In Post interview, Trump calls Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed a ‘strong person’ who ‘truly loves his country’

President Trump retreated late Saturday from his stance that Saudi Arabia’s story about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside their Turkish consulate was credible but still gave a strong vote of confidence to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, arguing the United States’ relationship with the kingdom is key to his administration’s policy objectives in the Middle East. “Obviously there’s been deception and there’s been lies,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post when pressed on the many discrepancies in the changing accounts from the Saudis. “Their stories are all over the place.” He did not call for the ouster of Mohammed and instead praised his leadership, calling the prince “a strong person, he has very good control.” During the 20-minute interview, Trump repeatedly talked about the importance of the economic ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia and Mohammed’s role in that relationship. “He’s seen as a person who can keep things under check,” he said. “I mean that in a positive way.” The president said he does not prefer that another leader replace the 33-year old prince because he said he has read about others and Mohammed, known as MBS, is “considered by far the strongest person” and “he truly loves his country.” Trump declined to say how, or if, he wanted to sanction the country, saying it was too soon to know. The president has come under criticism for his handling of the death of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, who went into the embassy Oct. 2 and never emerged. First, Saudi officials said Khashoggi left the embassy unharmed, but after 17 days, which included grisly news reports of the alleged murder of the journalist, Saudi officials said late Friday he was killed during an altercation inside the embassy. Trump said Saturday the evidence that so many of the crown prince’s close associates were involved in the killing did not convince him that MBS was to blame. Some congressional Republicans, including Trump ally Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), have blamed the prince and called for the kingdom to be punished. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has signed a letter expressing alarm about Khashoggi’s death. The president, though, said repeatedly during the interview that “no one” in his government had told him the crown prince was to blame. The president said that


Khashoggi’s death was a ‘rogue operation’ that the crown prince was not aware of, Saudi foreign minister says

In an interview with Fox News, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir denied that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any prior knowledge of an operation that resulted in the killing of journalist and Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. His statement comes amid mounting pressure on Mohammed and global calls for a transparent investigation. “This was an operation that was a rogue operation,” al-Jubeir said. “This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi.”This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Community deaths

Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Richard Warden, lobbyist, HEW official Richard Warden, 86, a retired lobbyist for labor organizations who held executive branch positions in two Democratic administrations, died Sept. 3 at a hospice center in Milford, Del. The cause was pulmonary fibrosis, said a daughter, Denise Warden. Mr. Warden was born in Great Falls, Mont., and was a journalist before moving to Washington in the 1960s to work on Capitol Hill. He served on the staffs of Sen. Lee Metcalf (D-Mont.) and Rep. James G. O’Hara (D-Mich.). From 1967 to 1969, he worked at the Office for Civil Rights of the old Department of Health, Education and Welfare, becoming deputy director. He later was a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO and for the Washington Research Project, the forerunner of the Children’s Defense Fund. He was a lobbyist for the United Auto Workers in the 1970s before serving as an assistant secretary for legislation at HEW during the Carter administration. Mr. Warden later returned to the UAW as its legislative director until his retirement in 1991. While living in Alexandria, Va., in the 1960s and 1970s, he worked on efforts to desegregate housing and education. John Fox, law firm partner John Fox, 79, a lawyer who specialized in taxes and was a founding partner in the Washington firm of Sherman, Fox, Meehan and Curtin, died Sept. 12 in Sydney, where he was visiting a daughter. The cause was a cardiac arrest, said his wife, Gretchen Fox. Mr. Fox, a Los Angeles native, came to Washington in 1964 as an associate in the firm Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn. In 1968 he became a founding partner of Sherman, Fox, Meehan and Curtin. In 1984 he moved to Amherst, Mass., from Washington. He was a visiting lecturer at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., from 1985 to 2017. Carole Latker, biological scientist Carole Latker, 79, a scientist and biological researcher who retired in 2012 from the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Scientific Review, died Sept. 30 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. The cause was complications from injuries suffered in an accidental fall, said a son, Richard Latker. Dr. Latker, a Bethesda resident, was born Carole Henkin in Washington. Since the 1970s, she had served in teaching and research positions at the Uniformed Services University and the NIH. As a senior NIH scientific review officer


Bipartisan calls for Saudi Arabia to face repercussions mount in wake of Khashoggi killing

two.” President Trump has continued to voice support for the crown prince, even as he has backed away from describing Saudi Arabia’s story as credible. “Obviously there’s been deception and there’s been lies,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post on Saturday when pressed on the many discrepancies in the changing accounts from the Saudis. “Their stories are all over the place.” He did not call for the ouster of Mohammed and instead praised the crown prince’s leadership, calling him “a strong person; he has very good control.” Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads U.S. Central Command, told reporters traveling with him in the Middle East that America’s political leaders were addressing the situation surrounding Khashoggi’s death. “We haven’t changed anything with respect to our ongoing military relationship with Saudi Arabia. They have been a good partner for us for a long period,” Votel said. The kingdom is an important counterterrorism partner for the Pentagon and a major purchaser of U.S. arms. “From my perspective, we are continuing to do the things that we have normally been doing in our military-to-military relationship with them; we will until we get some instructions to do something different,” he said. “And I’ve been told nothing, so we’ll continue to do what we’re supposed to do.” On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on “Fox News Sunday” that he was certain that Mohammed was responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance and death, reasoning that “there’s no way 15 people are sent from Saudi Arabia to Turkey to kill a dissident without the approval of the crown prince.” “It stretches credulity to think that the crown prince wasn’t involved in this,” Paul said, urging the United States to sever relations with Mohammed and calling for his replacement. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) called Saudi Arabia’s shifting explanations about the incident “a mess.” “You don’t bring a bone saw to an accidental fistfight,” he said on “State of the Union,” referring to reports that Khashoggi was dismembered with a bone saw. “So, the Saudis have said a whole bunch of crap that’s not right, accurate or true.” In an interview Sunday with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that an investigation is underway to determine how Khashoggi was killed and what happened to his body. He pushed back against Paul and others who have said they are certain that the crown prince was


Trump doubts Saudi account of journalist’s death: ‘There’s been deception, and there’s been lies’

President Trump strongly criticized Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi late Saturday, saying that “obviously there’s been deception, and there’s been lies.” At the same time, Trump defended the oil-rich monarchy as an “incredible ally” and kept open the possibility that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not order Saudi agents to kill Khashoggi. “Nobody has told me he’s responsible. Nobody has told me he’s not responsible. We haven’t reached that point . . . I would love if he wasn’t responsible,” Trump said in a phone interview with The Washington Post. The kingdom’s claim that Khashoggi was killed after a fistfight escalated inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul was met with a torrent of international skepticism Saturday over how a team of Saudi agents could fly to Istanbul to meet Khashoggi and eventually kill him without the knowledge or consent of the crown prince, the de facto leader. Trump had told reporters Friday that the Saudi explanation was credible, but U.S. officials said he has privately grimaced that his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s close relationship with the crown prince has become a liability and left the White House with no good options. In the interview, Trump defended Kushner as doing a “very good job” but acknowledged that he and the crown prince, both in their 30s, are relatively young for the amount of power they wield. “They’re two young guys. Jared doesn’t know him well or anything. They are just two young people. They are the same age. They like each other, I believe,” Trump said. The Trump administration made its relationship with Mohammed a linchpin of its Middle East policy, relying on him to help strike a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis and unite the Arab world against Iran. Now, the Saudi government’s handling of the killing of a Washington Post contributing columnist has tarnished Mohammed’s image as the Trump administration is questioning the value of its high-profile partnership with him. Trump reiterated that the United States should not let the incident interrupt U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, citing a $110 billion arms sale with Riyadh he announced last year that analysts have said is inflated. “It’s the largest order in history,” Trump said. “To give that up would hurt us far more than it hurts them. Then all they’ll do is go to Russia or go to China. All that’s


