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Political analysts love to draw similarities between Russia and Turkey.

A court case against the Turkish opposition is intensifying questions of whether the country is on the brink of a Russia-style autocracy.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, its Chairman Özgür Özel and his administration face a hearing that could see them removed and replaced with a trustee.

The concern is the trustee might be a pro-government figure or a less dynamic opposition politician, like 76-year-old former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, meaning the ballot box effectively loses its meaning for voters.

The court adjourned yesterday’s hearing until next month, but the political climate isn’t easing.

Tensions flared in March when the authorities jailed the CHP’s most prominent official, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu — seen as the strongest rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — who was days away from announcing a presidential bid.

A poster of İmamoğlu in Istanbul in March. Photographer: Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg

Officials insist the courts are independent, but the opposition holds Erdoğan responsible, arguing he wants to dismantle the CHP and hobble his opponents.

The speculation is that Erdoğan wants to prolong his more than two-decade rule in the 2028 elections despite not being allowed to run beyond two terms.

Since local elections last year, the CHP — under its charismatic leader Özel — has seen a meteoric rise. While polls are unreliable, it’s now seen as beating Erdoğan’s AK Party at the ballot, and the opposition has pressed for early elections.

For Özel and his party, the cases against them amount to an existential threat. “If the CHP goes, Turkey will go too,” Özel has said.

Turkish assets rallied yesterday when the hearing was postponed, as investors welcomed any pause in the exhausting political drama that’s consumed the country throughout the year.

For markets as for Turkish voters, the respite looks like it’ll be all too brief. — Beril Akman

CHP leader Özel during a rally in Ankara on Sunday. Photographer: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

Global Must Reads

The high-stakes showdown between the Trump administration and the US central bank intensified when an appeals court yesterday blocked the White House from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her post for now. The ruling came just hours before the start of the Fed’s Sept. 16-17 meeting, where it’s expected to cut interest rates by a quarter point.

Wall Street’s main regulator indicated it’s “prioritizing” a Trump proposal to reduce the frequency of earnings reports, after the president again weighed into the debate over transparency in American capitalism. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it’s pursuing a proposal to “further eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on companies” following Trump’s social-media post calling for an end to the quarterly reports that companies issue to share financial results with investors.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an intensive operation in Gaza City, signaling a new phase of the offensive has started, with Army Radio reporting that Israeli forces plan to encircle the city within days. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Hamas there was a “very short window” for a negotiated end to the war, before he left Israel for Qatar, where he said he would try to encourage the Gulf state’s leader to re-engage in mediation talks after an Israeli missile strike on its capital a week ago that targeted Hamas officials.

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike in Gaza on Sept. 16. Photographer: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Talk of replacing Prime Minister Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party has spilled into the open following the messy exits of his deputy prime minister, ambassador to the US and strategy chief, but the lack of a plausible replacement may keep the rebels at bay for now. Starmer, meanwhile, said he wasn’t aware of the contents of Peter Mandelson’s emails to Jeffrey Epstein before publicly backing his then-US ambassador, as pressure builds on him to explain his handling of the scandal.

Trump filed a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing the paper of serving as a mouthpiece for the Democrats and pitting himself against one of the world’s oldest and most prominent news organizations. The case, filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida, cites the Times’ news and opinion articles as well as the 2024 book Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, written by two of the paper’s reporters.

Japanese Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of one of Japan’s most famous reformist premiers, said he’ll run in the ruling-party leadership race as it looks for a successor capable of turning around its prospects and leading the nation.

Shinjiro Koizumi. Photographer: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg

UBS Group’s senior leadership has been sitting through presentations from investment banks in recent weeks as they seek a solution to perhaps its biggest challenge in over a decade: A $26 billion increase in capital requirements leveled by its home government of Switzerland.

The European Union will delay formally tabling its latest package of sanctions against Russia, according to a European diplomat, after Trump demanded stronger European measures as a condition for the US to move forward with its own penalties.

Philippine and Chinese vessels collided today near a disputed South China Sea shoal, where Chinese coast-guard ships fired water cannons as tensions escalate over the rivals’ long-running maritime dispute.

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Chart of the Day

For the past two years, Chinese officials unleashed major fiscal and monetary stimulus after disappointing data in the final quarters. This time around, Beijing has fewer options. In a warning sign for the economy, industrial output and consumption both had their worst performance of 2025 last month, following on from a weak July. Most worryingly, growth in fixed-asset investment decelerated in the first eight months to its lowest reading on record for that period outside the pandemic.

And Finally

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera faces an uphill battle to secure another term in today’s election, with his popularity dented by spiraling living costs and fuel shortages in one of the world’s least-developed nations. His main rival is Peter Mutharika, whom he beat five years ago in a court-ordered rerun of a vote that was marred by violence and widespread rigging allegations. Polls suggest Mutharika and Chakwera are leading the field of 15 contenders.

A voter at a polling station in Lilongwe, Malawi, today. Photographer: Amos Gumulira/Getty Images

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