Washington warns of tough stance on Saudi Arabia amid outrage over Opec+ oil cut – live | US politics

The supreme court has also rejected an appeal from Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015, the Associated Press reports.

The court made no comment as they turned away Roof’s petition, the AP said. “Roof had asked the court to decide how to handle disputes over mental illness-related evidence between capital defendants and their attorneys,” according to the report.

Roof is currently on death row at a federal prison in Indiana.

The supreme court’s conservative majority has turned down a petition from a death row inmate challenging his conviction because some of the jurors in his trial opposed interracial marriage, NBC News reports.

The decision not to review the conviction of Andre Thomas, a Black man convicted for the 2004 killing of his estranged wife, son and step-daughter, was opposed by the court’s three-justice liberal minority.

“No jury deciding whether to recommend a death sentence should be tainted by potential racial biases that could infect its deliberation or decision, particularly where the case involved an interracial crime,” justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent that was joined by Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Here’s more from NBC News:

At the 2005 trial for the murder of Leyha Hughes, the all-white jury found that Thomas was guilty and sentenced him to death.

In contesting his conviction, Thomas’ lawyers argued that the jury was tainted because three members during the selection process had expressed opposition to people of different races marrying or having children, which was pertinent to the facts of the case because of Thomas’ marriage to Boren.

One juror said that he opposed interracial relationships because it was “against God’s will,” according to court filings. Another said “we should stay within our blood line” when asked the same question. The third juror said interracial relationships are harmful to children because “they do not have a specific race to belong to.”

At the trial, the prosecutor also asked the jury, “Are you going to take the risk about him asking your daughter out or your granddaughter out.” Thomas’ lawyers said the statement appealed to the jury’s biases.

Thomas says his right to a fair trial under the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment was violated on two counts: that he was not tried by an impartial jury and that his lawyer was ineffective for failing to object to the jurors being selected.

The state’s lawyers argue in part that all three jurors said they would follow the law as instructed and could deliver an impartial verdict.

High energy prices are among a laundry list of issues facing the US economy, which the head of a major investment bank warns could tip into a recession by next year, Edward Helmore reports:

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, warned Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, the largest US investment bank, on Monday.

Dimon pointed to the effects of runaway inflation, sharp interest rate rises and Russia’s war in Ukraine, as factors that informed his thinking. But he added that the US was “actually still doing well” and consumers were likely to be in better shape compared with the global financial crisis in 2008.

“You can’t talk about the economy without talking about stuff in the future – and this is serious stuff,” Dimon told CNBC at a conference in London.

Biden open to re-evaluating relationship with Saudi Arabia: White House spokesman

Here’s more from The Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner on what’s driving the outrage towards Saudi Arabia among Democrats in Washington:

The congressional backlash against Saudi Arabia escalated sharply on Monday as a powerful 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.

Washington’s anger with its Saudi allies has intensified since last week’s Opec+ decision to cut oil production by 2m barrels, which was seen as a slight to the Biden administration weeks ahead of critical midterm elections, and an important boost to Russia.

But the remarks by Senator Robert Menendez, who serves as chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, indicated a serious possible sea change in US policy.

Joe Biden famously wanted to make Saudi Arabia a global “pariah”, citing its murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But gas prices got in the way.

As the war in Ukraine pushed pump prices higher across the United States this year, Biden traveled to Riyadh and greeted crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. The US president said he did press the defacto leader on Khashoggi’s murder, but the visit was widely seen as an attempt to convince him to increase crude production and lower the high price of gas at home, which badly damaged Biden’s approval rating among voters.

Instead, Opec+ announced a production cut at its meeting last week, threatening to send US fuel prices higher just ahead of the 8 November midterms. While Biden condemned the move when it happened, some of the most forceful calls for retaliation are now coming from his Democratic allies in Congress – where the Republican opposition seems set to benefit from any price spike caused by the production cut.

Washington’s knives are out for Saudi Arabia as outrage spreads over Opec+ production cut