Saudi Arabia’s belated explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi drew deep skepticism Sunday from congressional lawmakers and mounting bipartisan calls for the kingdom — and possibly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally — to face severe repercussions. Senior Republicans and Democrats proposed a range of severe punishments, including sanctions on the longtime U.S ally, the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador and the cutting of arms sales.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


‘The Saudis still aren’t coming clean’: Doubt expressed on explanation of Khashoggi’s death

under the rug.” Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Saudi version of events changes “with each passing day, so we should not assume their latest story holds water.” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, the European Union and numerous European officials condemned Khashoggi’s killing and called for a thorough and transparent investigation, with accountability for those involved. Merkel and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issued a statement saying: “We expect transparency from Saudi Arabia about the circumstances of his death. . . . The information available about events in Istanbul is inadequate.” Maas also questioned the continued sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, telling the German broadcaster ARD that “as long as we don’t know what happened [in the consulate], there’s no basis for reaching positive decisions on arms exports to Saudi Arabia.” “The Spanish government is dismayed by early reports from the Saudi prosecutor about the death of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the Spanish government said in a statement, according to Reuters. Fred Ryan, The Washington Post’s publisher and chief executive, called the Saudi explanation a “coverup.” “The Government of Saudi Arabia has shamefully and repeatedly offered one lie after another in the nearly three weeks since Jamal Khashoggi disappeared in their Istanbul consulate,” Ryan said in a statement. “Offering no proof, and contrary to all available evidence, they now expect the world to believe that Jamal died in a fight following a discussion. This is not an explanation; it is a coverup. “President Trump, Congress and leaders of the civilized world should demand to see verifiable evidence,” he continued. “The Saudis cannot be allowed to fabricate a face-saving solution to an atrocity that appears to have been directed by the highest levels of their government.” The kingdom’s closest Arab allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, have pledged their support. Saudi Arabia’s preliminary investigation “demonstrates the Kingdom’s keenness and commitment to finding the truth of this incident and taking the required legal action against those involved,” Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Turkish investigators are still searching for Khashoggi’s body, which they believe was cut into pieces after he was killed. The Saudi statement on Saturday did not address what happened to the body. “This is not over. It is just starting,” said Fatih Oke, a representative of the Turkish Arab Media Association, speaking Saturday at a news


In death, Saudi writer’s mild calls for reform grew into a defiant shout

halted all programming that same day, citing technical difficulties. Al-Arab would never come back. Afterward, the man who was twice fired from newspaper jobs for allowing the expression of dissenting views seemed genuinely surprised that the TV project was shut down, said Salem, his Washington friend. “His goal was to create a first-rate media outlet with the highest standards, in Arabic, because it was important to him that Arabs could access this kind of information,” she said. “He felt that the people in power would keep their word. He said, ‘They told me it would be protected.’ ” Patrons sidelined, arrested For some of Mr. Khashoggi’s friends and colleagues, the question that has reverberated since his disappearance and killing inside a Saudi consulate is simply: Why? Why should the mild criticisms of a gregarious, well-connected Saudi citizen so enrage the country’s crown prince? “That’s the question,” the Saudi friend said. “You have four or five people in London that were far more dangerous for the government than Jamal. From the beginning, I was really surprised.” One obvious contributing factor, some say, was the dramatic power shift in Saudi Arabia since Mohammed’s assent to power. Previously, Mr. Khashoggi’s main patrons in the government were members of the al-Faisal branch of the royal family, including Turki and Prince Khalid al-Faisal, who was the journalist’s boss while he served as editor at al-Watan. But over the last two years, many of his backers were sidelined, and some were arrested by the crown prince, who has cracked down on all forms of dissent while also liberalizing certain aspects of Saudi society and culture. After Mr. Khashoggi was barred last year from writing his weekly column in Al-Hayat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, the pressure inside his own country became unbearable, friends say. His wife — his second — sued for divorce, citing the increasing risk to his adult children — two daughters and two sons — and Mr. Khashoggi moved into a condo in McLean, Va., in the Washington suburbs. Soon afterward, he accepted an offer to become a regular contributor to The Post’s “Global Opinions” column. “I’m under so much pressure from family members and friends to stay silent. But this isn’t right,” he explained in a text message to Karen Attiah, the section editor who recruited him. “We have enough Arab failing states. I don’t want my country to be one,


Corey Stewart calls Khashoggi a ‘mystery guy’ and says killing isn’t worth clash with Saudis

billions of dollars in weapons made by American defense contractors. But instead of whispering, Stewart amplified many of these sentiments on CNN. “I think the bigger question though is, you know, does the United States jeopardize the relationship with Saudi Arabia over this one single human rights violation,” he said. “I think that would be a tremendous mistake to the United States.” Stewart kept calling Khashoggi a “mystery man” or “mystery guy” during the interview, but when Cooper pressed him for evidence, Stewart appeared to fumble. “Well, I mean, look, if you wanted somebody who is an expert on who he was, you know, I’m not the right guy,” Stewart said. Khashoggi was a frequent critic of Saudi Arabia’s regime and lived in the U.S. under self-imposed exile. He wrote opinion columns for The Washington Post, which were posted online and have been translated into Arabic. Many years ago, Khashoggi was aligned with Islamist movements, but in recent years, he gravitated his outlook to a more secular, Western system of beliefs. He did know bin Laden in the 1980s and 1990s, but only as a journalist working a source. On Oct. 2, Khashoggi went inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey to pick up papers for his pending marriage to a Turkish woman. But he never emerged from the building. Turkish investigators have concluded Khashoggi was intentionally killed by a group of Saudi operatives who dismembered him. According to a Post article on Friday, CIA officials have listened to an audio recording that Turkey says proves Khashoggi was cut into pieces by a Saudi team. But the Saudi government, which finally acknowledged on Saturday that he’d been killed, offered a different story — one that is widely doubted: The kingdom said Khashoggi died during a fistfight. Five top Saudi officials were fired and 18 other Saudis were arrested as part of the kingdom’s probe. Stewart said the Saudis have been “been torturing, mutilating their citizens, as have other regimes,” but it would be a mistake for the United States to break with that government. “It is one of America’s closest allies,” he said. “They have a lot of human rights abuses. But I think it would be a tremendous mistake to undermine or to rattle the Saudi regime when it is one of the few absolutely pro-American regimes in the Middle East.” When asked about Stewart’s comments on Saturday, Kaine ridiculed


Cartoons: Saudi Arabia can’t make Jamal Khashoggi disappear

A roundup of editorial cartoons from Oct. 14 to Oct. 19.


