God Morgon · Thursday, 15 October 2026

Türkiye

State trustee takes over opposition broadcaster Halk TV after bribery raid

Prosecutors appointed a trustee to pro-opposition channel Halk TV on Wednesday and pulled it off the air, after raiding its Istanbul studios and detaining 11 people in a bribery and money-laundering investigation tied to owner Cafer Mahiroğlu. Mahiroğlu, who lives abroad, was not detained himself; he called it a "dark day" for Türkiye and said seven relatives were held. Opposition leaders, including the CHP, called the shutdown an attack on press freedom.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

İstanbul mayor İmamoğlu opens four-day defense in corruption trial

Jailed İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu began his defense on Wednesday in the municipal corruption trial where prosecutors are seeking sentences of up to 2,352 years, with testimony expected to run four days. İmamoğlu, in custody since March 2025, denies the charges and calls the case political. Sixty-three co-defendants have been released from pretrial detention since the trial opened in March 2026.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Greek Cypriot leader Christodoulides to visit Türkiye for COP31, a first in a decade

Cyprus's Greek Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, said he will travel to Antalya for the UN's COP31 climate summit in November, after Ankara extended an invitation through EU channels; Türkiye does not recognise his government. It would be the first visit to Türkiye by a leader from the island's Greek Cypriot south in ten years. He met Turkish Cypriot president Tufan Erhürman on Tuesday, and the two agreed to attend a festival together on 17 October.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Turkish trade minister Bolat presses Brussels on customs union update and EV rules

Trade minister Ömer Bolat told Brussels this week that Türkiye and the EU have made progress on e-commerce, procurement and agriculture within a customs union update that the EU Council still has not authorised for full negotiation. He also pushed back on the EU's planned Industrial Accelerator Act, which Ankara says would restrict Turkish automotive and EV investment, and announced the removal of a barrier tied to Türkiye's TAREKS import-control system. Bilateral trade reached $233 billion in 2025.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Europe

EU leaders head into summit divided over seven-year budget; draft conclusions regret US move on Russian diesel

EU leaders gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a summit expected to pit frugal states, which want deeper cuts to a proposed 141-billion-euro reduction in the bloc's next long-term budget, against 17 cohesion countries saying the cuts already go too far; Council president António Costa wants a deal by year-end. On energy, Italy and Greece are pushing for fiscal flexibility to cushion prices as gas trades near its highest since 2022, while six states' call for a windfall tax on energy firms has failed to gain support ahead of the summit. Draft conclusions seen before the summit add a line regretting Washington's decision to let Russian diesel sales resume until April 2027.

Source: Euronews · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Meloni calls Trump's Russian-diesel decision 'very risky', says it hands Moscow legitimacy

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni told parliament on Wednesday that Washington's decision to let Russia resume diesel exports is 'a very risky choice' that legitimises Moscow while its bombs still fall on Ukraine, before traveling to the EU summit in Brussels. She called for the EU's 27 states to name one envoy to negotiate with Washington and Moscow rather than leaving it to France, Germany and Britain alone; Zelenskyy thanked her on X for 'naming the aggressor'. Her own deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, said Italy cannot keep sending Ukraine money as gifts.

Source: Euronews · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

First Nord Stream sabotage suspect goes on trial in Germany

A Hamburg court opened the trial of former Ukrainian special-forces officer Serhiy Kuznietsov on Wednesday, the first person tried over the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. Prosecutors say he led divers who planted explosives from a rented yacht; he faces charges including a war crime and will not testify, while his lawyers may argue the pipelines, which were not carrying gas at the time, were a legitimate military target. Kyiv has consistently denied ordering the sabotage, and a second suspect's extradition from Croatia is still contested.

Source: Euronews · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

The World

Ships sink in Strait of Hormuz as Iran vows to keep fighting; IMF slashes Mideast growth outlook

Two vessels sank near the Strait of Hormuz this week, one hit by a projectile and one by a sea mine, as Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran does not want an endless war, but will keep fighting the US and Israel until Washington meets its demands. The IMF sharply cut its 2026 growth forecast for the Middle East and Central Asia, citing a longer closure of Hormuz than it had assumed in April, while predicting a sharp rebound in 2027 if the strait reopens. Iran is separately blaming 'foreign-backed terrorist groups' for the killing of two of its security personnel near its Chabahar port this week.

Source: Al Jazeera · Thursday, 15 October 2026

Israel's ex-Shin Bet chief sues Netanyahu for defamation over October 7 warning

Ronen Bar, who headed Israel's Shin Bet security service until his resignation in June 2025, filed a defamation suit against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, seeking about $968,500 and denying Netanyahu's claim that Bar never warned him on the morning of the Hamas-led attack. Netanyahu says Bar had his direct line and could have called; Bar says he alerted the military secretary instead. The suit lands two weeks before a tight 27 October election in which Netanyahu's record on the attack is a central issue.

Source: Al Jazeera · Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Sweden

Moderates hit five-year high in SVT/Verian's first post-election poll, Liberals fall below threshold

SVT/Verian's first poll since the election, fielded September 28 to October 11, gives the Moderates 22.3 percent, up from 19.9 percent on election day and their highest level in five years, while the Liberals fall to 3.7 percent, below the four-percent threshold for parliamentary seats. A TV4/Novus poll the same week shows a similar shift: the Social Democrats down to 25.9 percent and the Liberals down to 3.9 percent, though it did not give the Moderates' new absolute level. Verian's Per Söderpalm believes the Moderate gain largely reflects former Moderate voters who tactically backed the Liberals now returning, in the middle of the ongoing government-formation crisis.

Source: The Local Sweden · Wednesday, 14 October 2026