Good morning, NBC News readers.
The U.S. is speeding up its withdrawal from northern Syria, Britain is entering its most critical Brexit week yet, and an Astros-Yankees playoff battle ends with an eleventh-inning walk-off home run.
Here's what we're watching today.
U.S. forces to withdraw from northern Syria as ISIS supporters escape camp
The U.S. military this weekend accelerated its plans to fully withdraw from Syria as Turkish forces continued their advance in the country's north.
About 1,000 troops will leave the area "as safely and quickly as possible," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday. Only around 300 soldiers will remain in the country, two U.S. military officials in the region told NBC News.
Amidst the U.S. withdrawal, Kurdish troops turned to the Syrian government and Russia for help Sunday in a desperate move that will likely be seen as a win for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
"Nobody supports us. This is why we made an agreement with the Russians and the Syrian government," said Ismat Sheik Hassan, a Kurdish official who leads the Kobani Military Council.
Meantime, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that close to 800 members of a camp holding the families of ISIS fighters had escaped after Turkish shelling.
Some Kurdish guards were forced to leave their posts as fighting neared a camp for displaced people near the town of Ain Eissa, a spokesperson for the U.K.-based observatory told NBC News.
"It’s now chaos in the camp and there are people still escaping," Rami Abdulrahman said early Sunday.
Here's why Democrats believe Adam Schiff is the perfect person to take on Trump
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff is a central player in the impeachment inquiry — and the target of a ceaseless stream of invective from President Donald Trump that includes both schoolyard nicknames and outlandish allegations that the congressman is guilty of treason.
But Clinton-era lessons of overreach and political backlash have informed Schiff's go-slow approach to the Trump impeachment and have reassured Democrats that they are in steady hands, NBC News' Jonathan Allen writes.
Brexit enters eleventh hour — for real
With the clock ticking down to the October 31st Brexit deadline, the stage has been set for the most decisive week on Britain's exit from the European Union since the June 2016 referendum that set the saga in motion.
The British Parliament will officially reopen today with Queen Elizabeth II delivering a speech setting out the agenda for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government.
We can expect fireworks from there as British lawmakers then debate whether to pass the government’s agenda as set out by the queen, while British and E.U. negotiators continue to hash out a final Brexit deal to present to European leaders by Thursday.
With all that, we have several Brexit stories worth reading to catch you up:
- Disunited Kingdom: Brexit has thrown the United Kingdom into an existential crisis that might result in the end of the country as we know it, NBC News' Alexander Smith writes in a special report.
- The ghosts of Northern Ireland's violent past loom large over the last-ditch Brexit talks. "For those of us who were children when the Troubles began, who lived through its daily carnage and who believe lives are at stake in the Brexit drama, these are distressing times," Bill Neely, NBC News's chief global correspondent, writes in a news analysis.
- "Everything's just fallen apart": British oyster farmers say they have been served up a raw deal with all the Brexit uncertainty.
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Plus
- An internet meme showing a likeness of Trump shooting members of the news media and political opponents has prompted calls for the White House to denounce the violence after it was reportedly shown at a meeting of Trump supporters at his Miami resort.
- Hunter Biden will step down from a Chinese-backed private equity firm and forgo foreign business if his dad is elected, his lawyer said over the weekend.
- "Sorry just doesn't cut it," said the mother of Harry Dunn, the British teen killed in a fatal wrong-way crash by an American diplomat's wife.
- Is fake meat better for you, or the environment?
- Trading Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples' Day: For some, the switch is long overdue.
- The Astros' Carlos Correa hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to tie up the American League Championship Series against the Yankees.
THINK about it
Helicopter parents have graduated to bulldozer parents. Heaven help us all, mother-of-five Megan Francis writes in an opinion piece.
Science + Tech = MACH
Scientists using laser scanning technology have discovered a vast network of ancient Mayan farms in Belize.
Live BETTER
How to run: A guide for people who think they can't.
One fun thing
The ageless Paul Rudd sat down NBC News' Willie Geist and discussed his 25 years of acting from "Anchorman" to his latest Netflix project "Living with Yourself."
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
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Thanks, Petra