Japan’s Abe stakes out new identity in region: Stronger leadership and wider military reach

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood before African leaders in Nairobi two years ago and outlined his vision for a vast stretch of the globe — from the Pacific to the Indian oceans — united by trade and a common political worldview. It was also a statement on the broader ambitions of Japan, which has watched China dethrone it as Asia’s top economic powerhouse. Japan’s initiative, called the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, is based on the principles of free trade and freedom of navigation, the rule of law, and the market economy — and is partly a riposte to China’s Belt and Road plan that envisions investment and infrastructure flowing west from Beijing toward Africa and Europe. Japan is now thinking bigger and with more confidence — challenging the rise of China and trying to adapt to greater isolationism by the Trump administration. Earlier this month, Japan’s Indo-Pacific plan was backed by leaders across Southeast Asia’s Mekong River region. The pact was bolstered by a promise of investment in “quality infrastructure” that is financially and environmentally sustainable — and backed by greater visibility for Japan’s warships in the sea lanes and ports of Asia. In an acknowledgment of Washington’s worries about China’s clout, the Japanese plan has also become a key regional policy objective — and slogan — for the United States. Much of Japan’s bolder approach can be traced back to Abe himself. Japan’s people, he told the U.N. General Assembly last month, understand that their miraculous postwar prosperity is based on free trade and have “eagerly awaited” their leaders to act as flag-bearers in this century for Asia’s vast new middle class. “Japan’s responsibility is tremendous indeed,” he said at the United Nations. “That is also Japan’s mission, rooted in its own history.” One pillar is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, also known as the TPP-11. It is the successor to the regional trade deal that the Obama administration designed and that was abruptly abandoned during President Trump’s first week in office. Abe then personally led a massive effort to save the TPP, persuading 11 nations from New Zealand to Canada to sign a new agreement in Santiago, Chile, in March. It is expected to come into force next year. There is a military side, too. Japan’s pacifist constitution precludes it developing armed forces with “war potential.” In practice, however, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces


Saudi crown prince to head the investigation into Khashoggi’s death

Read more from Ann Telnaes: Trump’s lies and financial ties to Saudi Arabia Trump’s ‘rogue killers’ defense for Saudi Arabia Money trumps all Guess which countries execute the highest number of people?


It’s time to silence the Saudi lobbying machine in Washington

series of alarming events in the past two years. Since 2015 Saudi Arabia has been indiscriminately killing civilians with U.S. bombs in the war in Yemen. Yet, just last month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certified that Saudi Arabia has been protecting civilians, and Trump has repeatedly defended the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Trump’s first trip abroad as president was to Saudi Arabia in May 2017, reportedly at the suggestion of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had become friends with Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman’s son. Within a month of the trip, Saudi Arabia orchestrated a blockade of Qatar, home to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, and Mohammed launched a literal palace coupe to depose his cousin and become crown prince. Trump’s reported response: “We’ve put our man on top!” In November, MBS, as the crown prince is known, then kidnapped, held hostage and tortured some of the Saudi royals who had opposed his power grab, to which Trump tweeted he had “great confidence” in the Saudi king and crown prince. But Khashoggi’s murder by the Saudis has changed the equation. For the first time in the recent history of Saudi misdeeds, there are outcries from across the political spectrum. Some of the loudest voices opposing the Saudis are congressional Republicans who, along with many of their Democratic colleagues, have called for a host of punishments for the Saudis, including sanctions, blocking arms sales and ending U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. One thing hasn’t changed, however: The Saudis still have an army of lobbyists and public relations firms on their payroll. While some firms have dropped the Saudis as a client since Khashoggi’s disappearance, another, Southwind Strategies, recently signed a deal with the Saudis, and more than two dozen FARA-registered firms continue to work for the kingdom. They’re likely working tirelessly right now to help the Saudis come out of this unscathed. We owe it to Jamal Khashoggi to not let them win. We owe it to him to silence the Saudi lobby and punish Saudi Arabia for what they have done. Read more: Jamal Khashoggi’s final column for The Post: What the Arab world needs most is free expression Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Post The Post’s View: There can be no coverup of this act of pure evil Chris Murphy: We must demand accountability for Saudi Arabia’s behavior


Member of U.S.-led coalition killed in Afghanistan in apparent insider attack

Speaking to journalists in Kandahar, he gave a detailed account of the attack. He said the lone shooter, who was killed in the encounter, gave a false name when he enrolled recently in the provincial security service. He added that 15 other people have been arrested in the plot. Stanakzai said that 15 minutes before the attack Thursday, the plotters received a phone call from “across the border,” meaning Pakistan, giving them instructions. “It is clear that the enemies of Afghanistan planned this plot on the other side of the border” and worked hard on it, he said. Insider attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan became a significant concern beginning in 2008. Since then, more than 100 incidents have been reported in which about 155 U.S. or coalition troops or contractors have been killed and 200 wounded by Afghans in uniform. The incidents peaked in 2012, then declined steadily as foreign forces withdrew and new protection and vetting measures were adopted. However, several deadly assaults on U.S. forces in the past several years came at the hands of highly trained Afghan commandos. This has raised alarm, since such troops work closely with U.S. counterterrorism forces and are considered the best-trained and motivated of all Afghan security personnel. Last month, an American soldier, Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Bolyard, 42, of West Virginia, died of wounds he sustained in an insider attack in Logar province while working in a special unit formed to assist Afghan security forces and improve their combat capability. A second U.S. soldier was wounded in the incident. The shooter, a member of the Afghan National Police, was captured, according to news accounts. In June of last year, an Afghan special operations forces commando opened fire on American troops, killing three and wounding one, at a firebase in the Achin district of Nangahar province. The victims were members of the U.S. Special Operations forces assisting Afghan forces on a joint anti-terrorism mission against the Islamic State. One week later, an Afghan army soldier opened fire at a joint Afghan and U.S. military and training base in northern Afghanistan. One Afghan soldier was killed, and seven Americans were wounded. NATO and U.S. officials said the attacker was shot and died on the way to a hospital. No foreigners died in that attack. Afghan officials confirmed that the gunman was an Afghan soldier; one said he was an army commando. pamela.constable@washpost.com


Cities are planning for climate change all wrong

set forth by their designers. But as we now know in New Orleans, each narrow-purposed solution — stopping storm surges and removing storm water — has caused harm and increased long-term risk in the environments and the communities they are meant to protect. The second lesson from New Orleans is that successfully implementing climate adaptation and resilience plans requires community buy-in. In Louisiana, for example, the Coastal Master Plan, the science and engineering-based document that guides coastal protection and restoration efforts, will cost $50 billion. But it has no long-term sources of funding. In greater New Orleans, the 2013 Urban Water Plan, for transforming existing infrastructure and urban landscapes to “live with water” (which I worked on as a design team lead), has a price tag of $6.2 billion. It also has no local sources of funding or defined implementation pathways. These plans are far-reaching and require the buy-in of whole communities — citizens who support the plans and who will vote to tax themselves to fund their implementation, as well as public agencies that will radically reshape the environment. That kind of buy-in does not exist, despite the urgency of taking action. The lack of buy-in is rooted in how we go about planning for resilience and climate adaptation. Community engagement is often secondary to planning, and professional planners, designers and engineers often do not reflect the demographics of the population at large. Neither do they share a common language with the wider community. Terms like “recurrence intervals” or “non-structural mitigation” stop conversations rather than sustain them. The solution isn’t to dismiss technical expertise, however, but to invest in environmental education and community-based planning. Strengthening environmental education means incorporating environmental literacy and design into STEM and social sciences curriculums, as well as after-school and recreational programs. It means reconnecting citizens to the ecology, geography and environmental history of the places where they live. It means building a broad base of environmental literacy and stewardship so that the whole community can be meaningfully involved in climate adaptation. For that to happen, the city must develop tools, processes and forums that support citizens in becoming the co-authors of climate adaptation plans. It must rebalance power by shifting professional consultants and planners to a supportive role. Technical experts and citizens alike should be at one table, engaging in fierce debate over the plans that will shape the future of their communities. Where


