Economy
Türkiye vows to deliver historic climate action plan at COP31
Türkiye will seek to deliver a historic action plan with concrete solutions to the climate crisis at the COP31 it will host in November, Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said Tuesday.
“Do not expect a piece of paper from Antalya that will gather dust on shelves,” Kurum, who is also president of this year’s U.N. climate summit, told an event in the capital Ankara. “We will produce a strong action plan that will shake the world to its foundations and rewrite history.”
The annual COP conference is the main global forum for driving action on climate change. The long-established consensus among the world’s scientists is that climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse. Its main cause is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, which trap heat in the atmosphere.
Kurum said this year’s summit in the southern Mediterranean province will be “the COP of implementation” focused on turning climate commitments into tangible action rather than setting new targets.
“The world does not need to constantly set new targets at the negotiating table. What it needs is an unwavering will to turn those targets into action in the field, in industry and in cities,” the minister noted.
“Let Antalya not be a place where problems are discussed over and over again, but rather a place where solutions are found.”
Kurum said Türkiye would use its diplomatic capacity and experience to overcome barriers to implementation and ensure that commitments made under the Paris Agreement translate into concrete results.
6 global initiatives by 2035
Under a format agreed last year, Türkiye will host the summit and hold its presidency, while Australia will lead the negotiation process.
Kurum said the two countries have set six major global initiatives to be implemented by 2035.
The first focuses on electrification, with a goal of increasing its global share to 35%.
The second aims to cut the growth in global waste by half, while the third targets a 25% reduction in energy consumption in buildings by 2035.
The fourth initiative seeks to increase the use of circular materials in industry to 15%, reducing pressure on natural resources.
The fifth focuses on climate literacy and education, while the sixth aims to establish a “Climate Implementation Bridge” connecting countries in need with financing and solutions.
Kurum said governments alone could not finance the scale of investment required to tackle climate change and called on banks, investors and major companies to play a greater role in the green transition.
“This historic crisis cannot be overcome with the limited budgets of governments alone,” he said, urging the private sector to join the effort at the center of the green transformation.
Stronger role for vulnerable countries
Kurum said Türkiye would seek to ensure that vulnerable countries, particularly those in Africa and small island states, have a stronger voice in the COP31 process.
He said climate impacts did not respect national borders and that climate justice would remain Türkiye’s guiding principle during the negotiations.
Türkiye is working with Australia around three pillars, dialogue, consensus and action, and plans to engage with countries and stakeholders ahead of the Antalya summit, he said.
Kurum said Türkiye would also use the process to bring together young people, cities, businesses, farmers and scientists to develop practical solutions.
He said the world leaders summit in Antalya would provide an opportunity to give new direction to international climate efforts.
Kurum said Türkiye would continue preparations through a series of international meetings and initiatives, including events in Fiji, Baku, New York and London.
He said the Pre-COP meeting in Fiji would be particularly important for giving vulnerable Pacific island states a platform to make their concerns heard.
“We will start with dialogue, grow through consensus and bring it to life through action,” Kurum said.
Türkiye’s manufacturing activity rose to a three-month high in August, a survey showed Tuesday, signaling a modest improvement in business conditions even as the sector remained in contraction.
The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) Türkiye Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, rose to 48.1 in August from 47.7 in July. A reading below 50 indicates contraction, while one above 50 signals growth.
Surveyed businesses said the war in the Middle East continued to weigh on the manufacturing sector midway through the third quarter, mainly through subdued demand and heightened market uncertainty.
Both total new orders and new export business declined in August, although the contractions were less pronounced than in July.
Manufacturers also cut production for a third consecutive month. The latest decline was modest and broadly in line with the pace recorded in July.
With workloads remaining subdued, manufacturers reduced employment and purchasing activity at solid rates, with both declines accelerating from the previous month.
Firms also drew down existing inventories to meet order requirements where possible, leading to further reductions in stocks of both purchases and finished goods.
Meanwhile, input cost inflation accelerated to a three-month high amid reports of higher fuel and oil costs as well as rising raw material prices. Manufacturers responded by raising their selling prices.
Output price inflation also accelerated, although it remained below its average for the first half of the year.
Supplier delivery times lengthened as disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict affected supply chains, the survey showed.
Andrew Harker, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the war in the Middle East continues to cast a shadow over the manufacturing sector, limiting demand and adding a layer of uncertainty to business decisions.
“Despite this, firms have been able to limit the impact, with new orders easing to the smallest degree in three months during August,” Harker said.
“This provides some hope that the sector can move up a gear in the months ahead, but much still depends on events in the Middle East and how they play out,” he added.
A vice president at Bank of America (BofA) was among the victims killed Monday in a stabbing at Times Square.
Erin Piacenti, 32, was a vice president in BofA’s business selection and conflicts unit, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed,” the U.S. banking giant said Tuesday in a statement to Reuters.
“Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday in a press briefing that a woman carrying multiple knives stabbed two people in Times Square before police used a Taser and fired their weapons.
