By Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Donald Trump was disqualified from Colorado’s presidential primary ballot by the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, an extraordinary ruling that could be struck down ahead of the November 2024 US election.

Here is a look at the decision and what it means for the former U.S. president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

WHAT DOES THE RULING SAY?

A slim majority of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump is disqualified from appearing on the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars anyone engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office.

A lower court judge previously ruled that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, during a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters amounted to insurrection but stopped short of disqualifying him, saying Section 3 does not apply to presidents.

The Colorado Supreme Court paused its own ruling pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which Trump said he will immediately seek.

WILL THE RULING STAND?

The case involves a host of unprecedented legal issues related to Section 3, which was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War and has rarely been tested.

It is not clear how the Supreme Court would rule, but it is dominated by a conservative majority that includes three Trump appointees, some of whom are longtime skeptics of giving courts powers that are not clearly based in legislation.

That was a top concern for the dissenting justices in the 4-3 Colorado decision, who said the majority’s ruling would strip Trump of one of his most basic rights without adequate due process.

They noted that Trump has not been convicted of insurrection by a jury and did not have the right to subpoena records or compel witnesses to testify in the case, among other basic rights afforded to criminal defendants.

WHAT DOES TRUMP SAY ABOUT THE RULING?

Trump’s campaign called the court decision “undemocratic.”

“The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court,” a campaign spokesperson said.

He and has allies have criticized disqualification cases in Colorado and several other states as undemocratic and part of a conspiracy by his political rivals to keep him out of office.

HOW COULD THE RULING IMPACT THE ELECTION?

Even if the ruling survives Supreme Court review, it could be inconsequential to the outcome of the November 2024 election because Trump does not need to win Colorado and is not expected to, given its strong Democratic leanings.

Colorado has nine of the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency. Biden won the state by more than 13 percentage points in the 2020 election.

But similar lawsuits could be filed in competitive states that Trump must win to prevail, and while none of those courts would be bound by the Colorado decision, judges will likely study it closely while reaching their own conclusions.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF OTHER TRUMP DISQUALIFICATION CASES?

Voters and advocacy groups have sued to block Trump from the ballot in more than 12 states, but at least seven of them have failed for a variety of reasons.

Courts in Michigan, New Hampshire and Florida have dismissed similar cases on procedural and jurisdictional grounds, with some rulings stating that courts do not have the power to unilaterally disqualify candidates from ballots.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has also rejected a disqualification case.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

(Reuters) – United Parcel Service Inc, the world’s No. 1 logistics company, on Thursday lost its court fight for a record 1.74-billion euro ($1.90 billion) compensation claim from EU antitrust regulators for blocking its 2013 bid for Dutch rival TNT.

The European Commission had stopped UPS’ planned 5.2-billion-euro acquisition of TNT because it had not offered enough remedies to allay concerns that the deal would hurt consumers.

($1 = 0.9142 euros)

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by Jason Neely)

By Alessandro Diviggiano, Xiaoyu Yin and Liz Lee

DAHEJIA, China (Reuters) -A dozen people were still missing on Thursday after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Gansu province late Monday, and netizens questioned the speed at which rescue operations had ended.

Chinese media reported that search-and-rescue work in Gansu ended at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, about 15 hours after the disaster hit a remote and mountainous area near the border straddling Gansu and Qinghai provinces. It was not immediately clear whether the search in Qinghai was continuing.

In Gansu, 115 people had been found dead as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT) and 784 were injured, authorities said. Gansu has not reported any missing persons.

Neighbouring Qinghai saw its death toll rose to 22 with 198 injured and 12 missing as of 8:56 p.m. on Wednesday.

More than 207,000 homes were wrecked and nearly 15,000 collapsed in Gansu, affecting more than 145,000 people.

Discussions online showed netizens curious about how quickly rescue efforts wrapped up in Gansu, with many suggesting that the sub-freezing temperatures were the main factor in shortening the “golden period” for finding survivors – typically 72 hours post-disaster.

People trapped under rubble exposed to prolonged temperatures of -10° Celsius (14°F) run the risk of rapid hypothermia and may only be able to live for five to 10 hours even if uninjured, local media reported, citing researchers.

“They would have been dead by the time they were found, even 24 hours is already too long. Outdoor temperatures are below minus 10 C,” a user on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo commented.

Some users on Weibo considered other factors such as that the search area was not especially wide, and that people have been all accounted for, leading to rescue efforts ending in less than a day.

SURVIVING THE COLD

Rescuers on Wednesday pulled to safety victims of the earthquake, which jolted Jishishan county in Gansu a minute before midnight on Monday, sending many residents in the area out of homes into the cold in the dead of the night.