The Daily 202: Generic Democrats in Midwest faring better than more fiery liberals in Sun Belt

grand jury in Washington, which has heard more than a dozen hours of testimony on the matter. “The special counsel’s prosecutors have also zeroed in on Stone’s relationship with conservative journalist and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, GET SMART FAST: KHASHOGGI FALLOUT: -- Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister denied that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal -- On the Sunday shows, Republicans and Democrats proposed a range of severe punishments, including sanctions on the longtime U.S. ally, the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador and the cutting of arms sales: -- A Turkish official said one member of the Saudi team suspected to be involved in Khashoggi’s death was later seen wearing the journalist’s clothes, suggesting he traveled to Istanbul to act as a body double. -- Even some of Trump’s closest allies on the Hill warn that a failure to stand up to Riyadh will project American weakness on the global stage. -- Despite pulling out of the Riyadh investor conference, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will still visit the Saudi capital this week for a meeting on combating terrorism financing. -- “Inside the Saudis’ Washington influence machine: How the kingdom gained power through fierce lobbying and charm offensives,” -- Post columnist Robert Kagan detonates “the myth of the modernizing dictator,” with the Saudi crown prince just the latest example: WATCH WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY: -- The Trump administration is considering redefining gender by one’s genitalia at birth, which would be a major rollback in the government’s recognition of transgender Americans. -- Trump signaled opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada during a campaign rally, even though his administration has allocated millions of dollars to fund it. -- An oil spill that has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico since 2004 has highlighted the potential liabilities of the Trump administration’s offshore drilling policies. -- The administration wants tech companies to make it easier for their employees to do brief tours of duty in government. THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- Trump’s announcement that he will remove the United States from the INF Treaty has raised concerns that he will also move to pull out of other counter-proliferation pacts. -- Gorbachev called Trump’s decision reckless and not the work of “a great mind.” -- A U.S. general was wounded during last week’s attack in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province that killed two senior Afghan


The Health 202: These four states will vote on marijuana in the midterms

and management firm 4Front, said states close to Canada could be impacted by the country’s recent legalization push. “That news could be a little more prevalent in those cases than they would be in other parts of the country,” Krane said. He explained that the most significant thing for legalization advocates if the ballot initiatives are successful is they would provide a win in a new part of the country. “Michigan would be the first state in the Midwest to legalize marijuana for adults,” he said. “Most have been in the West Coast or Northeast; it would add a major populated Midwestern state.” — Missouri: If all three pass, a Missouri law indicates that “whichever measure receives ‘the largest affirmative vote shall prevail, even if that (measure) did not receive the greatest majority of affirmative votes,’ ” the Springfield News-Leader’s Will Schmitt explains. — Utah: If voters pass the initiative , it could end up being mostly symbolic, Krane explained. That’s because Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) pledged earlier this month to call a special session after the election to consider a compromise deal hammered out between state leaders and advocates and opponents of the ballot initiative. “The good news here is that whether [Prop 2] passes or fails, we’re going to arrive at the same point,” Herbert said, reported the Salt Lake Tribune, which lays out what’s different about the state’s alternate plan. But Krane said it could send a “powerful message” if deeply conservative Utah passes a medical marijuana law, especially so soon after Oklahoma adopted medical marijuana during a primary. “Having the one-two punch of Oklahoma in a primary and then Utah would demonstrate it’s a nonpartisan, universally popular issue that will hopefully lead to more action at the congressional level,” Krane said. Todd said having marijuana initiatives pass in conservative states “represents how mainstream marijuana law reform is, how bipartisan it is.” “It’s hit a tipping point where a majority of Republicans support even marijuana legalization outright, not just medical marijuana,” she said. Krane said he hopes there can be some momentum for federal action as well, adding that politicians need to “catch up” with voters. A recent poll from the Pew Research Center found that 62 percent of Americans say that marijuana should be legal. Broken down by party, it found that 69 percent of Democrats say it should be legal, compared with 75


Sanction MBS and his cutthroats

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act is tailor-made for His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Saudi Arabian cutthroats. The act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 2016, authorizes the president to block or revoke the visas of certain “foreign persons” (both individuals and entities) or to impose property sanctions on them if they are responsible for or acted as an agent for someone responsible for “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” or if they are government officials or senior associates of government officials complicit in “acts of significant corruption.” Evidence is accumulating to suggest that the kingdom’s 33-year-old crown prince apparently authorized and directed the brazen premeditated extrajudicial execution and dismemberment of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate. That kind of grisly state-sponsored murder is what the global Magnitsky Act had in mind. The strength of the law is its application to all levels of government officials, from the highest leadership to the lowest-ranking subordinates. The act not only allows for seizing and freezing assets of human rights offenders; it also prevents them from entering into transactions with vast number of banks and companies, and it bans them from getting visas to come to America. And sanctions aren’t targeted only toward foreign individuals and entities. American and international firms that do business with those sanctioned also run the risk of similar designations. Think the sanctions are toothless? Just ask the Russians found responsible for murdering Sergei Magnitsky, after whom the law is named. Ask the atrocity-committing generals in Myanmar. Ask the human-rights-violating Nicaraguan officials. Have them tell you what it’s like to get put on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list; what it means to have money frozen far away in banks around the world, because no bank that does business with the United States would move a penny belonging to individuals or entities on the U.S. sanctions list. Have them tell you what it means to be met with “do not enter” instructions at important countries around the globe. The Magnitsky Act brands them as the pariahs they are. Look now to the Saudi regime, the latest act of pure evil committed in Istanbul and the power-mad and vicious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The usually voluble President Trump, so prone to impromptu soliloquies on matters big and small, has been equivocal and wispy on


CIA director flies to Turkey amid growing controversy over Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing

The visit by Gina Haspel comes ahead of a planned speech early Tuesday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which he has promised to reveal the “naked truth” about what Turkish officials have called a Saudi-directed murder and attempted cover-up.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Canada is outraged at Khashoggi’s killing. Is it outraged enough to act?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened an urgent meeting of ministers and senior officials Monday to discuss Canada’s response to what he called the “horrible murder” of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The minister of foreign affairs, Chrystia Freeland, later told reporters that Canada’s “entire relationship” with Saudi Arabia is being reviewed. “We discussed the latest developments concerning the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, including the various intensive conversations we had over the weekend with our international partners,” she said. “There are very important questions about the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia that need to be asked.” The “emergency response group” meeting came a day after Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would cut arms sales to the Saudis, the first major U.S. ally to take action over Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. A close Merkel ally, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, urged other nations to follow suit. Canada would, in some ways, seem a country likely to take action. Canada this summer protested the arrest of human rights activists by Saudi Arabia. Faced with two critical tweets, the kingdom vowed to suspend trade and investment with Canada, recalled its ambassador from Ottawa and gave Canada’s ambassador 24 hours to get out of Saudi Arabia. Ottawa, naturally, was not pleased. At the time, some Canadians urged the Trudeau government to do more than simply call out the kingdom on Twitter by, for instance, freezing arms sales to it. In 2014, Canada struck a deal worth billions to sell armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia. The agreement was controversial from the start and grew more so as Saudi Arabia pressed ahead with bombing campaigns in Yemen and punished Canada for critical tweets. But it still stands. Now, the diplomatic fallout over the Khashoggi case has focused global attention on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and bolstered domestic calls for the Trudeau government to move beyond expressions of concern. On Saturday, Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), called on the government to cancel the arms deal. Saudi Arabia’s “implication and involvement in the death of a journalist makes it very clear at this point that we can no longer continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia,” Singh said. “There’s no way that under the current context we should be selling weapons that might be used to further oppress its citizens.” In an interview recorded for a French-language talk show on


