Türkiye sent Greece a diplomatic note reasserting its "gray zones" claims after declaring two marine parks in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean that Athens says extend into international waters. Greece calls the move illegal under the Law of the Sea; Ankara says it will accept no unilateral change to the status quo.
Cemil Bayık, a senior PKK figure, said Türkiye's new disarmament law leaves the legal status of jailed founder Abdullah Öcalan and the group's top leadership undefined, and warned the process will stall if reform stops at ending the armed campaign. The law, passed in August, lets fighters lay down weapons and return home but does not address Öcalan's own position.
Services exports rose 6.5 percent from 2024 to a record $124.9 billion, the trade ministry said, driven by travel and transport. The services trade surplus grew 3.6 percent to $63 billion, and Türkiye ranked 22nd globally in services exports and sixth in trade surplus.
Four Üsküdar council members left the CHP for the AK Party on September 4, cutting the CHP's council majority to two seats ahead of a September 5 vote to replace Üsküdar's suspended mayor. Mayor Sinem Dedetaş was arrested and suspended on July 31 over criminal organisation, bribery and extortion allegations; a court had already voided the council's first replacement pick.
Gustav Gellerbrant helped write the Tidö coalition agreement, and now heads the Sweden Democrats' coordination office inside the Government Offices. An Expo investigation found that his Russian-born partner shared pro-Kremlin content online in 2015-2017, and again in 2024 and 2025. He underwent a new security check once Expo contacted him, and no security authority has since asked for further steps. Nobody disputes any of that. What splits Sweden's leaders, eight days before the September 13 vote, is whether it adds up to a live security risk or a closed matter.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travel to Moscow on Saturday, September 5 to meet Vladimir Putin, then to Kyiv on Sunday, September 6 for their first visit to Kyiv since Trump returned to office. Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine wants "constructive and substantive" talks on realistic ways to end the war.
Trump posted that Washington will seek repayment for the "hundreds of billions" in aid given to Ukraine and NATO, saying Europe "would have paid for" it if asked. The US has provided about $66.9 billion in military aid since 2022 and $69.7 billion since 2014; Trump named no countries and gave no timeline, and there was no immediate European reaction.
Icelanders rejected reopening EU accession talks 52.8 to 47.2 percent on August 31, keeping in place the freeze that has held since 2013. EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said support for membership had grown since a 2010 referendum showed only 19 percent backing it, and called the no vote "a very specific" fisheries-driven case; Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova are still advancing toward membership.
Convicted of genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, war criminal Ratko Mladić died in The Hague on August 27 and his remains reached Serbia by government plane, wrapped in a Serbian flag. EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos called any glorification "incompatible" with EU values and cancelled a planned visit; Belgium's foreign minister said state honours would be a step away from the bloc. President Vučić said the family, not the state, would decide the arrangements.
Far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir presented "Disengagement 710," a plan for roughly 250,000 Palestinians to leave Gaza in its first year and 1.86 million within seven, ahead of Israel's October 27 election. It remains his party's proposal, not government policy; Palestinian representatives and rights groups say no departure under wartime conditions can be called voluntary.
Government forces recaptured Tabbat al-Khazan in the Jabal Habashi district west of Taiz on September 4. Military officials said about 50 Houthi fighters were killed or wounded in clashes the day before, part of what officials call the heaviest fighting in the area since a UN-brokered truce in 2022. The Houthis still control the capital Sanaa, held since 2014.
A UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission said a transnational network, including actors from the UAE, Colombia and Chad, supplied the Rapid Support Forces with weapons, training and foreign personnel. The report, released September 4, links foreign-trained fighters to 2025 massacres at Zamzam camp and El Fasher, and says both sides may have committed war crimes with drone strikes on civilians; the war has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced 13 million since 2023. The UAE denies backing the RSF.
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 133.3 points in August, its highest since November 2022, driven by an 11.9 percent jump in sugar and a 2.2 percent rise in cereals. The agency's chief economist said climate shocks, geopolitical tensions and disrupted trade logistics are converging to tighten supply, and the agency cut its 2026 global cereal forecast by 3.4 million tonnes, the sharpest annual cut since 2018.
With the September 13 vote eight days away, polls put the Social Democrats clearly ahead as the largest single party, near 29 percent, but short of a majority even with the Left, Greens and Centre. Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch rejected Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson's suggestion she might side with the Social Democrats, saying she will not be their training wheels.
Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist said scrapping the 2023 salary threshold, in favour of the collective-agreement minimum wage, would be one of her first acts in government. She cited a 50 percent fall in labour migration since 2023, a 30 billion kronor hit to GDP and Sweden's fall from second to sixth in the IMD World Talent Ranking in four years.