It is a proposal, not law, and the reporting says little will change before 2027.
Wholesale prices for cherries, tomatoes and onions slid over the past week, according to Bulgaria's State Commission on Commodity Exchanges and Markets, though flour, potatoes and beans went the other way. These are trade prices, not shelf prices, but they tend to point the same direction.
Today's date carries one of the heavier facts in modern Bulgarian history: the country's last genuinely free, openly partisan election before the dictatorships, held on 21 June 1931. There are also two tree-named name days to mark. Here's what's worth knowing if you live here.
The state's “I Choose Bulgaria” scheme has brought back nearly 1,850 professionals so far, and more of them returned from the United Kingdom than from anywhere else.
Varna's mayor has signed the first of twelve demolition orders against the Forest Club complex at Baba Alino, after inspectors found the buildings were put up on tolerance certificates that pointed to entirely different plots.
Bulgaria's calendar today gives you a character actor born in a Danubian village in 1944, a Soviet-era theatre career that spanned five companies, and three quietly elegant name days. Here's what you need to know if you live here.
Ofitserski Beach closed to swimmers following routine water quality checks. The Regional Health Inspectorate detected fecal contamination markers and imposed a temporary ban while follow-up testing continues.
Bulgaria's calendar today marks the 1870 birth of a historian whose ideas were so far outside academic consensus that his books were banned, his professorship applications rejected twice, and his entire career played out in exile. Here's the story of the scholar Sofia University wouldn't touch.
Bulgaria's calendar today marks the birth in 1963 of the country's most unusual political trajectory: a MiG-29 pilot who became president, resigned a year early, formed a party from scratch, and swept into office as prime minister with an absolute majority. Here's the arc, and what it means for British expats who've been watching the circus.
St. Anna Hospital, Eastern Bulgaria's largest medical facility, says it risks operational disruption just as Black Sea coast patient numbers double, with €14 million in liabilities and a €400,000 municipal payment still outstanding.
On 17 June 2001, Bulgaria did something no other post-communist country had managed: it voted the former royal family back into power, democratically. Here's why it still matters a quarter-century on.
A comparative study shows Bulgaria's parliamentarians receive the highest salary multiple relative to the national minimum wage of any European country, despite the country ranking among the EU's poorest by income.
Bancho Banov, born on 16 May 1925, was a Bulgarian actor and screenwriter who trained as a military medic before spending four decades in front of cameras and behind typewriters. Here's the story of a quiet multi-hyphenate who wrote better roles than most people get handed.
Sofia has outlined plans to triple military spending over the next decade, reaching 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The catch: Bulgaria is betting on continued EU financing, which may not survive beyond 2030.
Official figures show zero monthly movement in consumer prices, though petrol, healthcare and restaurant bills continued to climb on the year. Lidl receipts and Toplofikatsia bills tell different stories.
Planned power cuts across Shumen this week, a local chess tournament draws national attention, traffic police step up drink and drug checks, over 100 jobs on offer, and a string of emergency calls keep firefighters busy. In Sofia, the government warns it must borrow to meet the 3% deficit target by the end of June.
Lifeguards patrol all week through peak season, but jellyfish blooms arrive fast and the useful intel lives on railings, not apps.
Special police units sealed off parts of the Botunets neighbourhood in a major operation targeting the so-called Kalashniks group, with weapons and lists linked to exploitation among the seized evidence.
Today's calendar offers a 1969 World Cup qualifier win, three Bulgarian forenames that barely anyone under forty actually uses, and no municipal festivities at all. Here's what you actually need to know if you live here.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church marked the Second Sunday after Pentecost on 14 June with services honouring all Bulgarian saints across the country. GERB leader Boyko Borissov travelled to Shumen for a party training event and called for a 100-day grace period for the new government. The city also mourned actor Yordan Zidarov, who died aged 78.
A standard espresso in central Sofia runs €3.50 to €4.00 or more, above what you'd pay in Italy or Cologne. The pricing pattern holds across Bulgaria's tourist zones, and income levels don't explain it. These comparisons are based on a single source and have not been independently verified.
Brussels is preparing to force member states to tax electricity below gas rates as part of a broader push to cut energy costs and accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels. The reform requires Council approval and could be formally presented on 22 July.
On 14 June 1913, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck central Bulgaria at 11:28 in the morning, destroying 80% of Veliko Tarnovo and killing at least 36 people. Here's what happened, and why it still matters if you walk the cobbled streets of the old capital today.
The National Statistical Institute confirmed the figure this week: household spending and investment activity drove the expansion, and while industry contracted on weaker exports, services now account for three-quarters of gross value added. Unemployment stayed low, employment held at 3.5 million, and the Bulgarian economy generated €23.8 billion in Q1 at current prices.