Mnuchin meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite growing outcry over government’s role in journalist’s death

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, illustrating how the White House is retaining close ties with the embattled Middle Eastern leader despite a growing international outcry. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry posted a photo of the meeting on Twitter. In a caption, the Saudi government wrote that bin Salman in the meeting “stresses the importance of the Saudi-US strategic partnership, where it holds an important role in the future in line with the Kingdom’s #Vision2030.” Mnuchin opted not to attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia this week amid uproar about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Morning Bits: Will the administration crack down on MBS?

Unified demands to crack down on the Saudis have intensified. “Hours after the Saudi government confirmed on Saturday that Jamal Khashoggi was dead, U.S. lawmakers pointed fingers at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The bipartisan attacks, continuing through the weekend, may put pressure on the Trump administration to go further than it has wanted to in responding to Khashoggi’s death.” At least someone is cracking down on Russian meddling. “DOJ Says Russian Trolls Are Interfering Online With the Midterms.” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) explains how to crack down on the Saudis. “Here’s what we ought to do, and we ought to do it tomorrow morning, we ought to expel — formally expel the Saudi ambassador from the United States until there is a completion of a third-party investigation into this kidnap, murder and God knows what followed that occurred in Istanbul. We should call on our allies to do the same.” Republicans such as Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) want to crack down on MBS as well. “The senator added that ‘there has to be a punishment and a price paid’ if an independent investigation finds that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s murder.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggests no crack, no daylight between the Saudis and the administration. “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, heading to Saudi Arabia Monday in the face of an uproar over the dissident’s death, said the administration believes its relationship with Riyadh is critical to the success of its Iran pressure campaign. But the U.S. faces a domestic and foreign furor over Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, including from members of the president’s party.” Clueless. Social media companies had better crack down on this. “Mr. Khashoggi’s online attackers were part of a broad effort dictated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his close advisers to silence critics both inside Saudi Arabia and abroad. Hundreds of people work at a so-called troll farm in Riyadh to smother the voices of dissidents like Mr. Khashoggi. The vigorous push also appears to include the grooming — not previously reported — of a Saudi employee at Twitter whom Western intelligence officials suspected of spying on user accounts to help the Saudi leadership.” There is no case to crack, no reason to let the Saudis investigate themselves. “What’s most vitally important is that the administration not make itself complicit in a Saudi cover-up, that it insist on the frankest admission


Jared Kushner declines to say whether he believes Saudi account of Khashoggi’s death

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, declined to say Monday whether he believes Saudi Arabia’s account that Jamal Khashoggi accidentally died after an altercation inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. “I’d say that right now, as an administration, we’re more in the fact-finding phase,” Kushner said when asked about the death of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, in an interview at an event in New York hosted by CNN. “Once we have all the facts, we’ll make an assessment.” Turkish investigators allege that 15 Saudi agents killed Khashoggi, who was living in exile in the United States, shortly after he entered the consulate. According to the Saudi account, Khashoggi’s death followed a fistfight with a team that was sent to negotiate his return. But Saudi officials have refused to answer questions about what happened to Khashoggi’s remains, fueling already widespread condemnation of the killing. Kushner, who has cultivated a close partnership with the heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said he has advised him to be “fully transparent.” “The world is watching. This is a very, very serious accusation,” Kushner said. Asked by CNN’s Van Jones how the crown prince responded to his advice, Kushner said: “We’ll see.” Kushner declined to discuss any advice he has given Trump on the matter, saying it is his practice to keep such discussions private. Asked whether he trusts Saudi Arabia to investigate an event in which they are involved, Kushner said, “We’re getting facts in from multiple places.” “Once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe and what we think is credible and what we think is not credible,” he said. Jones also asked Kushner what he thought about critics who have suggested that the crown prince felt emboldened to order Khashoggi’s death because of his relationship with Kushner. “I don’t respond to the critics,” Kushner said. He also said that Saudi Arabia has been “a very strong ally” and that the administration is mindful of its strategic interests in the Middle East. “I think the president is focused on what’s good for America,” Kushner said. “The Middle East is a rough place. It’s been a rough place for a very long time. We have to be able to pursue our strategic objectives. But we


Theresa May is defiant on Brexit as critics accuse her of losing control

LONDON — Amid growing anger over her leadership, Prime Minister Theresa May struck a defiant tone Monday, insisting that Brexit negotiations are 95 percent done and that the final product will amount to a good deal for Britain. May has faced harsh criticism from Brexit hard-liners, who say she is ceding control to the European Union; from political rivals, who say she has lost command over her party; and from those who want to remain in the E.U. and say she is denying the people of Britain control over their future. “The shape of the deal across the vast majority of the withdrawal agreement is now clear,” May told Parliament, adding that her government has been making progress in talks with negotiators across the English Channel. But that last 5 percent is no small thing. Indeed, how to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, an E.U. member, is “a real sticking point,” May acknowledged. It has been this way for months. “It’s basically Groundhog Day every single day,” said Rob Ford, a politics professor at the University of Manchester. “The Irish border? How do we solve it? Who knows? Everyone has a big row. Wake up the next day, like Bill Murray, you hear the same song.” The problem is becoming more urgent, however, because Britain is set to leave the E.U. in just five months. If the two sides do not strike a divorce deal, Britain risks exiting without one — a doomsday scenario that could have serious implications for the economy and daily life. Two years after Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent in favor of leaving the E.U., Brexit continues to be a highly divisive issue. On Saturday, thousands of people took to the streets to protest Brexit and call for a “people’s vote.” Organizers estimated that 700,000 people turned out, which would make it the largest protest in Britain since the start of the Iraq War. Still, it was noteworthy that none of the featured speakers were leading members of the ruling Conservative or opposition Labour party. May further angered her critics in recent days when she indicated she would be open to extending the Brexit “transition period” beyond the proposed timeline of December 2020. That is deeply unpopular with the hard-liners, who say it would leave Britain in the position of a “vassal state,”


Will the U.S. punish Saudi Arabia?

