Türkiye
US Special Envoy Tom Barrack said Washington is working to set up a mechanism to prevent clashes between Israel, Turkey and Syria, after Israel struck an airbase in northwestern Syria without warning Ankara. He said Turkey could reasonably have prepared a military response after observing the aircraft heading toward its territory, but calm heads prevented escalation. He called for a stronger communication structure between the three countries.
Presidents Erdogan and Trump spoke by phone about diplomatic efforts to ease US-Iran tensions and about implementing the second phase of the Gaza peace plan, Turkey's Communication Directorate said. Erdogan stressed making full use of diplomacy toward Iran and raised concern over Israeli actions against Palestinians. The two leaders also discussed the Mecca Pact, the defense arrangement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which Trump called good for regional stability.
On the second day of his corruption trial, jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu objected to the court record's claim that he had exercised his right to remain silent, calling it false. Imamoglu, held since March 2025 in a case tied to corruption allegations against Istanbul Municipality, is also disputing how much time the court is giving him to present his defense.
Central bank data showed Turkish residential property prices fell 5.1 percent year on year in real terms in July, the eighth consecutive month of decline. Nominal prices rose 25 percent over the year, but that lagged July's 31.75 percent inflation rate. Rents also fell in real terms, down 2.6 percent, despite a 28.4 percent nominal rise.
Europe
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's defense minister until his dismissal in July, used a video address to call for a legal route to hold elections despite the war, a rare public challenge to Volodymyr Zelensky from a senior political figure. Ukrainian law currently bars elections under martial law, and Fedorov stopped short of declaring a candidacy. The address followed Zelensky's confirmation of Yevhen Khmara as permanent defense minister, closing off Fedorov's return, and a recent poll that put Fedorov ahead of Zelensky in a hypothetical runoff.
Government bond yields across Europe's largest economies jumped after US-Iran peace talks broke down, reviving inflation concerns. France's 10-year yield climbed to 4.10 percent, its highest since June 2009, while Germany's 10-year Bund yield passed 3.25 percent, its highest since March 2011. Brent crude rose to nearly $91 a barrel, and markets now price a 90 percent chance of an ECB rate hike in September.
Source:
Euronews · Tuesday, 18 August 2026
Italy's Interior Ministry says German aid organizations have brought about 22,500 migrants to Italian ports since October 2022, more than half of all private-vessel rescue arrivals in that period. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Italy will not discuss taking back migrants who first entered the EU through Italy until Germany addresses financial responsibility for those arrivals. The International Organization for Migration says at least 872 people have died or gone missing on the central Mediterranean route so far this year.
Source:
Euronews · Tuesday, 18 August 2026
Human-caused climate change added about 2 degrees Celsius of warming to the Mediterranean and 1.4 degrees to Western European seas this year, according to a World Weather Attribution analysis. The Mediterranean averaged a record 27C in July, and about 80 percent of the western Mediterranean and 90 percent of the Bay of Biscay experienced marine heatwave conditions, compared with roughly 40 percent without global warming. Scientists warn of mass die-offs of species such as corals and disruption to marine food chains.
The World
President Trump said on August 18 that no talks with Iran are scheduled, contradicting an earlier statement about back-channel contacts, while reasserting that a naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz remains active. Iran and Oman continued negotiating terms to reopen the strait, and Iran's deputy foreign minister said the waterway will stay closed until the US lifts sanctions and port blockades under a June memorandum. The UAE separately reported detecting two Iranian ballistic missiles that landed at sea, and Israel struck a Syrian military base in Idlib.
The Trump administration sanctioned International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane and prosecutor Abdoulaye Seye on August 18, freezing any US-based assets and barring US entities from dealing with them starting September 17. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move targets a court he called corrupt and politicized, for investigating alleged US actions in Afghanistan and issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials over Gaza, though neither the US nor Israel is an ICC member. It expands a wider US sanctions campaign against the court.
The World Health Organization said on August 18 that DR Congo's Ebola outbreak has become the deadliest in the country's history, with over 5,000 confirmed infections and more than 2,320 deaths, surpassing the 2018-2020 outbreak. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the epidemic is spreading at unprecedented speed and is not yet under control, and that the Bundibugyo strain involved has no currently approved vaccine or treatment. The outbreak, declared in May, has now reached a sixth province.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Trump spoke twice this week to try to reach a deal before a midnight Wednesday deadline, after which 50 percent US tariffs would hit roughly $20 billion of Canadian imports outside USMCA protections. Talks are stuck on auto tariffs, with Washington offering to cut Section 232 duties from 25 to 15 percent but rejecting Canada's request to count broader North American content. Carney called the negotiations intense and delicate, and trade groups warn of job losses in lumber, wine and dairy if no deal is reached.
Culture, the week in Istanbul
A major retrospective of Turkey's pioneering opera singer and painter Semiha Berksoy, bringing together more than 200 works spanning painting, opera, theatre and film. It is the most ambitious exhibition ever dedicated to her.
A deep retrospective of Halil Pasha, the military-trained painter who pioneered open-air painting as the Ottoman Empire gave way to the Republic. It is in its final days at Pera Museum.
One of Turkey's most distinctive alternative-pop voices plays two nights at Istanbul's historic open-air amphitheatre above the Bosphorus, part of the season-long Harbiye open-air concert series.
Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Açıkhava Tiyatrosu · August 21-22, 21:00 · Source:
Paribu PassAround 2,500 swimmers from more than 60 countries cross the Bosphorus from Kanlica on the Asian side to Kurucesme in Europe, a 6.5-kilometre swim that closes the strait to shipping for the morning. It is one of Istanbul's signature summer spectacles, free to watch from the shore.
Ataturk Cultural Centre's summer open-air screen returns with sixteen films through mid-September, free and open at 20:00 each evening. This week's run includes Alice in Wonderland, Interstellar and Ratatouille.
