Governor Davut Gül said six people have died in Istanbul and two more in neighbouring Kocaeli province after this month's record rainfall, up from the four dead and three missing reported on 18 October, with one person still missing. Officials called it the heaviest rain since 1942, and crews logged roughly 19,300 separate incident reports across the city.
Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the region around Türkiye a 'ring of fire' and said the country has stayed out of the conflicts surrounding it, from Ukraine to Gaza to Yemen, while accusing Israel of working to destabilise Syria. He cited Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia's capital among the region's dangers.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has begun a three-day visit to Belgium that includes meetings with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. A fourth Türkiye-Belgium ministerial meeting on 20 October covers counterterrorism, the defence industry and migration.
After the 17 October looting and riots left Paris with a record 855 arrests, out of the more than 2,000 counted nationwide, President Macron, on a trip to the Gulf, faces criticism from allies and rivals alike. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted a 'lack of anticipation' and offered to resign, which Macron rejected. Prime Minister Lecornu has asked regional authorities to impose partial curfews ahead of further protests planned for next weekend.
The Commission and European Council presidents will meet Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar in Budapest on 23 October for the 70th anniversary of the 1956 uprising, von der Leyen's first visit to Hungary since 2024. Magyar's government, in power since April, has broken with Viktor Orbán's line by naming Russia a security threat and backing the opening of four EU accession clusters for Ukraine.
Manfred Weber (EPP), Iratxe García Pérez (S&D) and Valérie Hayer (Renew), who each lead one of the European Parliament's three centrist political groups, face no real challengers in their groups' internal leadership votes on 20 October in Strasbourg, but the coalition behind Commission President von der Leyen has frayed as the EPP leans increasingly on right-wing and far-right votes for migration and climate laws.
The Future Investment Initiative, due to run 26 to 29 October and nicknamed 'Davos in the Desert,' has been postponed until next year, organisers said, as the Iran-backed Houthis continue strikes on Saudi Arabia that have killed at least 18 people and wounded hundreds, including an 8 October attack on Riyadh's main airport. A new date will be announced, the statement said.
A drone strike on a market transport hub in West Kordofan on 18 October killed 80 people, part of a wave of strikes since Friday that UN officials call alarming; the army and the RSF each blame the other, and a separate RSF drone killed 41 displaced people in Blue Nile. The war, now in its fourth year, has displaced about 13 million people and left 33.7 million needing food aid.
Speaker Andreas Norlén asked Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist, not Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson as had been expected, to test support for a centrist coalition, with a report due back on 26 October. The move follows parliament's 15 October rejection of Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson as prime minister, five weeks after the election with still no government formed.