Early Headlines: Asia Stocks, Gold, And Yields Up, Dollar And Oil Down, Private Devices OK For GOP, Polls Favor Impeachment, Ireland And UK Meet, Turkey Invades Syria, Record Afghan Bombing, Plus More - 25 Articles, 8 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 10 October 2019

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

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Notice: We have changed the form of content coverage for Early Bird. We will provide discussion only for Asia Markets news and a small number (often 1 or 2) other articles. The remainder of the content will be headlines (with links) only.

Key Articles

Global

Major markets in Asia rebound after report Trump may announce Huawei concessions (CNBC) Major Asian stock markets recovered from earlier lows to close higher on Thursday as investors watched for developments on the U.S.-China trade front ahead of high-level negotiations between the two economic powerhouses. The U.S. dollar index was last lower at 98.889 after seeing an earlier high of 99.067. Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipping 0.1% to $58.26 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also shed 0.19% to $52.49 per barrel. Spot gold gained by 0.2% to $1,508.82 per ounce, as of 0412 GMT, having notched a one-week peak of $1,516.77 early in the session. U.S. treasury yields ticked lower.

U.S.

Clinton-email critics pull a role reversal as Trump administration draws fire for private phone use (The Washington Post) More than four years after a squad of House Republicans led a charge against then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her handling of sensitive diplomatic information, the State Department is once again under scrutiny for how diplomats use personal phones to conduct official business. But some of those same House lawmakers are now on the opposite side of the controversy, playing defense for U.S. diplomats. On Tuesday, lawmakers said that President Trump’s top envoys for Ukraine and the European Union used personal phones and an encrypted messenger app as they conducted U.S. policy on Ukraine, a matter that was revealed during House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

The most vocal defenders of the Trump administration’s actions include some of the most aggressive critics of Clinton’s handling of sensitive information, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R) of Ohio, Rep. Mark Meadows (R) of North Carolina and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who as a Kansas congressman had attacked Clinton by underscoring the solemn role of soldiers in defending U.S. secrets.

Fox News Poll: Record support for Trump impeachment (Fox News) Just over half of voters want President Trump impeached and removed from office, according to a Fox News Poll released Wednesday. A new high of 51% wants Trump impeached and removed from office, another 4% want him impeached but not removed, and 40% oppose impeachment altogether. In July, 42% favored impeachment and removal, while 5% said impeach but don’t remove him, and 45% opposed impeachment. For details see Fox News Poll results October 6-8, 2019 (Fox News).

Brexit: Boris Johnson to meet Leo Varadkar for last-ditch talks (The Guardian) Boris Johnson is set for a private meeting with the Irish taoiseach on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to come to a Brexit compromise over Northern Ireland, after talks came to a sudden halt in Brussels. Johnson and Leo Varadkar have opted to meet on “neutral” territory in the north-west of England rather than Dublin or London, as negotiations enter a make-or-break phase ahead of next week’s EU summit. Varadkar said on Wednesday he was willing to examine how the people of Northern Ireland could give their consent to arrangements to avoid a hard border. But he went on:

“Part of the difficulty at the moment though is it is the position of the UK government that Northern Ireland must leave the EU customs union and be part of the UK customs union, no matter what the people of Northern Ireland think. That’s their position at the moment, and that’s the one that’s of grave difficulty to us.”

Syria

What is the situation in north-eastern Syria? (The Guardian) See also Turkey unleashes airstrikes against Kurds in north-east Syria. Turkey has launched an offensive into north-eastern Syria, unleashing air strikes and artillery barrages aimed at US-backed Kurdish forces who control the region. Video footage showed civilians fleeing towns with columns of smoke rising in the background and jet trails visible in the sky. Activists and observers say at least seven civilians have been killed so far.

Turkey aims firstly to push the SDF away from its border, creating a 20-mile (32km) buffer zone that would have been jointly patrolled by Turkish and US troops until Trump’s recent announcement that American soldiers would withdraw from the region.
Erdoğan has also said he would seek to relocate more than 1 million Syrian refugees in this “safe zone”, both removing them from his country (where their presence has started to create a backlash) and complicating the demographic mix in what he fears could become an autonomous Kurdish state on his border.

Afghanistan

US dropped more bombs in Afghanistan last month than any time since 2010: Air Force (GTA Channel TV) The U.S. dropped more bombs on Afghanistan in September than it has at any point since October 2010, according to the Air Force.There were 948 weapons released in the Middle Eastern country last month as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and international security assistance, the branch said in an unclassified airpower statistics report dated Sept. 30. In October 2010, the Air Force dropped 1,043 munitions, according to a separate data report from March 2013.