Good morning.
A backlash is growing against Saudi Arabia in Congress after an influential Democratic senator threatened to freeze weapons sales and security cooperation with the kingdom after its decision to support Russia over the interests of the US.
Anger towards the Saudi government has risen since last week’s Opec+ decision to cut oil production by 2m barrels, which was seen as a snub to the Biden administration and a nod to Russia since it will benefit.
Senator Robert Menendez criticized Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to “help underwrite Putin’s war through the Opec+ cartel” and said there was “simply is no room to play both sides of this conflict”. He added: “I will not green-light any cooperation with Riyadh until the kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough.”
Another Democratic senator and a member of Congress – Richard Blumenthal and Ro Khanna – accused Saudi Arabia of helping to boost Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and said the US should not provide access to strategic defence systems “to an apparent ally of our greatest enemy”.
Frustration with Saudi Arabia is escalating on Capitol Hill. Chris Murphy, another Democratic senator, last week called for a “wholesale re-evaluation of the US alliance with Saudi Arabia” and Tom Malinowski, a Democratic congressman, introduced legislation to withdraw US troops from the kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
Ukraine to demand more western aid after Russian blitz
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to demand greater military and diplomatic support from G7 leaders today after the biggest Russian missile attack on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war.
“We are dealing with terrorists,” the Ukrainian president will say of Russia. “They have two targets: energy infrastructure and people.” Kyiv complains western backing has lagged behind Ukraine’s requirements to defend its territory and people, and Zelenskiy will call again for anti-aircraft systems and longer-range missiles.
Diplomatically, Ukraine wants Russia declared a state sponsor of terrorism, and its isolation underlined in a UN general assembly debate that began yesterday. Zelenskiy spoke to Joe Biden and tweeted later: “Air defence is currently the No 1 priority in our defence cooperation. We also need US leadership with the G7’s tough stance and with support for our [UN general assembly] resolution.”
War shifts after civilians targeted. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, described Monday’s attack, in which cruise missiles and armed drones rained down on parks, playgrounds, power stations and other civilian targets, as “a profound change in the nature of this war”.
Defiance as deadly strikes bring war back to Kyiv. A relative peace throughout the Ukrainian capital was violently shattered yesterday when a series of missiles hit the centre. War had returned.
US headed for recession, says head of JP Morgan Chase bank
The US and global economy is facing a “very, very serious” mix of headwinds that is likely to cause a recession by the middle of next year, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, the largest US investment bank, has warned.
He said Europe was in recession “and they’re likely to put the US in some kind of recession six to nine months from now”. Dimon said the US Federal Reserve “waited too long and did too little” as inflation jumped to a 40-year high over the past 18 months. He said the central bank, which raised rates five times so far this year, was “clearly catching up”.
It comes after Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic adviser at the German financial services company Allianz SE, blamed the US central bank for exacerbating the risk of a recession by waiting too long to raise interest rates and then “slamming on the brakes this year”. He added: “I fear we risk a very high probability of a damaging recession that was totally avoidable.”
Volatile market conditions are expected. Dimon, one of the richest men in banking with an estimated $1.3bn net worth, said the benchmark S&P 500 stock market index, could fall by “another easy 20% … The next 20% would be much more painful than the first.”
Mississippi police shoot Black teenager in head outside store
A Black teenager in Mississippi was taken off life support on Saturday two days after Gulfport police shot him in the head outside a discount store, and his relatives are questioning officers’ actions.
Jaheim McMillan, 15, was shot on Thursday and his mother, Katrina Mateen, told WLOX-TV that when she arrived at the store after her son was shot, officers handcuffed her and walked her across the street.
In a video taken by a bystander after the shots were fired, McMillan could be seen on the ground in front of the door to the store. A witness said police handcuffed the teenager after shooting him. There are calls for CCTV footage to be released.
