Reuters World News - US forces under fire, Iran's warning and Biden polling

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

US forces are under fire in the Middle East. As Iran warns an expansion of Gaza conflict is ‘inevitable,’ our journalists reveal how a defective drone in Iraq may have helped keep America from being dragged in deeper. Plus, what the polls mean for Biden and the unlikely hero of cricket’s World Cup is Afghanistan.  Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, U.S. forces under fire in the Middle East as America tries to avoid being dragged into war. While Iran warns escalation of the Gaza conflict is inevitable. Polls show Biden, unpopular with voters in key states, including parts of the coalition that elected him into office in 2020. And the unlikely heroes of Cricket's World Cup. It's Friday, November 10th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front of the lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. And I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. Iran is warning that the scale of civilian suffering in Gaza means an expansion of the war

is inevitable. As Gaza officials said airstrikes hit close to hospitals, the comments from the Iranian foreign minister could undermine Washington's diplomatic and military efforts to keep the war from spreading. Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdelham reportedly made the remarks to his Qatari counterpart in a phone call. The United States wants to avoid getting dragged into a widening Middle East conflict. But with Iran-backed groups attacking U.S. troops in the region, there's a real danger of escalation. Idris Ali is a national security correspondent based in D.C. Idris, how close has the U.S. come to being pulled into a direct confrontation in the Middle East? What's happening is that over the past couple of weeks in the last month or so, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked about 40 times.

And so they have felt a need to retaliate to send a message to Iran and the groups that backs that you can't attack American forces without some sort of cost. And what we've seen in those 40 attacks is most of them have been repelled. Most of them have either fallen short or not hit their targets. But some of them have come pretty close in terms of injuring American troops. We had one incident on October 26th where a drone bypassed American air defense systems and actually hit one of the barracks. And luckily for the Americans, the drone turned out to be a dud and no U.S. troops were injured. But it's one of those instances which really shows that if that drone had gone off, it had exploded, it could have caused significant amount of damage, potentially casualties, and really raised a question for President Biden about how to respond. So I think we're a lot closer or have come a lot closer than I think the public really knows.

Does Iran actually want to get involved directly? From our understanding, no. The Iranians understand about a conflict with the United States, either in the Middle East or in or near Iran would be catastrophic for them from a military standpoint, from an economic standpoint, and a casualty standpoint. And I think there is a real desire for the Iranians not to get involved. But there's also an understanding that they have to somehow show the Arab world, show the whole world that they stand with the folks in Gaza, with the civilians there. And their response is to sort of do

these small-scale attacks, usually by their proxies, to send a message. What about Iraq? Blinken asked Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sadani to rein in militant groups, right? The majority of the attacks against American groups have actually come in Iraq, where there are about 2,500 U.S. troops currently. The reality is that the Sadani government and Sadani himself is pretty weak. The Iranian-back forces and Iran exerts a lot of pressure in the country. And so he's in a situation where he can't really win, where he can't really rein in the Iranian-backed militias, even if he wants to. The other thing is the U.S. realizes this. And so what we've seen so far is American retaliation just in Syria, even though they've been attacked more times in Iraq.

And it's sort of a nod to what is obvious, which is Sadani is someone they can work with, but Sadani isn't very powerful. And so if they start attacking forces or Iran-back forces in Iraq, it could destabilize the government and make the situation a lot worse for them. So I think there is a realization in Washington and in Baghdad that Sadani is probably about as good as it's going to get for the Americans. And rather than antagonizing Iraq and the Iranian-back militia there, it's better to focus on Syria. New polling finds Donald Trump beating President Joe Biden in many battleground states,

although both men remain very unpopular. Jarrett Renshaw covers the White House. He's been reporting on the disconnect between the popularity of Biden's policies and the man himself. If you look at the individual pieces of his agenda, like the capping of insulin prices at $35, the negotiating of drug prices for Medicare, recipients, gun control, investing infrastructure. Singular items like that, each poll extremely well.