Survivors face uncertainty in the wintry months ahead without permanent shelter amid freezing temperatures.

Many of the affected families are Hui people, an ethnic minority mostly found in western Chinese provinces and regions such as Gansu, Ningxia and Shaanxi.

In Gansu’s Sibuzi village, villagers worried about the freezing winter.

“Many people escaped from their homes, some without socks, just ran out barefoot. It’s extremely cold standing on the ground,” said Zhou Habai, an ethnic Hui woman.

The 24-year-old, now staying in a makeshift tent after her home was destroyed, said some villagers have been gathering and burning firewood to keep warm.

About 60% of the survivors have not received tents, 63-year-old Ye Zhiying, from the same village, told Reuters.

He said officials from the Communist Party had told them that the village would distribute tents by noon on Thursday, and would be set up in less than a week.

“Whether everyone can be accommodated or not, we don’t know,” said the Hui villager, who was given a tent on Wednesday.

Roads, power and water lines and agricultural production facilities have suffered damage, and the quake triggered land and mudslides that swept through villages in Qinghai’s Haidong where the missing were reported from.

(Reporting by Alessandro Diviggiano and Xiaoyu Yin in Dahejia, Liz Lee and Ella Cao in Beijing, and Shanghai newsroom. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

By Samuel Indyk and Tom Westbrook

LONDON (Reuters) -The dollar was steady while sterling crosses nursed losses on Thursday in holiday-thinned trade ahead of the last major data release of the year in Friday’s U.S. inflation figures.

Sterling suffered its sharpest drop on the dollar in two months on Wednesday after British inflation dived below forecasts to an annual 3.9% in October, a two-year low.

The currency fell 0.7% to $1.2638 as traders priced in Bank of England rate cuts as soon as May. On Thursday it hit a one-week low of $1.2618.

Against the euro <EURGBP=D3> the pound hit its weakest in more than three weeks at 86.78 pence. [GBP/]

Analysts forecast a similar easing for Friday’s U.S. core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data, with the annual inflation rate seen slowing to its lowest since 2021 at 3.3%.

But given the dollar has been on the back foot for weeks and 150 basis points of Federal Reserve cuts are already priced in for 2024, caution held off any further dollar selling, for now.

“Some adjustments in positions and paring back of risks ahead of (this) event… is only sensible,” said OCBC currency strategist Christopher Wong in Singapore.

“Liquidity is getting thinner as we get closer to the festive season, thin liquidity can exacerbate price movements on any data surprises.”

Heavy selling in the final hour of equities trade on Wall Street had also sent a ripple of risk-aversion through markets, even as stock futures steadied.

The mood helped the safe-haven yen along with Japan lifting its growth projection for the fiscal year to 1.6%.

The yen rose about 0.2% and last traded at 143.24 per dollar, having earlier risen to 142.81 per dollar.

It has still lost more than 8% on the dollar this year as the Bank of Japan has steadfastly kept short-term rates negative, against 300 basis points of U.S. interest rate hikes.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said that markets should take note of the BoJ retaining its easing bias at the last meeting.

“Market pricing for action early next year is still too aggressive, especially when considering how widespread the disinflation narrative has become,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note.

“This is just one of the reasons why we think there is still limited scope for substantial yen appreciation.”

The euro was stable at $1.0941.

The Australian and New Zealand dollars traded just below Wednesday’s five-month highs. The Aussie was last at $0.6744, having touched its highest since July at $0.6779 a day earlier. The kiwi traded at $0.6251. [AUD/]

The dollar index, down 1% for the year so far, was steady at 102.40. Ten-year Treasury yields had hit a seven-month low of 3.847% on Wednesday.

China’s yuan slipped as offshore yuan funding costs fell and China’s blue-chip stock index hovered near five-year lows. It was last at 7.1469 to the dollar. [CNY/]

Bitcoin leapt briefly above $44,000 on Wednesday and was steady at $43,717 on Thursday, just below last week’s 20-month high of $44,729.

(Reporting by Samuel Indyk and Tom Westbrook; Editing by Michael Perry and Susan Fenton)

(Reuters) -The Biden administration in the United States is discussing raising tariffs on some Chinese goods, including electric vehicles (EVs), the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

China’s vehicle exports have grown in recent years, fuelled by overcapacity and slowing domestic demand in the world’s biggest auto market, and are expected to rise 25% next year to 5.3 million units, China Merchants Bank International says.

The Journal report follows a request to the administration by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers last month to hike tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles and investigate ways to prevent Chinese firms from exporting to the United States from Mexico.

