Tuesday Morning Briefing: Abrupt Syria policy shift is sign of Trump unchained
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October 8, 2019
Reuters News Now
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Over the span of just a few hours,U.S. President Donald Trump upended his own policy on Syria with a chaotic series of pronouncements, blindsiding foreign allies, catching senior Republican supporters off guard and sending aides scrambling to control the damage. While Trump’s erratic ways are nothing new, some people inside and outside of his administration worry that the risk of dangerous miscalculation from his seat-of-the-pants approach may only increase.
A federal judge on Monday said eight years of Trump’s tax returnsmust be provided to Manhattan prosecutors, forcefully rejecting the president’s argument that he was immune from criminal investigations. The Manhattan judge had called the immunity claim “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values,” and said he could not “square a vision of presidential immunity that would place the president above the law.”
The U.S. government expanded its trade blacklistto include some of China’s top artificial intelligence startups, punishing Beijing for its treatment of Muslim minorities and ratcheting up tensions ahead of high-level trade talks in Washington this week. The decision, almost certain to draw a sharp response from Beijing, targets 20 Chinese public security bureaus and eight companies including video surveillance firm Hikvision.
Britain’s economy is increasingly showing signs of strainas the Brexit crisis and the global slowdown intensify, with the loss of momentum appearing to spread to areas which have hitherto been sources of growth. The different Brexit scenarios for the world’s fifth-largest economy make it hard to gauge the outlook for the year ahead, not least for the Bank of England, and some investors fear Britain is already flirting with recession.
Ireland’s finance minister will present a “no deal” Brexit budget for 2020on Tuesday, detailing how he will keep firms afloat and allow the state’s finances to return to deficit if Britain leaves the European Union in a chaotic manner. Ireland is considered the most vulnerable among remaining EU members to Brexit due to its close trade links and shared land border with the United Kingdom
Hong Kong’s bourse on Tuesday scrapped its unsolicited $39 billion approach for London Stock Exchange Group after failing to convince LSE management to back a move that could have transformed both global financial services giants. Last month’s surprise cash-and-shares approach threatened to upend the LSE’s $27 billion plan to buy data and analytics firm Refinitiv.
Strong sales of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 10 smartphone series are limiting forecast profit falls at the South Korean tech giant, raising hopes it is getting back on a growth track after years of moribund sales. The world’s largest smartphone maker is powering ahead with the launch of 5G phones and $2,000 foldable handsets.
WeWork is locked in negotiations this week with its largest shareholder, Softbank, over a new $1 billion investment to enable the shared office space company to go through a major restructuring, according to sources familiar with discussions. WeWork had to abandon an initial public offering last week because of investor concerns about how it was valued and its business model.
Interest-rate benchmark Libor, once dubbed the world’s most important number, was discredited after the 2008 financial crisis when authorities in the United States and Britain found traders had manipulated it to make a profit. But replacing Libor is proving expensive and tricky with concerns that, if mishandled, it could trigger credit market confusion and waves of lawsuits
