Saudi Arabia is willing to boost its daily oil production capacity by a million barrels, its leadership says, though that does not necessarily mean more actual oil production.
The promise to boost daily production potential from 12 million to 13 million came from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a visit by US President Joe Biden. The crown prince noted that there is no more capacity to boost upwards beyond that.
The United States wants to remain engaged in the Middle East and push back against the influence of China, Russia and, crucially, Iran, US President Joe Biden declared on Saturday as his Middle East tour drew to a close.
Iran was the main target of his criticism as he offered regional support against Tehran in its dealings with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, international shipping and nuclear negotiators.
"Let me say clearly, that the United States is going to remain an active engaged partner in the Middle East," Biden said at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
"We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran," Biden stressed. "The United States is invested in building a positive future in the region, in partnership with all of you, and the United States is not going anywhere."
The GCC is the most important political and economic alliance in the region. Its members are the Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, which has a dominant position in the group.
On Saturday, the Council met in an expanded format (GCC+3), with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, whom Biden both met privately. Jordan's King Abdullah II also attended.
Biden returns to Washington on Saturday. He also visited Israel and the West Bank. It is his first Middle East trip as president.
Biden wants the US to better protect international shipping in the Middle East, in a clear reference to Shiite Iran, which Sunni Saudi Arabia, among others, sees as a major threat.
"The United States will not allow foreign or regional powers to jeopardize freedom of navigation through the Middle East," he said.
The free movement of goods, including through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz off Iran are a "lifeblood," he added.
He reaffirmed the US will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and gave his backing to al-Kadhimi. Iran heavily influences policy in Iraq, as it does in war-torn Yemen and Syria.
But Iran was not his only target at the GCC meeting.
He stressed the importance of open societies and freedom of expression to the assembled Arab leaders.
Biden held talks with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on Friday after geopolitical developments necessitated a renewal of the two countries' long ties despite the president's previous criticism of the regime.
Saudi Arabia warned the US not to interfere in the dispute regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives in 2018.
"Imposing values by force generates counterproductive results," the Saudi-funded al-Arabiya news channel quoted a top official as saying.
The crown prince, accused by some of ordering the hit, assured Biden he had "taken the necessary measures on the Khashoggi incident" after it was raised by the president.
The Saudis should meanwhile be supported in defending "its people and territory against external threats," a joint statement read.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have repeatedly attacked targets in Saudi Arabia, including key oil facilities.
An attack in 2019 temporarily crippled about half of Saudi oil production - around 5% of global oil production.
A senior US official said it was taken as a "very positive sign" that the Saudis want to extend a current ceasefire in Yemen, where they have been leading an alliance against the rebels since 2015.
The US also wants to boost food security in the Middle East and North Africa with about $1 billion of aid.
GCC leaders are also pledging $3 billion during the next two years for projects related to a global infrastructure initiative.
At its summit in Germany in June, the group of seven (G7) leading democratic industrialized countries launched a "Partnership for Global Infrastructure." The GCC states now also want to contribute.
The project is seen as an alternative to the "New Silk Road" project launched by China in 2013, with which the country is opening up new trade routes to Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
The UN fears a hunger crisis against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a crucial wheat exporter.
Webb can also see far redder infrared wavelengths, opening up a new view on the universe. This is especially important to study the early universe due to “cosmological redshift”, a process which refers to the stretching of light (with the expansion of the universe) as it travels across cosmic space.
It’s also useful for studying fascinating sources such as planets going around nearby stars, and the regions where stars form.
We’ve written before about the tremendous technical challenges involved in the construction of Webb and its journey into orbit. Now, with the long-awaited first images in our hands, let’s take a look at what they show.
In a sneak peak, US President Joe Biden presented the very first image of Webb’s “deep field”. This is the massive galaxy cluster SMACS-0723 that contains thousands of galaxies clustered around a central super-bright galaxy squatting at the centre.
The giant southern cluster SMACS 0723 was captured by Webb.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
You’ll immediately notice the many elongates arcs, representing background galaxies which have been “gravitationally lensed” as a result of the cluster’s mass. In other words, the huge forces of gravity at play have resulted in the light from the galaxies becoming distorted (stretched) and amplified, providing a highly enhanced image of the distant universe.
The clarity is astonishing, especially in terms of the structure of the lensed images. Here’s a zoomed-in look at one tiny region, compared with an image of similar exposure time from Hubble:
A comparison of Webb (left) and Hubble (right) in their view of the same region. This is a zoomed-in area of the Webb deep field.
Adapted from images by NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The enlarged images above portray a region in the deep field containing a spiral galaxy astronomers have affectionately been calling “The Slug”. It’s located several times further than the SMACS-0723 cluster.
But our eyes were drawn more to the very thin arc just above (marked with arrows). This little sliver demonstrates Webb’s power. This arc was barely detected by Hubble, but Webb sees the “beads on a string” clearly. They are likely individual star clusters in the extremely distant, tiny galaxy.