Chinese automobiles currently face a 25% levy introduced during the administration of former President Donald Trump and extended by his successor.

The U.S. government is debating Trump-era duties on roughly $300 billion of Chinese goods, aiming for early next year to wrap up a long-running review of the tariffs, the paper added.

The Biden administration is also considering lowering tariffs on some Chinese consumer products that officials do not see as strategically important, in addition to the potential increases on clean-energy products, the paper said.

Foreign automakers including Tesla also use China as a major export hub.

Lawmakers have said earlier that U.S. automakers are exporting Chinese-made vehicles to the United States, a sign that current import tariffs are insufficient.

China will follow developments closely and take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate interests, a spokesperson of its foreign ministry told a daily briefing on Thursday.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru, Qiaoyi Li in Beijing and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

(Reuters) – Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was restored globally early Thursday, with over 77,000 U.S. users facing issues at the peak of the outage.

Users in Canada, Britain, France and other countries reported issues with accessing both X and X Pro, earlier known as TweetDeck.

Over 7,000 users in Canada and Britain experienced issues with the platform, according to Downdetector data.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users.

The cause of the outage, which began a little after 12 am ET(0500 GMT), is not yet known, and emails to X’s communications and support teams bounced back.

Users on X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, experienced an inability to view posts, receiving a “Welcome to X!” message. X Pro users encountered a message that said “Waiting for posts.”

The social media platform faced upheaval and uncertainty following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition, leading to layoffs, including numerous engineers responsible for fixing and preventing service outages, sources have previously told Reuters.

Users took to rival Meta’s app, Threads, to discuss the outage, citing difficulties in accessing posts, replies and profiles on X.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro

LONDON (Reuters) – Bankers advising companies on stock market listings are hopeful that the new year will bring a recovery in initial public offerings after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled it may start reversing the fastest escalation in interest rates in decades.

“The IPO markets will be much better in 2024 than they were this year, and my gut tells me that both volumes and breath of access will progress as we move through the year,” said Daniel Ludwig, global head of equity capital markets (ECM) at Goldman Sachs.

That positive call comes after a tough year for bankers. So far, this year stands to be the second-worst for ECM transactions in the last decade after 2022, with $532 billion raised to date, according to Dealogic data.

For IPOs, in particular, 2023 has seen the lowest levels of activity in since 2016.

Some of those that listed this year saw their share prices drop in the aftermarket, including chipmaker Arm Holdings and sandal maker Birkenstock.

Many of those stocks are now trading above their issue price, amid a global rally in equities fuelled by growing consensus that interest rates have topped out.

“There is a clear understanding that we are, at worse, at a pause in the increase of interest rates and, at best, at the beginning of what could be a decline of interest rates,” said Stephane Boujnah, CEO of European stock exchange group Euronext. This would prompt investors to shift assets from bonds to shares, he said.

The positive forecast from Goldman Sachs’ Ludwig for 2024 is still far off the boom times of 2021. That said, the coming year could see Singapore-based fashion group Shein go public at a reported valuation as high as $90 billion, after recently filing paperwork for an IPO in the United States.

Buyout group Permira is preparing to list Golden Goose, known for its luxury distressed sneakers, in Milan in a deal that could raise about 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion), sources have said.

Dealmakers expect buyout funds to be a vital source of business in the coming months, as these come under pressure to return capital to investors after one of the slowest years for private equity exits in a decade.

“The pre-conditions are in place for IPO markets to re-open, and private equity owns large assets which are attractive to public market investors,” said Gareth McCartney, global co-head of ECM at UBS.

Some asset managers are looking at going public like their portfolio companies, in a bid to finance expansion and allow their owners to sell their stakes.

Britain’s CVC could revive its listing plans after postponing a mooted IPO earlier this quarter, while General Atlantic is reportedly planning a U.S. listing.

“Corporate break-ups and spin-offs are also an option for next year,” said Andreas Bernstorff, head of ECM at BNP Paribas for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Expected to join are European conglomerates including Bayer, Renault, Sanofi and Vivendi, which have announced plans to explore potential break-ups and spin-offs of their business divisions.

Bankers warned that the market will need to see a few successful IPOs in the new year before it can open up to a wider group of companies. The U.S. presidential election may also limit the amount of time companies have access to the equity capital markets in the second half of 2024.

While the IPO market recovers, dealmakers hope to continue raking in fees from arranging stake sales and capital increases at companies that are already publicly traded.

“Secondary sell-downs have been a defining feature this year and will continue to be so next year, although to a lesser degree given the high volume in 2023,” said James Palmer, head of EMEA ECM at Bank of America.

