Morning Briefing: Trump to tout strong economy in State of the Union
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January 30, 2018
Reuters News Now
Highlights
CIA Director Mike Pompeowarned that Russia will target U.S. mid-term elections later this year as part of the Kremlin’s attempt to influence domestic politics across the West. The Trump administration said it would not immediately impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite a new law designed to punish Moscow’s alleged meddling, insisting the measure was already hitting Russian companies.
As he battles a probe into his campaign’s alleged ties with Russia,U.S. President Trump will attempt to divert attention to U.S. economic gains in his first State of the Union speech to Congress tonight. Facing a looming deadline on an immigration controversy amid strong Democratic opposition, Trump will also call for a bipartisan compromise of the type that has eluded him during a turbulent first year in office marked by partisan battles.
World
The Syrian government’s chemical weapons stockpilehas been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity. Read the Reuters exclusive.
Southern Yemeni separatiststook control of the port city of Aden after two days of fighting, residents said today, confining the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the presidential palace.
Commentary:The American strategy against Islamic State worked. What stands out now is the conspicuous absence of American influence in Baghdad and Iran "picking up the pieces, creating a new Lebanon out of the shell of what was once Iraq." If any of this does presage some future American conflict "then we shall have witnessed a true ironic tragedy," writes 24-year State Department veteran Peter Van Buren.
Turkey has ordered the detention of 11 top doctors over criticism of the Syrian offensive, add to that the more than 300 people that have been detained for social media posts since the campaign began. http://reut.rs/2FvYMFT
World stocks were in their biggest two-day dive in six months today and commodities were also jammed in reverse, as rising U.S. borrowing costs cooled financial markets’ euphoric start to the year.
Pfizer’s quarterly profit jumped almost 16 times compared to a year ago, as the largest U.S. drugmaker booked an $11 billion gain from the new tax law.
When Apple announces its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, investors will seek signs of whether the company’s $999 iPhone X launched last autumn was a Steve Jobs-style hit or, as more analysts suspect, a letdown.
