ISTANBUL

Organized for the 11th time by the State Opera and Ballet, the International Istanbul Opera Festival opened on Sept. 19.

Turkey has experienced one of the hottest days of the year over the last week as a heatwave across the country has sparked high temperatures.

When the air temperature exceeded 44 degrees Celsius in İzmir, Muğla and Antalya provinces on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, public beaches, hotels and swimming pools were flooded by residents who wanted to cool off.

Air quality across Turkey is above the safety limit values set by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the Right to Clean Air Platform, an independent nongovernmental organization focused on the issue of air pollution in the country.

A video of a woman who was cut off and attacked on a highway in a busy Istanbul district has gone viral on Turkish social media.
The video shows a man calling out names and damaging the vehicle of a woman in the Alibeyköy neighborhood of the metropolis.

Turkey has urged Greece to avoid provocative actions against its research vessel Oruç Reis deployed in the eastern Mediterranean or it will be retaliated in kind, a statement in reference to an incident between the two countries involving a frigate, which was later described as "an accident" by the Greek authorities.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Greece had attacked its seismic survey vessel Oruc Reis and warned that if it does so again in the future, Turkey will retaliate.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Aug. 14 that Turkey was considering closing its embassy in Abu Dhabi and suspending diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates over its accord to normalize ties with Israel.

In a second test for COVID-19, a player and a technical staffer at the Fenerbahce football club who tested positive earlier this week have just returned a negative result, the Turkish Super Lig club said on Aug. 14.

The Istanbul team added that despite the second test finding no infection, the two individuals remain in isolation at home.

Cell phone footage of restoration workers drilling down the stone wall of Istanbul's 14th-century Galata Tower created a political firestorm. An officer of the Istanbul Municipality tweeted a clip of two restoration workers taking apart a corner section of the tower's inner wall with jackhammers. A pile of large stones lay at their feet as they worked.

Aamir Khan, the world-renowned movie star from India, gathered with his fans in southeastern Turkey on Aug. 12.

Khan stopped shooting his movie Laal Singh Chaddha, an adaption of the 1994 classic Forrest Gump due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in India, and started looking for alternative locations in Turkey to shoot his movie.