Türkiye's central bank meets on 22 October, and most economists expect a 100 basis-point cut to the one-week repo rate, from 37% to 36%. Annual inflation fell to 29.73% in September, the first reading under 30% since November 2021. Analysts expect further cuts in December and January if price pressure keeps easing.
Istanbul's jailed mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu finished a four-day defence statement on 17 October in the corruption trial against 436 defendants, dismissing every allegation as politically motivated. The court, sitting at Silivri prison, released seven of the 53 detained co-defendants during the hearing. The trial's third session is set for November 2.
Haluk Görgün, head of Türkiye's Presidency of Defense Industries, said in Bursa that the sector has already signed $15 billion in contracts this year and expects $20 billion by year-end. Defence and aerospace exports rose 15.6% year-on-year to $6.93 billion from January to September, with an export value per kilogram 40 times the national average. Main contractors including ASELSAN, ROKETSAN and TUSAŞ have placed orders worth more than $20 billion with over 16,000 domestic companies over the past three years.
In a Sunday address, President Emmanuel Macron said looters would pay for the damage and that those who sought to “bring down the Republic” would be held accountable. Saturday's cost-of-living and student protests turned into looting and fires in several cities; authorities raised their arrest count to more than 2,000, up from the roughly 400 reported the same Saturday, and at least 600 police officers and firefighters were injured. Marine Le Pen accused Macron of laxity, while left and green parties criticised heavy-handed policing of peaceful marchers.
After the Moroccan warship Mohammed VI entered Spanish waters in late July, the Spanish navy has changed its routine: patrol vessels such as the Atalaya and the Isla de León now sail out to meet Moroccan ships rather than only tracking them from shore. Spain distinguishes between “innocent passage” under the law of the sea and movements it judges could threaten Ceuta's security, while trying to keep its relationship with Rabat intact.
The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned repeated Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia on Sunday, after a foreign ministers' meeting in Manama, and backed the kingdom's right to self-defence. Saudi forces shot down two drones near Riyadh and in the Eastern Province the same morning. In Yemen, government forces are pressing offensives on several fronts, the fighting has displaced more than 233,000 people, and the World Health Organization warns Taiz's twelve hospitals have only four days of fuel left.
Parties in the Unitary Democratic Platform met in Caracas on Sunday and agreed to “recognise and support” the leadership of exiled Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado, while renewing their demand for free elections after the contested 2018 and 2024 votes. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who has led the country since a US military operation removed Nicolás Maduro in January, has President Trump's backing for a three-phase plan that places stabilisation before any political transition.
Kenya's Director-General for Health, Patrick Amoth, confirmed an eighth case on Sunday, a 49-year-old care attendant likely exposed to the country's first patient. The outbreak in neighbouring DR Congo, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no vaccine, has killed more than 4,500 people out of over 9,400 cases since May and is the country's deadliest on record; the virus has now reached an eighth province. Authorities in North Kivu are imposing a one-week entry ban and restricting public gatherings from Monday.