BofA’s Manhattan office is located a stone’s throw from Times Square at One Bryant Park. The bank also has other locations across New York City, the heartbeat of the American financial system.
Piacenti sustained stab wounds in the incident and was later pronounced dead, the NYPD said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch added that the attacks appeared random and unprovoked.
“The investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Force Investigation Division,” the NYPD said in a statement, adding that the suspect, Pamela Cisneros, a 49-year-old woman, was killed Monday as officers responded.
The incident comes after the fatal shooting of a senior Blackstone executive last summer when a gunman, carrying an assault rifle, walked into the lobby of a midtown Manhattan office building and opened fire.
Vestel Elektronik and Anadolu Group Holding said Tuesday they are in talks about their shares in Türkiye’s Togg, after a report claimed the companies were set to sell their stakes in the homegrown electric vehicle maker.
A Reuters report Monday suggested the companies were in discussions and that Türkiye’s sovereign wealth fund TWF was set to become a Togg shareholder.
“Consistent with our investment policies and strategic objectives, discussions concerning the aforementioned shares are currently underway,” Anadolu Group Holding said in a statement. “However, at this stage, no binding agreement has been reached to finalize a transaction.”
Vestel’s statement said no resolution had been adopted by its board regarding “the completion or finalization of the transaction.”
After the news emerged, shares in another Togg shareholder Turkcell closed down 8.16%, while Anadolu Group Holding climbed 4.37% and Vestel Elektronik rose 3.05%. Turkcell was up 1.6% Tuesday, while the other two shares were broadly flat.
Togg was founded eight years ago after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for the production of a fully locally funded passenger car.
Vestel Elektronik, Anadolu Group Holding, Turkcell and BMC Otomotiv each hold 23% stakes in the company. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) owns the remaining 8%.
The report Monday, citing sources, said Turkcell and TWF would buy the stakes held by Vestel and Anadolu Group but did not provide details on the value of the 46% stake. The sources said a final agreement was expected soon.
Turkcell said in a statement that discussions regarding the shares were ongoing. TWF declined to comment, while Togg did not respond to requests for comment.
The company is currently manufacturing the T10X SUV, introduced two and a half years ago, and the T10F fastback, launched last year, at its factory in the northwestern Bursa province.
Togg is also closing in on releasing the lower-cost B-SUV T6X model. Chair of the Board Fuat Tosyalı said Monday initial deliveries are planned to begin by the end of June 2027.
Togg sold 39,020 vehicles domestically last year and its sales in the first seven months of this year rose 30% year-over-year to 25,848 units, data from the Automotive Distributors and Mobility Association (ODMD) shows.
Authorities in India have raided an illicit operation in Mumbai that falsified expiry dates and nutritional labels on authentic food products manufactured by PepsiCo, Nestle, Coca-Cola and Unilever so they could be exported to other countries.
That’s according to a report by Reuters, which said it got access to the warehouse last week as food officers conducted a six-day investigation and seized goods worth nearly $80,000.
A photographer saw chemicals used to remove manufacturers’ original expiry dates and ingredient labels, machines to print and apply replacements and scores of label packs for products including Lay’s potato chips and Maggi noodles.
India’s Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital, has intensified a food safety drive under the new head of the state’s Food and Drug Administration, Tukaram Mundhe, whose surprise inspections at elite clubs and restaurants have made him an online and TV celebrity.
‘Shocked by scale’
“I am absolutely shocked by the scale. It is like an organized activity. It’s been done systematically,” Mundhe told Reuters Tuesday about the investigation into the illicit warehouse operation.
The warehouse, located in the industrial area of Navi Mumbai around 25 km (16 miles) from Mumbai’s international airport, was run by privately owned Sadhana Enterprises. Its owner said they carried out the activities on behalf of 19 little-known exporters, according to a media release from the state and a police case document.
Officials said most products were expired or near-expired. By changing dates, “harmful food products are being exported for sale, thereby defrauding customers,” the case document said.
It was not clear which countries the products were destined for, but all the stock was for export, Mundhe said. At least one reprinted label on a PepsiCo packet was in English and French, Reuters found.
PepsiCo, Nestle, Unilever India unit Hindustan Unilever, and Coca-Cola did not respond to requests for comment. Calls to warehouse co-owners Jayprakash Sanchatiram Singh and Jaya Navrang Bahadur Singh were not answered. It was not clear whether any arrests had been made.
Chemicals and printing machines
The gated warehouse had four large rooms beneath a tin roof.
Officials found nearly 5,000 cartons of consumer products, including PepsiCo’s Lay’s and Kurkure chips, Nestle’s Maggi Masala Noodles, Unilever’s Knorr Mushroom Soup and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, and Coca-Cola’s Thums Up and Limca cans. Many of the Kurkure and Maggi packets, as well as the Thums Up cans, had their dates removed.
Inside the dirty warehouse, Reuters photographer Francis Mascarenhas saw a can of chemical solvent that officials said was used to erase dates from the packets.
