First Thing: Oil prices surge as attacks on Saudi Arabia stoke supply fears
Strike on kingdom’s east-west pipeline could affect 4% of global oil supply
Good morning. Oil prices have climbed above $108 a barrel after a series of drone attacks from Iraq’s territory forced Saudi Arabia to close its east-west crude pipeline. Saudi traders said the kingdom would run out of oil stocks for export if it did not reopen within days. Gas prices also climbed higher. Energy prices have surged this year, as the US-Israel war with Iran has disrupted oil and gas supply across the Middle East.
The spike came as the Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen launched several attacks against Saudi Arabia and captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait on Sunday, expanding their control of the waterway.
Where did the attack on Saudi Arabia come from? Iraq’s government confirmed the attacks were launched from its territory and ordered an investigation. Baghdad is under mounting pressure to stop militant groups – including those backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran – launching attacks on Gulf countries from Iraqi soil. The US president, Donald Trump, said he believed Tehran was responsible.
Why has Saudi Arabia been relying on its east-west pipeline? Riyadh has increased the use of the 745-mile pipeline since the start of the war on Iran in order to bypass the strait of Hormuz’s closure. The world’s biggest exporter has used the pipeline to reroute about 4m barrels a day – about 4% of global supply – but with the pipeline out of service, the Red Sea port of Yanbu now has stocks to maintain exports for just five to seven days.
AI-linked stocks take hit as leading US tech CEOs back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI development
AI-linked stocks have tumbled after the bosses of Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX called for a slowdown in “reckless” development, citing fears the technology could soon run out of control. The market swings come after the chief executive of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, appealed for the AI industry to “slow down”. Last week, a former Anthropic employee had warned that AI could precipitate human extinction by 2030.
The respective CEOs of OpenAI and SpaceX, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, have backed Amodei’s call. The US president, Donald Trump, on a visit to his golf course in Ireland, played down the warnings and said “very negative forces” were “bringing up things that won’t happen”.
What is the Anthropic CEO proposing? Robert Booth explains Amodei’s suggestion: first, each US AI company grants access to third-party evaluators; second, all companies in democratic countries establish common safety standards; and third, the world’s democratic AI powers coordinate with autocracies – notably China – to control the race.
How has Barack Obama intervened over AI? The former US president made a direct appeal to Democrats to coalesce around a unified AI safety policy, arguing that waiting for voluntary compliance from tech firms was a recipe for governance failure.
Israel accused of trying to ‘eliminate’ living conditions for Palestinians in West Bank
Israel is working towards the systematic “elimination” of the conditions that sustain Palestinian collective life in the occupied West Bank, according to a report published by the human rights group B’Tselem. The Israeli organisation says Israel is “dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank”.
How does the report say Israel is making life intolerable? “Palestinian communities are being pushed out in an accelerating process of ethnic cleansing, while an ever-expanding Israeli presence is being established … Elimination in this context means sustained harm to the conditions that enable Palestinians to exist as a people with land, institutions, language, culture, social ties, leadership, shared memory and history, and a social and political horizon. It is an ongoing political project.”
Wisconsin congressman swims to safety after plane makes emergency landing in lake
A Republican congressman said he had to swim to safety after a plane he was traveling in made an emergency landing in a lake late Saturday. Tom Tiffany is running for governor on the Republican ticket in Wisconsin and has been endorsed by Donald Trump.
Tiffany says he was returning from the La Crosse county Lincoln Day Dinner when the light aircraft lost power as it approached Wausau downtown airport. He said the pilot made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau and they ended up in the water and swam to safety. Emergency responders got Tiffany and the pilot to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries.
In other news …
Sweden’s centre-left parties lead the country’s national election by just a single seat with most votes counted. The election authority said a preliminary vote count may not be ready until Thursday.
Donald Trump has doubled down on his controversial pledge to give US adults a $5,000 “dividend” if the Republican party keeps control of Congress after the midterms.
A San Jose police officer has been fired for using his department’s Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her.
A coroner in Pennsylvania has announced the death of a 40-year-old woman associated with the state’s ongoing measles outbreak.
A newly unveiled statue of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk was vandalized at the Turning Point USA headquarters.
Sydney Sweeney has been accused of “sexualising women’s sport” by appearing naked in a sports betting prediction ad.
Stat of the day: Who are the 514 people accused of starting French wildfires and what motivates them?
Jon Henley reports from France where experts believe one-third of wildfires are set deliberately, with arson the biggest single cause of forest fires last year.
Building Power: While Puerto Ricans protest for reliable access to water, the governor washes her hands
Coral Murphy Marcos speaks to members of the Coalición Exigimos Agua (We Demand Water Coalition), residents of the San Juan neighborhood of Santurce, who are campaigning over the island’s water issues.
Don’t miss this: The royal crown branded on enslaved Africans – Britain’s monarchy and the slave trade
A major investigation reveals how generations of British monarchs were central to the slave trade. This interactive goes on to illustrate the register laying bare Britain’s slave-trading past, littered with the names of monarchs, MPs and merchants.
… or this: From a giant arch to a nuke-proof bunker, Trump’s legacy-building blingfest is an architectural atrocity
The United States’s modern “king” is reshaping Washington DC in his own image. The architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright deplores the decorator-in-chief’s mutilation of the seat of the nation.
Climate check: ‘Tidal wave’ of Pfas being launched to satisfy AI industry
More bad news thanks to the growth of AI. Pfas companies are launching a “tidal wave” of forever-chemical production to meet demand from the industry, a campaign organisation has warned.
Last Thing: Missing US hiker, 70, found injured on remote island after week-long search
A 70-year-old hiker who had been missing for a week on a Michigan island was rescued at the weekend, according to the US Coast Guard. Even though Craig Berg was found injured and hypothermic on Isle Royale, he was “alive and alert”, according to a statement
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com