God Morgon · Friday, 14 August 2026

Türkiye

The central bank raises its 2026 inflation forecast to 28 percent

Governor Fatih Karahan presented the year's third inflation report on Thursday and lifted the end-2026 forecast from 26 to 28 percent, while leaving untouched the 24 percent intermediate target that guides policy. He attributed the two-point revision to diesel, natural gas and non-energy commodity prices, and raised the year-end food inflation assumption from 26.3 to 28.5 percent. The policy rate has been held at 37 percent since March and July inflation ran at 31.75 percent, so the gap between target and outturn is what the September rate decision now turns on.

Source: Turkish Minute · Thursday, 13 August 2026

Özel's New Party leads the AKP by nearly eight points in MetroPOLL

MetroPOLL reported on Thursday 30.3 percent for Özgür Özel's newly founded New Party against 22.4 percent for the AKP, with undecided voters left unredistributed. DEM took 5.4 percent, İYİ 3.9 and the MHP 3.6, while the CHP under the reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu stood at 2.9 percent. The survey ran from 18 to 23 July across 28 provinces with 1,236 respondents, so it predates Ekrem İmamoğlu's departure from the CHP on Wednesday.

Source: Turkish Minute · Thursday, 13 August 2026

Defence ministry: the Mecca pact is not a rival to NATO

Spokesman Zeki Aktürk told Thursday's weekly briefing that the defence agreement between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is purely defensive and designates no country as an adversary. He described it as a complementary structure within the international security architecture rather than an alternative to NATO, and said the three will build political and military mechanisms and cooperate on joint development and production in the defence industry. The wording is aimed at NATO capitals reading the 7 August pact as a step towards a security architecture of the region's own.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Thursday, 13 August 2026

Fidan in Egypt: radical steps if the US does not press Israel

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in El Alamein on Thursday, alongside his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, that Israel's failure to meet its commitments under the Gaza deal may force Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt into radical steps if Washington does not apply pressure. He called Egypt Türkiye's natural partner and said the two hold the same line on Libya's territorial integrity. He added that Ankara hopes the ceasefire between the United States and Iran will be restored and the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

Source: Daily Sabah · Thursday, 13 August 2026

Europe

A fresh heatwave over Europe, 42.5C in central France

Météo-France recorded 42.5C at Chateaumeillant on Thursday, the country's highest reading of the day, while Paris reached 38C. On an AFP analysis built on German weather service forecasts, around 340 million Europeans were above 30C and more than 135 million above 35C. The United Kingdom logged its hottest day of the year and the Met Office expects its hottest summer on record, while wildfires forced hundreds of tourists to be evacuated by boat in northern Greece.

Source: Euronews · Thursday, 13 August 2026

The EU's burnt area is the fourth largest in fifteen years, and Spain is 38 percent of it

By the end of the year's thirty-first week, 489,826 hectares had burnt in the EU, according to Our World in Data drawing on the Global Wildfire Information System. That is the fourth highest reading at the same point in the year since 2012 and 13 percent above the 2012 to 2025 average. Spain accounts for 185,948 hectares, more than double its own average at this point in the year.

Source: Euronews · Thursday, 13 August 2026

British growth slows to 0.4 percent in the second quarter

The Office for National Statistics said on Thursday that GDP rose 0.4 percent in April to June after 0.6 percent in the first quarter, with services up 0.5 percent as the main driver. It is the first quarterly reading since Keir Starmer resigned in late June and was replaced by Andy Burnham, with Reform UK ahead of Labour in the polls. Finance minister John Healey tied the pressure on households to energy costs following the war between the United States and Iran.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Thursday, 13 August 2026

The World

Putin visits the Kuril Islands for the first time and Japan protests

Vladimir Putin visited Iturup in the Kuril Islands on Thursday, the first trip there by a sitting Russian president, meeting the regional governor and visiting a fish-processing plant, a hospital and a school. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit absolutely unacceptable and said it offends the sentiments of the Japanese people, while Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russia's ambassador. The islands were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the second world war and Tokyo still claims four of them.

Source: Al Jazeera · Thursday, 13 August 2026

The Emirates accuse Iran of attacking two ADNOC vessels in Hormuz

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening and that the situation was brought under control, with no injuries. The Emirati foreign ministry condemned in the early hours of Friday what it called a hostile Iranian attack and said attempts to use the strait as a tool of economic coercion violate freedom of navigation. Iran did not comment, is maintaining its blockade and is in talks with Oman over the strait's future management.

Source: Al Jazeera · Friday, 14 August 2026

Israel sends troops against settlers who have besieged Palestinian homes in the West Bank

Israeli forces moved on 13 August against settlers who had blockaded Palestinian homes near Nablus since 9 August, including one owned by a US citizen, and the military says it dismantled two outposts and detained one Israeli. The US ambassador Mike Huckabee, for years an outspoken supporter of the settler movement, called the act disgusting and said Israel intervened at Washington's request. On the same day Israeli ministers, among them Defence Minister Israel Katz, celebrated the reopening of the Ganim settlement in the northern West Bank.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Thursday, 13 August 2026

Sweden

The Riksdag lowers the age of criminal responsibility to 14

Parliament voted on Thursday to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 14, by 281 votes to 66, with the Social Democrats voting in favour. The government originally wanted 13 but withdrew that proposal in June for want of a majority and after most of the 126 bodies consulted, including the police and the prison and probation service, opposed it. Parliament also cut the sentencing discount for young offenders, so that someone under 18 can now be jailed for up to 18 years, and the law takes effect on 10 September, three days before the election.

Source: Euronews · Thursday, 13 August 2026

The opposition's lead halves to 3.7 points a month before the election

Demoskop's poll for Svenska Dagbladet, the first since the summer break, gives the four opposition parties 50.6 percent against 46.9 for Ulf Kristersson's governing bloc. Fieldwork ran from 29 July to 10 August. Demoskop's head of opinion Johan Martinsson says the difference between around eight points and around four is psychologically large for the parties, and the Social Democrats' party secretary Tobias Baudin says the campaign is going to plan.

Source: The Local Sweden · Thursday, 13 August 2026