Türkiye sent Athens a diplomatic note insisting no action can alter the status quo in the Aegean, in response to Greece's August tourism spatial framework. The foreign ministry revived its long-standing 'gray zones' claim, that sovereignty over certain islets was never transferred to Greece by international treaty, while Greek Foreign Minister Georgios Gerapetritis said Athens acts 'without compromising its national rights'.
Turkish prosecutors detained 13 people on 3 September, including the municipality's procurement chief Mustafa Sökmen and finance department head Rezzan Neslihan Vural, over alleged irregularities in municipal tenders. The detentions land days before a 5 September by-election in the council and while Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's own trial, involving 414 defendants with 53 in custody, continues.
Turkey's annual inflation slowed to 31.51 percent in August from 31.75 in July, the lowest reading since March, while the central bank held its policy rate steady at 37 percent. Education, alcohol and tobacco, and transport drove the month's price rises, and markets expect no rate change at the next meeting on 10 September.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Moscow will close Goethe-Institut branches in Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, retaliation for Germany shutting Russia's Bonn consulate and Berlin cultural centre after accusing Moscow of orchestrating the Leipzig airport drone plot. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin had 'carefully prepared its response' and called on Moscow to show readiness for talks on Ukraine, while President Putin dismissed the drone allegations and said the evidence had been 'planted'.
The EU is preparing sanctions on 27 additional Russian individuals and entities over the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children, adding to 16 people and seven entities blacklisted in May. Ukraine has formally verified over 20,500 deported or forcibly transferred children, Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab estimates around 35,000, and Moscow claims the figure could reach 700,000; advocacy group Bring Kids Back UA says children still under Russian control face 'indoctrination, militarisation and the erosion of their Ukrainian identity'.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry reported 6,186 confirmed cases and 3,007 deaths since the outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, was declared a global health emergency in mid-May. The Africa CDC says actual cases may be three times higher given weak surveillance, no approved treatment exists for this strain, and the government has begun distributing the Ervebo vaccine to frontline health workers in Kisangani as the virus spreads across six provinces.
Brent crude extended its rally as renewed US-Iran strikes raised the risk of disruption through the Strait of Hormuz, with oil trading near $99 a barrel this week. OPEC+'s seven core members, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman, are expected to keep output policy unchanged for October at Sunday's meeting, completing the unwinding of one layer of production cuts and turning focus to 2027 quota talks as the war curbs the group's usual influence over prices.
Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson bluntly rejected the Sweden Democrats' demand for twelve cabinet posts in any post-election government, telling public broadcaster SVT 'No, that's not going to happen' and that negotiations happen after winning, not before. Nearly a million Swedes had already voted in the first week of early voting, up 40 percent on 2022, ahead of the 13 September election.