Regarding the Oct. 20 front-page article “Saudis concede Khashoggi was killed”: Every day brings more information about what agents of the Saudi Arabian government may have done to Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi and a grim reminder of why American leadership in the world matters. Our military might and economic heft give the words of our leaders immense power to influence the actions of other nations. When the president of the United States makes clear that he does not value the role of the free press and that he will prioritize his own short-term political needs above core American ideals, he creates space for illiberal governments to do unthinkable things. Until President Trump joins the chorus of Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress who are calling for real consequences for Saudi Arabia over the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, dictators and autocrats will continue to commit increasingly worse violations of human rights. Richard McPike Jamal Khashoggi should be Donna Gaul


Inside the Saudis’ Washington influence machine: How the kingdom gained power through fierce lobbying and charm offensives

Mohammed was warmly welcomed at the White House at the start of his nationwide tour. Those twin successes reflected the power of a sophisticated Saudi influence machine that has shaped policy and perceptions in Washington for decades, batting back critiques of the oil-rich kingdom by doling out millions to lobbyists, blue-chip law firms, prominent think tanks and large defense contractors. In 2017, Saudi payments to lobbyists and consultants in Washington more than tripled over the previous year, public filings show. The strength of the Saudi operation is now being tested amid a global condemnation of the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — a death the kingdom belatedly acknowledged last week. Beyond their spending in Washington, the Saudis have enjoyed a priceless advantage: a warm relationship with the president, who has done business with its wealthy citizens, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who developed a close bond with the crown prince as he crafted the administration’s Middle East policy. The ties build on a long-standing relationship between past administrations and the Saudi royal family. The kingdom also cultivated opinion leaders through aggressive charm offensives. Powerful government figures — including deputy intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, who was fired for Khashoggi’s killing — have visited Washington to court reporters and think tank analysts. The Saudi ambassador has hosted intimate dinners in Washington and even occasional galas, such as a lavish event at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium honoring this year’s visit of the crown prince. The kingdom’s lobbying team was dispatched to ensure that leading members of congressional foreign relations panels attended, public filings show. Earlier this year, Saudi officials even offered Super Bowl tickets and chartered flights to the event to media stars such as Jake Tapper of CNN and Bret Baier of Fox News, according to Tapper and a Fox News spokeswoman. (Both said they turned the offers down.) The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not return multiple requests for comment. A handful of lobbyists and think tanks have declared they will turn off the Saudi money spigot. Yet to be determined is whether that marks a tipping point in Washington’s ties to Saudi Arabia or merely a lull before business returns to normal. “The goodwill the Saudis have enjoyed in Washington, either because of lobbying efforts or their perceived value as an ally, is something to


Saudi attempts to distance crown prince from Khashoggi killing haven’t quieted uproar

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to the crown prince. Corker — who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — called for a “collective response” by the United States, Britain, France and Germany if an investigation reveals that the crown prince was behind Khashoggi’s killing. During an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said the Saudi ambassador should be formally expelled from the United States if an investigation shows the crown prince’s involvement. Jubeir denied on Sunday that Mohammed had any prior knowledge of the operation and said that the agents involved “weren’t people closely tied” to him. “Even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this,” Jubeir said. The foreign minister said that Saudi Arabia does not know where Khashoggi’s body is and that officials have not listened to an audio recording that Turkey claims proves Khashoggi was tortured, killed and dismembered. When asked by Fox News about the fistfight scenario put forth Saturday by prosecutors, Jubeir deflected, saying the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death were still being investigated. “We’re trying to ascertain the facts as to what happened in the consulate,” he said. “And what happened subsequent to that.” Jubeir’s contention that the Saudi government did not know precisely what happened to Khashoggi in the consulate — after the kingdom had previously announced that he was killed in a fistfight — was the latest in a series of shifting explanations by Saudi officials since Khashoggi disappeared. Reuters on Sunday quoted an unnamed Saudi official who portrayed Khashoggi’s death as the result of a botched kidnapping. In a detailed account, the official said members of the 15-man Saudi team threatened to drug and kidnap Khashoggi and had “killed him in a chokehold” when he resisted. Khashoggi’s body, the official added, was rolled up in a carpet and given to a “local cooperator” for disposal. A Saudi official, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, refused to confirm the details of the Reuters report but said that there had been a standing order from Saudi intelligence to “negotiate with people outside to come back home.” The team that approached Khashoggi had been sent to negotiate, but “it went south,” the official said, adding that “there was no order for a kidnapping. There was no order for a killing.”


Saudi Arabia fires 5 top officials, arrests 18 Saudis, saying Khashoggi was killed in fight at consulate

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi government acknowledged early Saturday that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, saying he died during a fistfight, but the new account may do little to ease international demands for the kingdom to be held accountable. The announcement, which came in a tweet from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, said that an initial investigation by the government’s general prosecutor found that the Saudi journalist had been in discussions with people inside the consulate when a quarrel broke out and escalated to a fatal fistfight. The Saudi government said it fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudis as a result of the initial investigation. Those fired included Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri. The announcement marks the first time that Saudi officials have acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. Ever since he disappeared on Oct. 2 while visiting the mission, Saudi officials have repeatedly said that he left the consulate alive and that they had no information on his whereabouts or fate. He had gone to the consulate to obtain a document he needed for his upcoming marriage. The Saudi statement comes as the kingdom is facing unprecedented political and economic pressure to disclose what happened to Khashoggi, a critic of the government and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. But it is unclear whether the Saudi explanation — which clashes with details provided by Turkish investigators and makes no mention of the crown prince — will be enough to satisfy foreign leaders, global business executives and U.S. lawmakers pressing for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Turkish investigators had concluded days ago that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi team dispatched to Istanbul. U.S. officials have said that Turkey has audio and video recordings providing evidence that the journalist was interrogated and killed inside the consulate and his body cut into several pieces. CIA officials have listened to an audio recording that Turkish officials say proves the journalist was killed and dismembered by the Saudi team, according to people familiar with the matter. If verified, the recording would make it difficult for the White House to accept the Saudi version that Khashoggi’s death was effectively an accident.  Nor has Khashoggi’s body been recovered, and the Saudi statement did not address what happened


Best of D.C. 2018: See what Express readers voted for as their favorite things in Washington

One of the great things about D.C. is that everyone ends up here for different reasons. Some are born here. Some grow up — or still live — nearby in Maryland or Virginia. Some move here for college and never leave. Some stay for a little while and then move on. Some come here because of politics. Some don’t want anything to do with politics. That’s part of what makes our annual Best of D.C. issue so fascinating: Much like D.C. itself, it’s always changing, even as certain things stay the same. This year, like last year, we split up the coverage into two sections. One features our staff picks — the places and activities we love the most at the moment. The other is full of your picks — dozens of places to go and things to do as voted on by you, our readers. Best burgers 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best pizza 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best ramen 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best sushi 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best tacos 1st: 2nd 3rd: Best barbecue 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best sandwich 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best seafood 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best bagels 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best fast-casual 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best pho 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best ice cream/gelato 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best Southeast Asian 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best Ethiopian 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best Indian 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best steakhouse 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best doughnut 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best bakery 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best coffee 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best bottomless brunch 1st: 2nd (tie): 2nd (tie): Best vegan restaurant 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best dive bar 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best bar for cocktails 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best place to drink outdoors 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best distillery 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best brewery 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best craft beer bar 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best winery 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best wine bar 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best rooftop bar 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best place to dance 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best gay bar 1st: 2nd: 3rd (tie): 3rd (tie): Best yoga studio 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best gym 1st: 2nd: 3rd (tie): 3rd (tie): Best fitness class 1st: 2nd: 3rd (tie): 3rd (tie): Best bike shop 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best salon 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best women’s boutique 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best home goods store 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best vintage/consignment shop 1st: 2nd (tie): 2nd (tie): Best bookstore 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Best non-car commute 1st: 2nd:


