The Latest: Trump says US ‘locked and loaded’ after attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on the tensions in the Persian Gulf a day after Iran-backed Yemeni rebels attacked major oil sites in Saudi Arabia (all times local):3:20 a.m.
President Donald Trump says the U.S. has reason to believe it knows who was behind the attack on Saudi Arabian energy facilities and is “locked and loaded” depending on verification and other issues.
In tweets Sunday night, Trump says the U.S. is waiting to hear from the Saudis as to who they believe was behind the attack and, as he put it, “under what terms we would proceed!”
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, but U.S. officials say Iran is responsible. Iran denies it.
The drone attacks hit Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil processing facility and a major oil field, halting production of 5.7 million barrels of crude a day. That’s about half of the country’s global daily output and more than 5% of the world’s daily production.
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3:15 a.m.
Crude oil prices have shot up 9.5% to $60 after trading opened Sunday evening in New York, a dramatic increase that comes after a weekend attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure.
A spike in oil prices could have negative effects for the global economy.
The attack interrupted the production of 5.7 million barrels a day, more than half of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production and about 5% of the world’s daily supply.
The Wall Street Journal cited Saudi officials as saying a third of output would be restored on Monday, but a return to full production may take weeks. The Saudis say they will use other facilities and existing stocks to supplant the plant’s production.
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2:10 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he has approved the release of U.S. strategic petroleum reserves “if needed” to stabilize energy markets after a Saturday attack on Saudi Arabian energy facilities.
Trump tweets that the attacks could have an impact on oil prices and says the final amount of the release, if any, would be “sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied.”
The authorization alone could help prevent a spike in oil prices after the attack led to suspension of more than 5% of the world’s daily crude oil production. The Trump administration has blamed the attack on Iran.
The federally owned petroleum reserve of hundreds of millions of barrels of crude oil has only been tapped three times, most recently in 2011 amid unrest in Libya.
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1 a.m.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia oil facilities mean that a return to full production may take weeks. That could mean a spike in oil prices as traders worry about supply, with potential negative consequences for the global economy.
The Journal reports that Saudi officials say a third of crude output will be restored Monday. Officials said they would use other facilities and existing stocks to supplant the gap in production.
The weekend drone attacks hit Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil processing facility and a major oil field, halting production of 5.7 million barrels of crude a day, about half of the country’s global daily output and more than 5% of the world’s daily production.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, but U.S. officials say Iran is responsible. Iran denies it.
11:15 p.m.
Senior U.S. officials are citing intelligence assessments, including satellite imagery, to support their case that Iran was responsible for Saturday’s attacks on key Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure.
The officials say the intelligence shows that the strikes are inconsistent with the kind of attack that would have been launched from Yemen.
The U.S. government is releasing satellite imagery showing what officials say are at least 19 points of impact at two Saudi energy facilities. The officials say the photos show impacts consistent with attack coming from the direction of Iran, rather than from Yemen.
The officials say additional devices, which apparently didn’t reach their targets, have been recovered and are being analyzed by Saudi and American intelligence agencies.
The officials are speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
—Associated Press writer Zeke Miller
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10 p.m.
Satellite images examined by The Associated Press appear to show damage at the heart of a Saudi oil processing facility targeted in a claimed drone attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The images Sunday come from the European Commission’s Sentinel-2 satellite.
The images appear to show black char marks in the heart of Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq.
Those marks were not visible in a month’s worth of earlier satellite images of the facility.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in August identified the area with the char marks as the plant’s stabilization area.
The center said the area’s functions mean “the likelihood of a strike successfully disrupting or destroying its operations.”
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco have said how much damage was done to the facility.
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7:55 p.m.
Kuwait says it is increasing security across the oil-rich small nation after an attack on oil sites in Saudi Arabia.
That’s according to a report Sunday night by the state-run KUNA news agency.
KUNA said the order came from Prime Minister Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah, who asked officials to “tighten security measures around vital sites inside of the country.”
Separately, KUNA said authorities would investigate reports of drones flying over Kuwait. It did not elaborate.
Local Kuwaiti media has reported that witnesses say they saw a drone near a presidential palace on Saturday morning, around the same time of the attacks in Saudi Arabia.
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6:00 p.m.
Germany is condemning the attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and calling for de-escalation in the region.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin said in a statement Sunday that “there can be no justification for such an attack on Saudi Arabia’s civilian and critical infrastructure.”
It noted that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack and said it “heightens tensions” in the region when de-escalation is “urgently” needed.