Across party, across age groups, 60% or higher, 70, 80% or higher. So those individual things are wildly popular. So why is Biden so unpopular? The best answer I've gotten is his age and his ability to articulate things. He will be 81 later this month. And there's no doubt that that is the biggest problem for Biden and one that he really can't solve. The polls show cracks in the coalition that put Biden in the White House in the first place. That must worry Democrats.

No doubt. I mean, they were concerned months ago. The campaign has identified Latino voters, black voters, and young voters as the key demographics that they need to get out and mobilize. And you see why. the coalition of black, Latino, and young voters that put Biden in office, I want to say it's crumbling, but there's a lot of, it's just a lot of concerning signs. Ultimately, we're still a year out. I think somebody said that the best thing about those polls was the date. There's a year out. There's a lot of noise. When it's a binary choice between Trump and Biden, the Biden campaign believes that they offer the better set of options and that these voters don't really have a alternative. But There is no doubt that there is no other path. Biden needs black, Latino, and young voters to win. And if they're not enthused about Joe Biden, that is a problem.

It could really spell disaster for him. A silver lining for Biden is Trump is also unpopular in the polls. Yeah, well, I'll say two things here. One is that is true. Trump is equally unpopular, which is going to mean that both campaigns are going to have a somewhat of a scorched earth campaign where they're really vilified. the other, which is really not great for the discourse in America. But you could also point to Tuesday's elections. There are signs that this abortion issue is not going away. There's signs that despite Biden's

bad poll ratings in states like Kentucky, Democrats are still winning in states like Ohio's. So I think if you want to see a silver lining and you're in the Biden campaign, that is one where personalities don't matter, but Democrats right now have the better policies than their rivals and their winning when it really matters, which is at the ballot box. Protests in Madrid after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agrees an amnesty for people involved in Catalonia's independence movement. The deal with the Catalan separatist party, Yunts, gives Sanchez's socialists another term in office. The mood in Spain has become increasingly heated during talks between the two sides. The former head of Spain's Conservative

People's Party in Catalonia, Aliejo Bidal Quadras, was shot in the face in Madrid on Thursday. police have not yet offered a motive for the attack. Maverick Democrat Senator Joe Manchin will not seek re-election. The move will make it very difficult for Democrats to defend his West Virginia seat and their thin Senate majority. Cheers and tears after the father of Liverpool soccer player Louis Diaz was freed by Colombia's National Liberation Army guerrillas. Louis Manuel Diaz was taken hostage nearly two weeks ago. A sea of red awaits investors today on equity markets.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is the core. cause. He says the Fed is not confident it's done enough to bring inflation down, and that's quashed any hope investors might have had about an impending rate cut. So stocks are down and bond yields are up. Meanwhile, the impact of geopolitical tensions on markets dominated the conversation at the Reuters' next conference in New York. Policymakers and financiers pointing out how events thousands of miles away ricochet back to D.C. and Wall Street. Here's Peter Orzag, Chief Executive of Financial Advisory firm Lazard. of how world events affect daily life in the United States,

here you have it, which is a disagreement over whether funding for Ukraine should continue or not, is likely to be, if the government shuts down, that will be the cause. In India, cricket fans have been shocked by the success of a relative newcomer to the nearly 50-year-old World Cup tournament. Afghanistan's cricket team has been around for just a couple of decades, but has wowed spectators in this year's cup. And while cricket may seem a bit hard to follow for some, Amlon Chakrabordi has been following the Cricket World Cup for us in New Delhi.

They managed just one win in their World Cup debut in 2015. But this year, they came into the tournament, despite the political turmoil at home, despite the tragedy of the earthquake, they beat three former champions, England, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. And they were on the verge of beating Australia. After the Taliban took over there was uncertainty. What will happen to cricket in Afghanistan?

Because the Taliban ruler, they don't allow their women team to take. I mean, there is no women cricket in Afghanistan as we speak. And there was a risk that Afghanistan might get banned by the International Cricket Council because they don't have a women's cricket team, at least on paper. And so there was the uncertainty what will happen to Afghanistan cricket. So considering that background, what they have done in this tournament, it's massive. That's it for today's episode.

We'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.