God Morgon · Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Türkiye

Greek PM hardens line on Aegean disputes with Türkiye

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his cabinet that Greece's maritime spatial planning in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean will proceed regardless of Turkish objections, and that dialogue with Ankara is limited strictly to the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. Greece's areas of sovereignty, he said, derive from international law, and Athens is ready to defend them "at any time." The comments come as Greece pushes ahead unilaterally with energy and tourism zoning plans Türkiye disputes.

Source: Greek City Times · Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Turkish central bank resumes repo auctions, unwinding wartime funding freeze

Türkiye's central bank is resuming one-week repo auctions this week at the 37 percent policy rate, reversing an almost six-month funding freeze imposed when the Iran war shocked markets in March. The move is being read as the bank's first concrete step toward eventual rate cuts, and Istanbul bank shares jumped more than 4 percent on the news. It comes as the government's three-year economic road map nears release, with its 2026 inflation forecast raised to 28 percent.

Source: Daily Sabah · Monday, 24 August 2026

Turkish commentators: tensions with Israel now structural, not episodic

Israeli media are reportedly criticising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the widening rift with Ankara, while Turkish commentary is describing the tension between the two countries as structural rather than episodic, driven by opposing positions on Syria and Gaza.

Source: Daily Sabah · Monday, 24 August 2026

Erdoğan discusses defence and Ukraine with Lithuania's PM, also speaks with Brazil's Lula

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke by phone with Lithuania's new Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius, pledging wider defence-industry cooperation while reaffirming Türkiye's wish to contribute to a lasting peace in Ukraine. In a separate call he discussed bilateral ties with Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Lithuania takes over the EU Council presidency in January 2027, and the contact is part of Ankara's broader outreach to EU member states.

Source: Daily Sabah · Monday, 24 August 2026

Europe

Spain's Sánchez convenes National Security Council after month-long Ceuta migration crisis

Nearly a month after roughly 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez convened an extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council. Twenty-two EU states are criticising Spain's migration policy as a "pull factor," while former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called the bloc's response "hysterical." The crisis has become a live test of both Spain's border control and the EU's ability to agree on migration policy.

Source: Politico Europe · Monday, 24 August 2026

Hungary on track to unlock €10bn in EU funds before August deadline

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who ended Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule in April, has met roughly two-thirds of the reform "super-milestones" the European Commission set as the price for releasing a first, roughly €10 billion tranche from a larger €16.4 billion package agreed with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in May. The requirements are due to be met before the 31 August deadline. The outcome is a concrete test of whether the EU's rule-of-law conditionality actually works.

Source: Euronews · Monday, 24 August 2026

Ukraine faces €23bn defence funding gap, Zelensky wants EU loan brought forward

Ukraine says it needs €134.6 billion for 2026 defence and, according to the European Commission's own figures, still faces a financing gap of roughly €23 billion despite the EU's Ukraine Support Loan and further disbursements on the way. President Volodymyr Zelensky is now asking the EU to bring forward disbursement of its 2027 loan to speed up Ukrainian drone and missile production. The numbers show the limits of Western financial commitments as the war continues.

Source: Politico Europe · Monday, 24 August 2026

Trump's Arctic rhetoric boosts Iceland's pro-EU campaign, organisers say

Donald Trump's repeated statements about US ambitions in the Arctic and around Greenland are, according to campaign organisers, strengthening the case made by Iceland's pro-EU campaign ahead of the country's membership referendum. Yes-side campaigners point to EU membership as a way to bolster Iceland's security against great-power pressure in the North Atlantic, an unusual instance of American foreign policy reshaping the EU's own enlargement debate.

Source: Politico Europe · Tuesday, 25 August 2026

The World

US removes Syria from state sponsors of terrorism list after 47 years

The US State Department has formally removed Syria from the state sponsors of terrorism list, a designation it had carried since 1979, while also delisting Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the group led by Syria's current president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. The move clears the way for US investment and financial transactions with Damascus and follows Trump's July meeting with al-Sharaa. Iran, Cuba and North Korea are now the only countries left on the list.

Source: Al Jazeera · Monday, 24 August 2026

US announces sweeping new Iran sanctions, warns trading partners worldwide

Washington has announced a sweeping new wave of sanctions on Iran and is warning Tehran's trading partners to sever financial ties or face secondary measures themselves. Iran's security chief has called other countries' support for the new sanctions "an act of war." The move is already rippling through global oil and commodity markets and threatens to push up consumer prices well beyond the Middle East.

Source: Al Jazeera · Monday, 24 August 2026

Canada readies retaliatory tariffs against Trump's threats

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to announce retaliatory tariffs on Tuesday, 25 August, after Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs on Canadian autos, auto parts and steel and told Ottawa to "fall in line." Carney is said to be dropping dollar-for-dollar matching in favour of more targeted measures, accusing Washington of trying to subordinate Canada's economy. The dispute is one of the clearest signs yet that Trump's tariff policy is now hitting even the closest US allies.

Source: Associated Press (via PBS NewsHour) · Monday, 24 August 2026

Sweden

Government to set up school attack commission three weeks before election

Education Minister Simona Mohamsson announced on Monday, 24 August, that the government will set up a commission to propose measures against future school attacks, following the 21 August sword attack at Brinell School in Fagersta that killed a 17-year-old girl and wounded three others. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has already cancelled campaign events over the attack, and law and order has become a defining issue ahead of the 13 September general election, where the governing Tidö coalition is trailing in the polls.

Source: The Local Sweden · Monday, 24 August 2026

Sweden condemns Israel's E1 settlement tender, joins European statement

Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on 24 August that Israel's tender for more than 1,200 new housing units in the E1 West Bank settlement "fundamentally harms the prospect of the two-state solution" and violates international law. Sweden is joining a statement from seven European countries calling on Israel to retract the plan.

Source: News.az · Monday, 24 August 2026