Police claim they responded to a call about minors waving guns. The Gulfport police chief, Adam Cooper, said the youth fled from the vehicle and that one of his officers “engaged with an armed individual” before firing. He did not provide further details of what led up to the shooting.
In other news …
The rusted carcass of a second world war Higgins boat used to transport troops into battle and on to beaches overseas, nicknamed the Ghost Boat by officials, has mysteriously been found and excavated from California’s Lake Shasta, the largest reservoir in the state, after a record drought.
The UK chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, held undisclosed meetings with senior executives of Saudi Arabian firms when he was business secretary. A government spokesperson said there had been an “administrative oversight” after Kwarteng was flown around the kingdom by Saudi Aramco.
An Australian woman accused of theft over a $6.6m cryptocurrency refund issued erroneously instead of $100 has been released on bail as she awaits trial, despite claims she allegedly tried to flee the country. Crypto.com did not notice the mistake until an audit in December, six months after the mistaken transfer.
The Thai prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has ordered a clampdown on drugs, including an emphasis on rehabilitation, after 37 people – mostly young children – were killed in an attack on a nursery by a former police officer who had been dismissed for methamphetamine possession.
Stat of the day: cities offered chance of $1m to build cycle lanes
Ten cities around the world will be awarded $1m each in funding as well as expertise to build cycling infrastructure under a scheme launched by the charitable foundation set up by Mike Bloomberg, who as New York mayor pioneered bike lanes in the city.
Any city with a population of at least 100,000 can apply between November and February, with the 10 winners announced in spring next year. Janette Sadik-Khan, who was New York’s traffic commissioner under Bloomberg and now heads the advisory board for Global Designing Cities Initiative, a New York-based NGO that works with cities to create sustainable transport, said part of the advice given to the winning cities would be how to cope with the inevitable critics.
Don’t miss this: Why is trickle-down economics still with us?
Notwithstanding its repeated failures, the gonzo economic theory of trickle-down economics – the abiding faith on the political right that tax cuts and deregulation are good for an economy – continues to live on, writes Robert Reich. “Ever since Reagan and Thatcher first tried them, trickle-down policies have exploded budget deficits and widened inequality,” he says. “At best, they’ve temporarily increased consumer demand (the opposite of what’s needed during high inflation that Britain and much of the world are experiencing).”
Tax cuts and deregulation under Ronald Reagn in the 1980s were not responsible for rapid growth in the US at the end of the decade, Reich maintains. “His exorbitant spending (mostly on national defense) fueled a temporary boom that ended in a fierce recession … The result? From 1989 to 2019, typical working families in the United States saw negligible increases in their real (inflation-adjusted) incomes and wealth.”
Climate check: How fossil fuel firms use Black leaders to ‘deceive’ their communities
Fossil fuel companies seek to use influential Black leaders to smooth the way for polluting oil and gas projects that disproportionately affect people of colour, Indigenous communities and low-income neighbourhoods, writes Nina Lakhani. “If they’re asking us to rubber-stamp this, then there should be economic benefits for Black folks and minorities. But all we heard was talk without any actual commitment to equity in contracts for minorities,” said Geoffrey Guns, a pastor who was asked to join a community advisory board for a Virginia gas pipeline.
“The whole thing feels very disingenuous, as clearly the company is not really interested in our advice on safety or guaranteeing opportunities for minority businesses. I am very disappointed. This is a bunch of white people with some Black faces sprinkled in. I feel absolutely used and violated.”
Last Thing: Democrats shouldn’t focus only on abortion in the midterms, says Sanders
While the abortion issue must remain on the front burner, writes the former Democratic presidential nominee contender, it would be “political malpractice” for the state of the economy to be ignored.
“This country has, for decades, faced structural economic crises that have caused the decline of the American middle class,” Sanders says. “Now is the time for Democrats to take the fight to the reactionary Republican party and expose their anti-worker views on the most important issues facing ordinary Americans … We have more income and wealth inequality than at any time in the modern history of this country, with three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of our nation.”
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