The last few months have seen shareholders sell multibillion-dollar stakes in companies such as Heineken and the London Stock Exchange Group.

Governments have also started to offload holdings in banks rescued during past crises, including Monte dei Paschi and ABN Amro.

Company boards may also turn to equity and convertible debt as an alternative to refinance upcoming debt maturities, given higher borrowing costs.

“I think 2024 has the potential to be very different,” Aloke Gupte, co-head of international ECM at JPMorgan.

“While volatility is likely to persist, are there reasons to believe ’24 may be better than ’23? Yes, very much so.”

($1 = 0.9142 euros)

(Reporting by Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London; Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Louise Heavens)

By Sam Nussey and Joyce Lee

TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s Samsung Electronics will invest around 40 billion yen ($280 million) over five years in a facility for research into advanced chip packaging it will set up in Japan, according to an announcement by the city of Yokohama.

Reuters reported in March that Samsung was looking at establishing a packaging facility in Kanagawa prefecture, where it already has a research and development centre, to deepen ties with Japanese makers of chipmaking equipment and materials.

Japan’s industry ministry said it would provide Samsung subsidies worth up to 20 billion yen as it looks to support the revitalisation of domestic chip manufacturing.

Samsung’s investment comes at a time of easing tensions between South Korea and Japan as the United States encourages allies to work together to counter China’s growing technological prowess.

The chipmaker began bolstering its advanced chip packaging department last year. Companies are racing to develop advanced packaging techniques, which involve combining components in a single package to improve overall chip performance.

The Japanese facility will allow Samsung to strengthen its leadership in chips and partner with packaging-related companies based in Yokohama, the head of Samsung’s chip business Kyung Kye-hyun said in the city’s announcement.

($1=142.8900 yen)

(Reporting by Sam Nussey and Joyce Lee; Editing by Jamie Freed)

(Reuters) – U.S. airlines say they are prepared for busier end of year holiday travel compared with the same peak period a year earlier, when storms led to thousands of canceled flights and congestion.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration expects Thursday to be the busiest travel day of the week. According to the Transportation Security Administration, the official holiday period runs from Thursday through Tuesday, Jan. 2.

U.S. airline trade group Airlines for America (A4A) expects carriers to fly more than 39 million passengers during the holidays, or about 2.8 million passengers a day, up 16% from 2022.

Airlines and airports in the United States and Canada have hired workers and upgraded equipment in some cases to avoid last year’s congestion. U.S. passenger airlines have the largest workforce in the last two decades, A4A said.

In 2022, a high-profile operational meltdown at Southwest Airlines led to around 17,000 canceled flights and cost the carrier more than $1 billion, along with a historic penalty from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Canada’s largest airport has also increased staffing, expanded de-icing and added new advanced snowplows, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority said. The airport wrestled with congestion during peak travel periods last year that led to hard limits on flights.

However, United Airlines, which expects to have its busiest-ever, end of year holiday travel season, with around 9 million passengers, does not currently expect weather to cause any operational interruptions, a spokesperson said.

U.S. airlines expect demand to grow for sun destinations this holiday period, with seats flown from the U.S. to Caribbean resort destinations up 18% in 2023 on an annual basis, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Florida’s Orlando International Airport expects record crowds over the holidays.

(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal and Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago; Editing by Alistair Bell)

(Reuters) – Canada’s BlackBerry reported a surprise quarterly profit on Wednesday, backed by a resilient demand for cybersecurity services amid rising online threats.

While IT spending has dwindled over the past year, cybersecurity-related expenditure has remained stable as businesses and governments scramble to beef up their systems against hackers.

Over the past few months, casino giants such as MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment faced large data breaches, forcing businesses to prioritize cybersecurity.

Earlier this month, BlackBerry discarded its initial public offering plans for its Internet of Things (IoT) business, but still expects to split the IoT and Cybersecurity businesses into fully standalone divisions.

“Work has commenced to fully separate and significantly rightsize our businesses, and we expect to further reduce operating cashflow usage in Q4,” said CEO John Giamatteo.

BlackBerry also plans to simplify the corporate structure of the company so that each business unit may operate independently and on a profitable and cashflow-positive basis.

BlackBerry expects fourth-quarter revenue in the range of $150 million to $159 million.

The Waterloo, Canada-based company reported adjusted net profit of 1 cent per share in the quarter ending Nov. 30, compared with a loss of 5 cents per share a year earlier.

Revenue in the third quarter rose to $175 million from $169 million. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $173.5 million, according to LSEG data.

U.S.-listed shares of the company fell 4% in extended trading.

(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)