The judge in Ankara adjourned the case concerning the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its chairman, Ozgur Ozel, until October 24

International News via Reuters:

A Turkish court delayed a decision on Monday whether to oust the main opposition leader and annul his party’s 2023 congress over alleged irregularities, in a case that has already deepened the country’s political crisis.

The judge in Ankara adjourned the case concerning the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its chairman, Ozgur Ozel, until October 24.

Hundreds of CHP members, including President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, have been jailed pending trial in a separate, sprawling legal probe into alleged graft and terrorism links.

If the court rules next month to annul the CHP’s congress, that would strip Ozel – the party’s combative, hoarse-voiced chair who has risen to prominence since Imamoglu’s arrest – of the title that he won there.

CASE HAS SPURRED OPPOSITION DISARRAY, STREET PROTESTS

The case is seen as a test of Turkey’s shaky balance between democracy and autocracy. It threatens to deepen disarray and infighting in the opposition camp, boosting Erdogan’s chances of extending his 22-year rule.

The court rejected plaintiff requests to suspend Ozel, 50, and his administration pending a verdict, and it ordered the CHP and election boards to submit information on planned CHP general and Istanbul congresses next week, once they are done.

The centrist CHP denies the charges against it and is level with Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted, conservative AK Party (AKP) in opinion polls.

Anti-Erdogan street protests flared in recent days ahead of Monday’s court ruling, and the case has badly rattled Turkish assets. The lira, stocks and bonds strengthened after Monday’s adjournment decision.

The opposition, human rights groups and some European leaders say the crackdown on the CHP is politically motivated and anti-democratic, charges rejected by the government, which says that Turkey’s judiciary is independent.

“This is a serious moment that signals a regime change in Turkey from a competitive authoritarianism, in which opposition parties could still win elections, to a kind of hegemonic authoritarianism, in which they are more symbolic and unable to win,” said Seren Selvin Korkmaz, co-founder and co-director of IstanPol Institute, an Istanbul-based think tank.

CRITICS SEE TURKEY SLIDING TOWARDS AUTOCRACY

The legal crackdown on CHP, which began in October last year, has sharpened concerns over what critics call Turkey’s slide towards autocracy, as the courts, the army, media, the central bank and other formerly more independent institutions have bent to Erdogan’s will during his 22-year reign.

Government officials and some analysts say last year’s local elections – in which the CHP swept most major cities in the biggest ever defeat for Erdogan’s AKP – showed that NATO member Turkey remains a vibrant democracy, despite critics’ concerns.

If the court cancels the congress and ousts Ozel, it could name a trustee to run the party or reinstate former chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, whom Erdogan defeated in a 2023 election and who has since lost much trust within the CHP.

It could also throw out the case, which was brought by a disgruntled CHP member.

A CHP lawyer told the court on Monday it lacked jurisdiction in the case, arguing that only Turkey’s Supreme Election Board can adjudicate on party congress elections.

Turkish markets, on edge over rule of law concerns in the major emerging market economy, crashed in March when Imamoglu was jailed pending trial. The central bank briefly reversed a cycle of interest rate cuts to counter the turmoil.

“Uncertainties have merely been extended,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, of Swissquote. “The worst-case scenario has been avoided, yet foreign investors’ perception of Turkey’s policy environment and investment outlook remains unchanged.”

Additional reporting and writing by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Daren Butler, Clarence Fernandez and Gareth Jones

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International News via Reuters:

France’s political instability could hold back growth in the euro zone’s second-biggest economy by pushing consumers and businesses into retrenchment mode, the central bank said on Monday in a quarterly outlook.

This year the economy is on course to grow slightly better than expected a few months ago, but only because companies built up inventories in the first half and exports are expected to pick up in the third quarter.

The Bank of France forecast the economy would therefore grow 0.7% this year, raising its estimate from 0.6% in June. The INSEE statistics agency forecast 0.8% last week.

But after this year, the economy would regain momentum more slowly than expected in June as the re-emergence of political turmoil in recent weeks makes the outlook for spending cuts and tax increases highly uncertain.

The economy was now seen growing 0.9% in 2026 and 1.1% in 2027, the central bank said, trimming its forecasts from 1% and 1.2% respectively, due not only to political uncertainty but also less favourable international conditions, including a stronger euro and higher oil prices.