We can see similarly amazing details all over the deep field. For point-like objects, Webb is expected to be beyond 100 times more sensitive than Hubble, and this definitely demonstrates that.
The field is also scattered with some faint red objects, which are already attracting attention by experts. Some of these could potentially be the most distant galaxies, where the light has taken the longest to reach us.
Webb is also capable of extremely sensitive infrared spectroscopy, where light is broken down in wavelengths to reveal the composition of an object.
While Hubble is very poor at this, Webb manages to do this nicely – shown below by the spectrum of the massive planet WASP 96b. Located some 1120 light-years away, this planet weighs in at about half the mass of Jupiter.
Webb captured the spectrum of exoplanet WASP-96b, a hot gas giant.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The dips in the spectrum reveal the presence of water vapour in the planet’s atmosphere. Now, WASP 69b is unlikely to harbour life because of its proximity to its parent star. Yet this demonstration is very exciting since the same method can be applied to the 5,000 or so other known exoplanets.
With spectroscopy, we’ll eventually be able to detect potential signatures of life such as ozone and methane.
The third image is of the Southern Ring Nebula, about 2,000 light-years away in the Milky Way. This image shows off Webb’s mid-infrared capability (which is again well beyond Hubble’s range).
The Southern Ring planetary nebula, with a near-infrared image on the left and a mid-infrared one on the right.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
It’s a classic example of a “planetary nebula” (a misnomer since no planet is involved) in which the central star has transformed into a tiny white dwarf by blowing off its outer layer. This happens at a speed of about 15 kilometres per second, sending out rings of gas and dust.
The brightest star in the centre is actually a companion star, and the white dwarf is the fainter partner which can only be seen in the mid-infrared since it’s obscured by dust. The mid-infared also highlights the dust being formed in the expanding gas.
The fourth image below shows us Webb’s view of nearby galaxies. Here we see a famous galaxy group called Stefan’s Quintet, located about 290 million light-years away. The five galaxies are in close proximity. Four are interacting with each other and triggering abundant star formation.
Stephan’s Quintet is a compact group of interacting galaxies.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The red streaks and clumps show the location of new star formation via the associated dust. The detail of the dust distribution and the tug-of-war taking place between the galaxies leaps out from the image. And the mid-infrared reveals light from a supermassive black hole in the centre of the top galaxy.
What also stands out is the vast sea of distant galaxies in the background. We expect to see this in every Webb image, even when Webb points to sources within the Milky Way. That’s because infrared light passes through dust. Webb’s infrared-detecting capabilities are so sensitive it will see right through objects within our galaxy.
This means distant background galaxies will be photo-bombing every Webb image. See if you can spot them in the Southern Ring and Carina images.
And finally, we have Webb’s homage to Hubble’s famous Pillars of Creation image.
The Carina Nebula, a cosmic nursery cocooned in gas and dust.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
This infrared view shows the Carina Nebula, a stellar nursery of gas and dust 7,600 light-years away where new stars are forming and destroying their birth cloud.
The image is extremely complex, and the intricate swirls of dust, gas and young stars are jaw-dropping. It will probably take astronomers many years of hard work to figure out exactly what’s going on here.
Just this handful of preview images, a few days work for Webb, have given astronomers tremendous amounts of new data that will drive years of research. And that’s just the beginning.
Karl Glazebrook, ARC Laureate Fellow & Distinguished Professor, Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology and Simon Driver, Professor of Astrophysics, The University of Western Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The government of Saudi Arabia has warned the US not to interfere in the dispute over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
"Imposing values by force generates counterproductive results," the Saudi-funded al-Arabiya news channel quoted a government official as saying on Saturday.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had assured US President Joe Biden at their meeting on Friday that the kingdom had "taken the necessary measures on the Khashoggi incident."
At the same time, the US had made mistakes, including at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the broadcaster further quoted the government representative as saying. The notorious prison had become internationally infamous in connection with a US torture scandal in 2004. The photos of the mistreatment of some inmates went around the world, and seven US soldiers were later charged and convicted for it.
The Saudi government representative, who was not named, also mentioned the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The reporter for the TV channel Al-Jazeera, who is well-known in the Arab world, was killed in the West Bank in May.
The US State Department later came to the conclusion that she was probably killed by shots fired by the Israeli military, but that she was not deliberately shot at. Al-Jazeera had accused Israel of a targeted, cold-blooded murder.
By Andrea Shalal
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) -The United States will look for every opportunity to move ahead and enact a global minimum corporate tax agreement despite the opposition of a key Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, to raising corporate taxes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
By Lizbeth Diaz and Drazen Jorgic
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican military captured on Friday notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, convicted for the murder and torture of a U.S. anti-narcotics agent in 1985, a major coup for both Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies.