The Trump administration’s see-no-evil indulgence of Saudi Arabia

When the United States does not stand up for human rights and freedom of expression, there are tragic consequences. The apparent torture and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is one of them. From the beginning, President Trump and his advisers have given Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a green light to do whatever he wants. Now Trump complains, against all evidence and logic, that the prince is unfairly being judged “guilty until proven innocent” of Khashoggi’s disappearance and almost certain demise. There have been more shameful episodes in American foreign policy but not in a long, long time. It is true that Saudi Arabia’s corrupt ruling family has never respected its citizens’ basic human rights. It is also true that the oil-rich kingdom is a longstanding U.S. ally — and that any president, faced with an incident such as Khashoggi’s apparent killing, would have the tough job of balancing competing geopolitical interests. But I have to wonder if Mohammed would not have ordered the hit job — and it is utterly implausible that Khashoggi was accosted without the crown prince’s go-ahead — unless he had confidence that the Trump administration would let him get away with it. And why would he think otherwise? There has been hardly a peep out of Washington about the brutal war Mohammed is conducting in Yemen, with U.S. assistance — and with no apparent qualms about civilian casualties. In August, a Saudi airstrike killed at least 40 children. The Pentagon sent a fact-finding mission, and then the facts — dead children — were ignored. The Trump administration also offered no real objection when the crown prince orchestrated a punishing diplomatic and economic embargo against Qatar, which is also a U.S. ally and hosts thousands of American troops. One of the Saudi regime’s complaints was about aggressive news coverage by the Al Jazeera network, which is based in Qatar and funded by the nation’s rulers — and which seeks, as Khashoggi did, to hold governments accountable. On the plus side, Mohammed has made it possible for Saudi women to drive automobiles for the first time. On the minus side, he has jailed several prominent advocates for women’s rights. He wants to be seen as a brash reformer, but he also acts like a goonish thug. There is a strategy behind the administration’s see-no-evil indulgence. Trump and his aides want a rich,


In his last column, Jamal Khashoggi referred to Radio Free Europe. Here’s what that means.

BERLIN — In the last column he wrote before he disappeared, Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi issued a powerful plea for freedom of expression in the Middle East. “The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power,” Khashoggi wrote in the piece, which was published by The Washington Post on Thursday. “During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe, which grew over the years into a critical institution, played an important role in fostering and sustaining the hope of freedom. Arabs need something similar,” he argued. Radio Free Europe (RFE) was established months into the Cold War between the United States and its Western allies, on one side, and the Soviet Union and its eastern European client states. Sponsored by the U.S. government, the radio station first broadcast to Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia in 1951, a decade before the Berlin Wall was built. At the time, the broadcaster came up with creative proposals to spread its message, including by printing leaflets that were dropped with balloons across Eastern Europe — some of them never made it after they were targeted by Soviet fighter jets. Later on, RFE added stations for listeners in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and other countries. Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe attempted to interrupt or permanently stop the broadcasts. Similar broadcasters seeking to reach audiences behind the Iron Curtain, such as the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA), suffered similar fates and were later also credited for providing a platform to journalists independent of Soviet bloc-governments. But RFE was by far the key media foe of those regimes. In 1981, a Swiss terrorist targeted the broadcaster’s Munich headquarters, causing massive damage within a radius of half a mile in the worst attack against the station’s Czechoslovakia service. Six people were injured. Despite the attacks, RFE continued to provide a platform to critics of the Soviet Union and other nations in the region, providing a counterbalance to government-controlled media outlets. RFE described itself as the “voice of the opposition,” and its broadcasts were widely considered to have an effect by empowering critics of the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first democratically elected Hungarian prime minister, József Antal, credited Radio Free Europe for having given “us the gift of truth about


What does the future of Europe look like? Join us on WhatsApp for news and discussions.

What will happen once Britain officially leaves the European Union? Could there ever be a second Brexit referendum? How are cities around the world trying to deal with the repercussions of climate change? And how will the results of the upcoming midterm elections shape U.S. relations with the rest of the world? For more than a year, I’ve been discussing the future of Europe with readers on WhatsApp. Over the coming months, we’re inviting you to join the second round of our project, as we embark on a series of month-long journeys that will explore the issues that matter most to readers in Europe and elsewhere, including migration, populism and climate change. Subscribe here to be part of these conversations. I also intend to share relevant articles, run occasional polls and talk directly with you in individual chats. In October, we’ll take a closer look at populism. November will be all about a changing role of the United States in the world, as voters head to the polls. In December, migration is set to be our focal point, and in January, I’ll take you along with me to Australia to discuss climate change and what we can do to prevent the worst repercussions. How it works Using MessengerPeople as our service provider, subscribers can sign up for our service. Updates are available on WhatsApp, and users can expect to receive at least three updates a week. Subscribers will be given a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to build a story from scratch at The Washington Post. I will also kick-start discussions around European news and hope to highlight some of your responses in future coverage. How to subscribe If you want to subscribe via WhatsApp, simply click here and add Rick Noack as a contact in your phone. You can send us a “hello” to get started. This signup method works on both mobile and web. Please ensure you’re logged in to WhatsApp web if attempting to subscribe this way. I don’t use WhatsApp but want to receive updates. What should I do? WhatsApp is available to download via the app store on your mobile device. How many updates will I receive? You can expect a minimum of three updates a week. You will not receive more than one message per day. Can other people see my replies? Any message you send us will be received directly and will


What Erdogan didn’t say about Jamal Khashoggi may matter more than what he said

have tried to do, and called for identifying “those responsible — from the highest ranked to the lowest — and . . . bring[ing] them to justice.” But he did not point a finger at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler and likely author of the operation — thereby leaving room for the Saudis and their allies in the Trump administration to achieve their main objective, which is shielding the crown prince. Despite some conflicting statements, President Trump still seems wedded to that goal. In an interview with USA Today on Monday, he again called the Khashoggi murder “a plot gone awry,” echoing Riyadh’s preposterous cover story. Sanctions announced Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, including visa restrictions on 21 Saudi suspects, appeared to be aimed at the scapegoats already rounded up in Riyadh. The conflicting accounts and the political calculations behind them make clearer than ever the need for an independent inquiry. Mr. Erdogan himself called for such an investigation; he should ask U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to initiate it. That would allow the Turks to turn over the evidence they have, including any audio or videotape, in a way that could sidestep the political calculations that now appear to be deterring full disclosure. Plenty of questions remain unanswered, including some raised by Mr. Erdogan. How did Mr. Khashoggi die? The Saudis claim he was choked to death after an argument escalated into a “brawl,” while a grisly leaked Turkish version says his fingers were chopped off before he was injected with a drug and dismembered by an autopsy specialist who traveled to Istanbul with a bone saw. The audiotape could settle the question. Where is Mr. Khashoggi’s body? Mr. Erdogan pointed out that the Saudis are claiming it was handed over to a “local collaborator”; if so, they should identify him. And what about the so-called body double — a Khashoggi look-alike who emerged from the consulate wearing his clothes and a fake beard? If the intention was only to question the journalist, why was he there? The most important question is who ordered the operation. As we have written before, much of the publicly available evidence points to Mohammed bin Salman. At this point, the burden should be on the Saudis to prove he is not responsible — and in the meantime, the crown prince should be treated as a pariah.