“The risks surrounding our growth forecast are tilted to the downside after 2025. Uncertainty about fiscal policy in 2026 could reinforce wait-and-see behaviour among businesses and households,” the Bank of France said.

French inflation is expected to remain below 2% through 2027, among the lowest in the euro zone. It is seen averaging only 1% this year, before edging up to 1.3% in 2026 and 1.8% in 2027.

The unemployment rate is expected to hover close to its current level of 7.5%.

Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

The move comes as delegations grow increasingly concerned about the cost of accommodation in the coastal Amazon city of Belem hosting COP30

International News via Reuters:

High hotel prices for Brazil’s COP30 climate summit in November have prompted the United Nations to urge its staff to limit attendance, while government delegations are still scrambling to find rooms within their budgets.

The move comes as delegations grow increasingly concerned about the cost of accommodation in the coastal Amazon city of Belem hosting COP30. Brazil is working to nearly double available hotel beds, but soaring prices for accommodation have stoked calls from some governments to relocate the conference, which Brazilian officials have rejected.

“In view of the capacity constraints in Belem, I would like to kindly request that heads of United Nations system, specialized agencies and other relevant organizations review the size of their delegations at COP 30 and reduce numbers where possible,” the U.N. climate secretariat’s (UNFCCC) executive secretary Simon Stiell said in a document published on the UNFCCC website.

A spokesperson for Brazil’s COP30 presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The UNFCCC did not issue such a request ahead of last year’s U.N. climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Nearly every government in the world will gather at the annual U.N. summit to negotiate efforts to curb climate change.

But developing countries have warned that they cannot afford Belem’s accommodation prices, which have soared amid a shortage of rooms.

At a meeting of countries’ representatives and U.N. officials last month, the UNFCCC asked Brazil to subsidise hotel prices to ensure rooms for $100 per day for delegates from the world’s poorest countries and $400-$500 per day for other countries, according to an official summary of that meeting, seen by Reuters.

Miriam Belchior, executive secretary to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chief of staff, told journalists after the meeting that Brazil was already bearing significant costs for hosting COP30 and could not provide further subsidies. Brazil has offered poorer nations rooms capped at around $200 per night.

Countries’ representatives and U.N. officials are due to meet again this week to discuss the accommodation situation for COP30.

Reporting by Kate Abnett. Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu. Editing by Mark Potter

Class A shares of the company were up 3.6% at $249.1, while Class C shares climbed 3.4% to $249.5 – both trading at record highs

International News via Reuters:

Google parent Alphabet hit a market capitalization of $3 trillion for the first time on Monday, riding on renewed optimism around artificial intelligence and a favorable antitrust ruling.

Class A shares of the company were up 3.6% at $249.1, while Class C shares climbed 3.4% to $249.5 – both trading at record highs.

Including Monday’s moves, shares have rallied more than 32% so far this year, the best performer among the so-called “Magnificent 7” stocks and outpacing the 12.5% gain for the S&P 500. Alphabet joined other tech giants Apple and Microsoft in clinching a $3 trillion valuation, while AI chipmaker Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, boasts a market cap of $4.25 trillion.

The latest boost for Alphabet was a ruling by a U.S. court that allowed the company to retain control of its Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system, marking a pivotal moment for the company whose dominance in search and mobile ecosystems has long drawn scrutiny.

While sharing data as part of the ruling will strengthen Google’s advertising business rivals, not having to divest Chrome or Android removes a major concern for investors who view them as key pieces to Google’s overall business.

Investor sentiment also got a lift after the company’s cloud-computing unit delivered an almost 32% jump in second quarter revenue, surpassing expectations as investments in in-house chips and the Gemini AI model began to pay off.

“They still are very dependent on search, but with YouTube, Waymo, and other capabilities and products they’re working on, investors are starting to see that possibility that this isn’t just a search company anymore, this is a company that’s moving into a lot of other things,” said Dennis Dick, chief strategist at Stock Trader Network.