They said an operator would enter the fake expiry and manufacturing dates using a stylus on a computer screen. Workers would then use a machine fitted to a metal table, decorated with a tiny “I love my India” sticker, to allegedly print the new label on packaging and cans.
“The original date of manufacture and expiry date on the packaging of the food articles had been scratched out, erased… (and) new information printed over them,” the police document said.
The police case did not accuse any global companies of wrongdoing, but Mundhe called for supply chain accountability.
“Everybody needs to take this seriously. Companies have to abide by compliance and ensure that branding, packaging and sale are done as per regulations,” he said.
Cartons of Maggi, fake ingredient labels
Enforcement of food safety laws is weak in India.
Food safety checks have long focused on adulteration, particularly of dairy products, when cases rise during festive seasons as demand for traditional Indian sweets surges.
Mundhe told Reuters his team found some packs were being reprinted with a future manufacturing date of Oct. 2, 2026 inside the Mumbai warehouse.
Given that foreign countries may have different labeling requirements and health guidelines, Reuters found dozens of Maggi cartons in the warehouse, with one sample showing a fake nutrition label pasted on top of a pack, making it export-ready by describing it as a “Product of India.”
One PepsiCo Kurkure pack had a nutrition label in English and French in a bilingual format.
The fake label reduced the quantity of cereal products in its ingredients by 10% and tweaked the number of calories and serving size in an apparent move to align the labels with foreign regulations.
A majority of Americans oppose President Donald Trump’s moves last week to raise taxes on imported Canadian goods and his order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” according to a poll Tuesday.
The three-day Reuters/Ipsos poll, which concluded Sunday, showed Americans are wary of the feud with Canada – for decades a top U.S. trading partner – which has escalated since trade talks between the two countries collapsed and Trump last week ordered the hike in tariffs on Canadian goods.
Only 20% of poll respondents supported higher tariffs on Canadian goods compared to 57% who opposed them and 21% who couldn’t say where they stood. About one in five poll respondents hadn’t heard about the development.
U.S. households are already under financial pressure from the surge in gasoline prices since Trump launched a war on Iran in February, and American voters rate the cost of living as the top issue determining how they will vote in Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Trump’s Republican allies will be defending slim congressional majorities in the elections. Trump’s approval rating in recent weeks has been mired at the lowest level of his political career.
The trade conflict took a theatrical turn last week when Trump on Thursday renamed Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, as “Lake America.”
Trump’s designation applies to U.S. federal usage about the lake, and does not govern what Canada, international bodies or other organizations call the lake.
The president has often ribbed Canada, threatening to annex the longtime ally as a 51st U.S. state. He ordered the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the “Gulf of America” at the start of his second term in January 2025.
Just 14% of Americans in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they supported changing the name of Lake Ontario, which has gone by that name for more than 400 years. Sixty-three percent of poll respondents opposed the name change and the rest were unsure or didn’t answer the question.
The poll, which was conducted online and nationwide, gathered responses from 1,023 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Iran is suggesting it has “enough” foreign currency despite U.S. sanctions, according to Abdolnaser Hemmati, the country’s central bank governor on Tuesday, in what appeared to be soothing remarks after recent measures announced by Washington.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier said Tehran was lashing out because it was losing the economic war.
The central bank was ready to inject up to $2 billion into the foreign exchange market to calm recent volatility, Hemmati said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“I am telling the President of the United States: Iran has (foreign) currency and it has enough,” he added.
His comments appeared aimed at reassuring markets after Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, pointed to growing difficulties for an economy facing U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade.
Hemmati said the central bank was continuing to collect foreign currency receivables and had domestic reserves as well as other resources, though he added that details of those could not be disclosed.
“I tell the people with complete honesty that economic conditions and livelihood management have become difficult, but collapse has never happened and will never happen. These claims are just psychological warfare and the dust will settle soon,” Hemmati said.
Iran’s currency plunged to a record low in August, crossing the psychological threshold of 2 million rials to the U.S. dollar, while annual inflation reached 66% in July.
Bessent said on Monday that Iran was taking U.S. sanctions seriously and was “lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.”
Washington has been increasingly relying on economic pressure to try to force Tehran to meet its demands, and Bessent has warned that those doing business with Iran could face U.S. sanctions.
-
Sports2 days agoGalatasaray complete Rafael Leao signing from Serie A’s AC Milan
-
Politics3 days agoMuslim unity key to countering Israeli threat, President Erdoğan says
-
Politics2 days agoFM Hakan Fidan holds calls with Qatari, Egyptian counterparts
-
Sports2 days agoSole Çalhanoğlu strike secures narrow Inter win over Cagliari
-
Politics2 days agoTürkiye rejects legal impact of Greek spatial plan in Aegean
-
Sports2 days agoMourinho tips Mbappe for Ballon d’Or despite lack of major trophies
-
Economy1 day agoUS says world ‘cannot have China with $1.2 trillion trade surplus’
-
Politics2 days agoAnkara summons Ukraine’s ambassador over Black Sea attacks