Türkiye's capital markets regulator approved advance payments to investors whose money was frozen when a cluster of investment funds was ordered into liquidation last month over price-manipulation allegations. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek told an investor conference the authorities have stopped the crisis turning systemic, though he said further regulation is still needed.
At least eight figures, among them a former presidential candidate and a mayor recently detained in a corruption investigation, are positioning themselves to lead the Republican People's Party at a congress set for spring 2027. The leadership race is unfolding as the party tries to rebuild after losing its main-opposition status earlier this year, a split that has also touched jailed İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's wing.
A Houthi drone strike knocked out a transformer supplying the area around the Prophet's Mosque in Medina on 29 September, the second such attack on Saudi Arabia's holy cities in two weeks. Türkiye's foreign ministry called the strikes a threat to the Islamic world's sacred sites and demanded they stop immediately, joining condemnations from the Gulf states and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
The Trump administration is pushing France, Germany and other European governments to release strategic diesel stockpiles, warning of a possible US export ban if they refuse, as diesel at the pump reached a record price across the EU. The European Commission and several governments held emergency talks on tapping the reserves, and EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen called a release a real possibility.
Russia ordered a group of Hungarian diplomats out within two weeks, retaliating after Budapest expelled ten Russian diplomats in September over what it called unacceptable activity. The tit-for-tat marks a sharp break from Viktor Orbán's years of closer ties with Moscow, now that Prime Minister Péter Magyar has reset Hungarian foreign policy.
Mediapart said Thursday it had authenticated Facebook Messenger screenshots from 2013 and 2014 containing antisemitic remarks it attributes to Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally, based on a Meta data extraction certified by a court bailiff. Bardella denied writing the messages, calling them "crude fabrications," and said he would sue Mediapart for defamation and forgery; the dispute lands seven months before France's presidential election, where Marine Le Pen, Bardella's party mentor and National Rally's presidential candidate, currently leads the polls.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, with more than 7,000 sailors, and an amphibious force carrying some 2,000 Marines, roughly 9,000 people together, left San Diego for the Gulf region, part of a buildup a US official said would leave three aircraft carriers and two amphibious groups near Iran by November. Two other carriers, the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington, are already operating in the Arabian Sea as the war between the United States, Israel and Iran continues.
A co-pilot allegedly assaulted the captain of flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, causing the plane to lose altitude sharply before an emergency landing in Tabuk with 174 people aboard, Saudi authorities said. The co-pilot, an Omani national hired less than a year ago, was handed to the UAE, whose chief prosecutor is investigating whether the attack involved prior planning or any link to terrorism.
Speaker Andreas Norlén held a new round of talks with party leaders on Wednesday but put off deciding who should get the next attempt at forming a government, after Magdalena Andersson gave up her own attempt on 28 September. Norlén said he would continue informal talks before saying more later this week; outgoing prime minister Ulf Kristersson and Andersson are both named as possible choices.