The statement didn’t mention Iran, which the U.S. alleges was behind Saturday’s attacks.
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4 p.m.
A leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels says they were able to “exploit vulnerabilities” in Saudi Arabia’s air defense system to stage the attack previous day on the kingdom’s vital oil installations.
Muhammad al-Bukhaiti told The Associated Press on Sunday that the U.S. allegations that Iran was behind the attack reflected “political bankruptcy” of the administration in Washington.
The drone attack claimed by the Houthis hit the world’s largest oil processing facility and a major oil field on Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the attacks and said that here’s “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
Pompeo said on Saturday that “Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”
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2:30 p.m.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri has condemned the drone attack on Saudi oil installations, describing it as an escalation that could widen conflicts in the region.
Hariri said in a statement on Sunday that the attack the day before in Saudi Arabia should push the international community to rein in “all the arms of aggression and terrorism that are striking Arab countries.”
Hariri said Lebanon stands by Saudi Arabia, adding that the latest “aggression” against the kingdom is part of attacks targeting Gulf Arab states and also undermines regional and international security.
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1:30 p.m.
Iran’s foreign minister says that blaming Iran for Yemeni rebel attacks on major Saudi oil sites will not end the war in the Arab world’s most impoverished country — but that talks might.
Mohammad Javad Zarif also said in a tweet on Sunday that “Having failed at ‘max pressure’, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turning to ‘max deceit’.”
He also says: “US & its clients are stuck in Yemen because of illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory.”
Zarif also tweeted: “Blaming Iran won’t end disaster. Accepting our April ’15 proposal to end war & begin talks may.”
Late Saturday, Pompeo directly blamed Iran for the attack on major Saudi oil sites, without offering evidence to support his claim.
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1:15 p.m.
Iraq is denying that its country was the site from where Yemeni-rebel drones were launched to attack Saudi oil installations.
The statement came from Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s office on Sunday.
It says Iraq would act “decisively” if anyone tried to use its territory to attack other countries.
U.S. officials previously alleged at least one recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia came from Iraq, where Iran backs Shiite militias, something denied by Baghdad. Those militias in recent weeks have been targeted themselves by mysterious airstrikes, with at least one believed to have been carried out by Israel.
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12:10 p.m.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has dismissed the U.S. accusation that it was behind an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure the day before, calling it part of Washington’s policy of “maximum lies.”
Abbas Mousavi made the statement on Sunday.
He says Washington adopted a ‘maximum pressure’ policy against Iran but because of “its failure, (the U.S.) is leaning toward ‘maximum lies'” now.
Saturday’s drone attacks by Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels have halted about half of Saudi oil supplies after hitting the kingdom’s biggest oil processing facility and a major oil field.
They set off huge fires and led to a suspension of “production operations” at the Abqaiq facility and the Khurais field.
President Donald Trump called the Saudi crown prince after the attack, expressing U.S. support for the kingdom’s security and stability.

Police: No sign that Duluth synagogue fire was hate crime
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Authorities say a fire that destroyed a historic synagogue in northeastern Minnesota doesn’t appear to have been a hate crime.
Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken said Sunday that 36-year-old Matthew James Amiot, of Duluth, was arrested Friday in the fire last week at the Adas Israel Congregation, in the city’s downtown.
Tusken says he has no reason to believe the fire was a hate crime, although the investigation is ongoing. Police are recommending that prosecutors charge Amiot with first-degree arson.
Duluth fire Chief Shawn Krizaj says the blaze started outside the synagogue and spread into the building early Monday. No accelerants were found.
According to its website, the Adas Israel Congregation is an Orthodox/High Conservative Jewish congregation with 75 members. Construction of the synagogue was completed in 1902.
Eight of 14 Torah scrolls, the holy books of Judaism, that were in the synagogue were saved.

UAW says its 49K members at GM plants will go on strike
By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union announced that its roughly 49,000 members at General Motors plants in the U.S. will go on strike Sunday night because contract negotiations with the automaker had broken down.
The decision came after about 200 plant-level union leaders voted unanimously in favor of a walkout during a meeting Sunday morning in Detroit.
“We stood up for General Motors when they needed us most. Now we are standing together in unity and solidarity for our members,” union Vice President Terry Dittes said in a statement.
It’s still possible that bargainers could return to the table and hammer out an agreement, but union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said at a news conference that it would be unlikely. He said it would be hard to believe that the bargainers could resolve so many issues before 11:59 p.m.
