Global Risk Briefing, August 18, 2026: coverage of Elections Watch is surging
· data through August 18, 2026
Media Coverage Briefing: August 18, 2026
This briefing analyzes media coverage data for August 18, 2026, across 42 tracked topics and 197 tracked countries. Data is available for 36 topics.
Surging Topics
Two topics are identified as surging based on their Z-score. Elections Watch shows a Z-score of 6.1 and a volume of 0.063. Sanctions has a Z-score of 3.1 and a volume of 0.124.
Movers
Five topics experienced significant week-over-week increases in coverage. Serbia–Kosovo rose by 344.3%. Arms Deals rose by 236.3%. Korean Peninsula rose by 214.1%. Elections Watch rose by 141.3%. Sahel Insurgency rose by 113.3%.
Most Covered Topics
The five most covered topics by volume are: Sanctions with a volume of 0.124, Israel–Gaza with a volume of 0.108, Iran War & Succession with a volume of 0.079, Elections Watch with a volume of 0.063, and NATO with a volume of 0.038.
Darkest Countries
The countries with the lowest average media tone are: Eswatini with a tone of -6.71, El Salvador with a tone of -6.18, Liberia with a tone of -5.12, Yemen with a tone of -4.58, and Equatorial Guinea with a tone of -3.77.