Alphabet trades at around 23 times its forward earnings – the lowest among the “Magnificent 7” – compared to its five-year average 22, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru: Additional reporting by Purvi Agarwal; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Sriraj Kalluvila

The announcement from the State Administration for Market Regulation comes as the U.S. and China hold trade talks in Madrid

International News via Reuters:

China’s market regulator on Monday said that a preliminary investigation had found that Nvidia had violated the country’s anti-monopoly law, marking the latest hit for the U.S. chip giant.

The announcement from the State Administration for Market Regulation comes as the U.S. and China hold trade talks in Madrid, where chips, including the ones made by Nvidia, are expected to be on the agenda.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday “the poor timing” of China’s Nvidia investigation on the day of the trade talks was discussed in Madrid.

The announcement from the SAMR was likely timed to give China clout while trade talks are ongoing, analysts told Reuters.

“Both sides appear to be building leverage to negotiate from a more favorable position, but they are doing this through very calculated moves because they understand the stakes at play,” said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, managing director at strategic advisory firm GreenPoint.

CONTROLS TO HAVE ‘CONSEQUENCES’

Zhengyuan Bo, partner at research company Plenum, said that SAMR’s preliminary ruling was likely part of a counterpunch to the Trump administration’s decision on Friday to place 23 Chinese companies on a U.S. trade blacklist.

“It’s a warning that if the U.S. export control paradigm operates in the same way as in the past several years there will be consequences, and China is willing to inflict damage on U.S. companies,” Bo said.

The SAMR announcement could also complicate Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s aspirations to overcome U.S.-China tensions to sell modified versions of its advanced chips in the world’s second-largest economy.

Huang has been on a charm offensive in China this year, visiting the country three times to signal the U.S. company’s commitment to the Chinese market, which has in recent years had its access to Nvidia’s most cutting-edge chips repeatedly restricted by U.S. export controls.

Nvidia’s shares fell 2.1% in pre-market trading on Monday.

 The brief SAMR statement did not elaborate on how the U.S. company, known for its artificial intelligence and gaming chips, might have violated China’s anti-monopoly laws.

China in December launched an investigation into Nvidia over what it said were suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, a probe that was widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington’s curbs on the Chinese chip sector.

 ACQUISITION TERMS COVERED GPU TECH

The Chinese regulator also said the U.S. chipmaker was suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies, under terms outlined in its 2020 conditional approval of that deal. 

One of those terms was that Nvidia would continue to supply the Chinese market with GPU accelerators, used in computing. In recent years, the company has been forced to end sales of its most advanced accelerators due to export controls implemented by the administration of former President Joe Biden.

The SAMR on Monday added that it would continue its investigations. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

According to China’s antitrust law, companies can face fines of between 1% and 10% of their annual sales from the previous year. China generated $17 billion in revenue for Nvidia in the fiscal year ending January 26, or 13% of total sales, based on its latest annual report.

Beyond the fine, the impact of SAMR’s decision remains unclear, but Nvidia could going forward be required to sell chips in China unaccompanied by Mellanox’s technology, according to Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at consultancy Omdia.

But Su added that as long as there is no outright ban of Nvidia GPU sales, demand in China will remain.

GROWING HEADWINDS FOR NVIDIA IN CHINA

The extent to which China can have access to cutting-edge AI chips is one of the biggest flashpoints in the U.S.-Sino war for tech supremacy.

Nvidia, the world’s top maker of AI chips whose fortunes have soared with the AI wave, has been at the centre of the fray. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed and then relaxed some of its more severe restrictions on the company’s sales of advanced chips to China. 

 At the same time, China is keen for its tech industry to wean itself off U.S. chips. Chinese authorities have summoned companies, including Tencent and ByteDance, over their purchases of Nvidia’s H20 chip, asking them to explain their reasons and expressing concerns over information risks, sources said last month 

Also last month, China’s cyberspace regulator summoned Nvidia representatives to explain whether the H20 chip, which Nvidia tailored for China, posed backdoor security risks that could affect Chinese user data and privacy.

Plenum’s Bo said that the SAMR issuing an unfavourable ruling for Nvidia on its antitrust probe was unlikely to affect Nvidia’s bottom line as much as China’s efforts to foster domestic substitutes to the U.S. chipmaker’s most powerful AI chips.

“This should not be taken as a sign that China is trying to kick Nvidia out of the country,” he said.

Reporting by Eduardo Baptista, Liam Mo and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Sharon Singleton