The announcement came hours after the union let its contract with GM expire Saturday night.
In a statement, GM said it offered improved wages, benefits and additional U.S. jobs.
“It is disappointing that the UAW leadership has chosen to strike at midnight tonight. We have negotiated in good faith and with a sense of urgency. Our goal remains to build a strong future for our employees and our business,” the company said.
Among the things GM offered was that it would start making new products at plants it currently plans to close in Detroit and Lordstown, Ohio, according to a person who was briefed on the negotiations. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose details of the proposal, which haven’t been made public.
GM offered to build a new all-electric pickup truck at the Detroit factory in Detroit is slated to close next year. The Lordstown plant, which already has stopped making cars, would make become a battery manufacturing plant and might produce electric vehicles for a company called Workhorse, the person said.
On Saturday, UAW Vice President Terry Dittes said in a letter to GM members that after months of bargaining, both the union and GM were far apart on issues such as wages, health care, temporary employees, job security and profit-sharing. The letter to members and another one to GM were aimed at turning up the pressure on GM negotiators.
“While we are fighting for better wages, affordable quality health care, and job security, GM refuses to put hard working Americans ahead of their record profits,” Dittes, the union’s chief bargainer with GM, said in a statement Saturday night.
A strike by 49,200 union workers would bring to a halt GM’s U.S. production, and would likely stop the company from making vehicles in Canada and Mexico as well. That would mean fewer vehicles for consumers to choose from on dealer lots, and it would make it impossible to build specially ordered cars and trucks.
The strike would be the union’s first since a two-day work stoppage at GM in 2007.
On Friday, union leaders extended contracts with Ford and Fiat Chrysler indefinitely, but the pact with General Motors was still set to expire Saturday night.
The union picked GM, which is more profitable than Ford and Fiat Chrysler, as the target company, meaning it’s the focus of bargaining and would be the first company to face a walkout. Picket line schedules already have been posted near the entrance to one local UAW office in Detroit.
Talks between the union and GM were tense from the start, largely because GM plans to close four U.S. factories, including the ones in Detroit and Lordstown, Ohio. The union has promised to fight the closures.
Here are the main areas of disagreement:
— GM is making big money, $8 billion last year alone, and workers want a bigger slice. The union wants annual pay raises to guard against an economic downturn, but the company wants to pay lump sums tied to earnings. Automakers don’t want higher fixed costs.
— The union also wants new products for the four factories GM wants to close. The factory plans have irked some workers, although most of those who were laid off will get jobs at other GM factories. GM currently has too much U.S. factory capacity.
— The companies want to close the labor cost gap with workers at plants run by foreign automakers. GM’s gap is the largest at $13 per hour, followed by Ford at $11 and Fiat Chrysler at $5, according to figures from the Center for Automotive Research. GM pays $63 per hour in wages and benefits compared with $50 at the foreign-owned factories.
— Union members have great health insurance plans but workers pay about 4% of the cost. Employees of large firms nationwide pay about 34%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The companies would like to cut costs.

Those expecting Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy to flame out any day now will have to keep waiting. According to most political analysts, the former U.S. vice president survived another Democratic debate on Thursday largely unbloodied and unbowed, leaving those on the margins of the race for the party’s 2020 nomination wondering if their time to gain ground on the front-runner is running out. If anything, the third Democratic debate in Houston was notable for how few of the nine other candidates took hard swings at Biden, a marked contrast from earlier debates when his record was more directly challenged. The evening likely left the race fairly much as it was before the debate, with Biden holding a sizeable, but not overwhelming lead over U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. None of the other 17 Democratic presidential candidates seeking the chance to battle Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election have more than 4% support, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. Biden seemed more vulnerable than ever coming into the debate, facing persistent questions about his age, verbal slip-ups and performance on the campaign trail. But on Thursday, his resilience and forceful defense of his record as a U.S. senator and No. 2 to former President Barack Obama left wide open the question of who else in the field might rise to shake up the race.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas state representative is being criticized for tweeting he had an assault weapon ready for Democratic president candidate Beto O’Rourke. The tweet by Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain came after O’Rourke pledged during the Democratic debate that “hell yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15, your AK-47” when asked about a mandatory assault weapons buyback he’s endorsed. Twitter later took down Cain’s tweet.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new analysis found the number of bills introduced and the number of laws passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature has fallen since peaking in the early 1990s. The review of four decades of data by The Philadelphia Inquirer and Spotlight PA found that lawmakers are increasingly introducing resolutions that do not substantively change state law.