It’s time to put the brakes on Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen

Dan Byman and Michael O’Hanlon are senior fellows at the Brookings Institution and professors at Georgetown University. As the Trump White House comes to grips with the Saudi government’s role in the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi, it confronts a major dilemma that has bedeviled previous American administrations: How do we punish a country with which the United States is locked in a relationship of profound mutual dependence? The kingdom needs American military protection, despite having the world’s third-largest military budget and lots of shiny Western weaponry. And the United States, despite the North American shale revolution, still relies on Saudi oil (in the sense that the world oil market cannot function without it). The Saudis are also a vital partner for counterterrorism. For these reasons, American punishment for the murder of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist, is likely to consist of the usual wrist-slapping: no high-level summits for a while, a bit less pomp in any official meetings for some time after that and maybe a visa ban or two for complicit individuals. Congress, for its part, may issue a resolution expressing its collective outrage. That would be a woefully inadequate response. The brazenness of the killing in Istanbul is stunning. Moreover, it targeted an American resident who was a powerful advocate of free speech and political accountability. The even bigger problem, however, is that this murder fits a pattern of outrageous and harmful Saudi behavior. The kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a brash young man who has by now made many mistakes because of arrogance and inexperience — from his brutal and extralegal “anti-corruption drive” to his abduction of the Lebanese prime minister to his unnecessary public standoff with Qatar. Against this background, the Khashoggi murder is less an exceptional act of recklessness than an emblem of the new normal for the kingdom. One tempting option would be to stop U.S. arms sales — a measure that could impose pain on Riyadh without disrupting America’s de facto security guarantee, or the world’s unquenchable thirst for Saudi hydrocarbons. Yet President Trump resists this step, arguing that American jobs are on the line. But there’s a natural compromise. We should use this crisis as a chance to do what we should have been doing all along — namely, to force the Saudis (and, ideally, their key ally, the United Arab Emirates) to rethink their disastrous


Reactions to Jamal Khashoggi’s death, Saudi Arabia and Trump

In the Oct. 17 front-page article “Pompeo visit seems to favor conciliation over confrontation,” The Post reported on the many ways in which President Trump is being soft on the Saudis with respect to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. This should be no surprise. In 2015, Mr. Trump professed his love for the Saudis because of the millions they have spent buying his properties. Mr. Trump was oblivious then, and he remains clueless, about the fact that the interests of the United States and support of basic human rights should take precedence over his personal financial interests. We are now simply seeing yet another example of the president’s unresolved ethical conflicts coming home to roost. Mr. Trump should recuse himself from involvement in the U.S. investigation of, and response to, Mr. Khashoggi’s death. And, since we have not seen Mr. Trump’s tax returns, who knows what other matters he should recuse himself from? David L Hutner Regarding the Oct. 20 Saudi Arabia expert Bruce Riedel was right to tell The Post that Saudi Arabia’s claim that Jamal Khashoggi died in a brawl in its consulate is “the worst coverup I’ve ever seen.” But there is another coverup that rivals it: Saudi claims that its slaughter of thousands of civilians in U.S.-supported and -armed airstrikes in Yemen are just “mistakes” that are somehow forgivable. The regularity with which Saudi bombings have hit hospitals and civilian infrastructure and even weddings, a funeral and a school bus carrying dozens of children marks what Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has said “look like war crimes.” There are many reasons to stop arming the repressive Saudi regime, but its conduct in Yemen, which has been going on for more than three years, is high on the list. William D. Hartung The writer is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. Thanks to the political principles The transparent effort to turn a blind eye to the Saudis’ insult has made our country complicit in our own dishonor and has earned us the world’s derision. Michael Woscoboinik


Our research found that climate change could cause a beer shortage. Here’s why.

The price of beer could double under unchecked climate change, as droughts and extreme temperatures cause barley yields to drop. That’s one conclusion of research we recently published in Nature Plants. We first became curious about barley, and the beer it produces, as this relatively minor crop was clearly affected by climate extremes yet had never caught the attention of climate scientists. And unlike many other food crops, barley grown for beer is required to meet very specific quality parameters. Malted barley gives beer much of its flavor, yet if it is too hot or there isn’t enough water during critical growing stages, the malt cannot be extracted. This is why we gathered a team of scientists based in China, the U.K. and the U.S. to assess what extreme drought and heat events may mean for beer supplies and prices. We were interested specifically in what would happen to barley when there was both extreme drought and heat during the growing season, something that will become more common thanks to global warming. We then modeled what this would mean for barley yields in 34 world regions which either produce or drink a lot of beer. In more optimistic scenarios, where emissions are brought under control and warming is kept at a manageable level (what climate scientists refer to as RCP2.6), droughts and heat waves might occur together in about 4 percent of the years. In the worst-case scenario, where emissions and temperatures keep increasing, such extremes might occur in 31 percent of the years. These are global average results, however, which can hide significant regional variation. In affected years, barley yields would drop the most in tropical areas of Central and South America, and in Central Africa, for instance. In the same years, yields in temperate Europe would decrease moderately, or even increase in parts of the U.S. or Russia. But the overall trend is clear: At a global level, barley yields will at best — under the optimistic scenario — decrease by 3 percent. And in the worst-case scenario, yields will fall 17 percent. We know that climate change will mean less barley — but what about beer? One factor to consider is that barley is mostly used to feed livestock, and beer is ultimately more dispensable than meat. This means that declining yields will hit beer production extra hard. Ultimately, our modeling suggests that during the most severe


years, barley yields would drop the most in tropical areas of Central and South America, and in Central Africa, for instance. In the same years, yields in temperate Europe would decrease moderately, or even increase in parts of the U.S. or Russia. But the overall trend is clear: At a global level, barley yields will at best — under the optimistic scenario — decrease by 3 percent. And in the worst-case scenario, yields will fall 17 percent. We know that climate change will mean less barley — but what about beer? One factor to consider is that barley is mostly used to feed livestock, and beer is ultimately more dispensable than meat. This means that declining yields will hit beer production extra hard. Ultimately, our modeling suggests that during the most severe climate events, the price of beer would double and global consumption would decline by 16 percent, or 29 billion liters. That is roughly equal to the total annual beer consumption of the U.S. Even under the optimistic scenario of less extreme climate change, beer consumption would still drop by 4 percent. Again, price and consumption changes would vary widely from country to country, with the greatest price increases being concentrated in relatively affluent and historically beer-loving countries. In Ireland, for example, the price of a beer bottle would double under extreme climate change. In less wealthy countries, people would simply drink less beer under those circumstances. We predict a 32 percent drop in Argentina, for example. It is possible that more drought- or heat-tolerant barley cultivars may be developed in future, which would reduce the risk of climate change to supplies of beer. But these and other technological developments, or increases in stockpiling (or even prioritizing beer over livestock), were beyond the scope of our study. While previous research has looked in detail at what climate change means for essentials like wheat or rice, less attention has been paid to so-called “luxury goods.” In our study, we took beer as one such example, to highlight the ways climate change will affect our lives. We hope our results might attract further attention from various beer-lovers who actually have the power to do something about global warming. Seeing that climate change is affecting our lives in more ways than we imagined before, they might start to think about further strengthening global efforts to reduce emissions. This article is republished from


Transcript: Transformers - Space

have many planets around each star. We’re going to be able to not only see those planets, but we’re going to be able to characterize the atmosphere around those planets with the James Webb Space Telescope to determine if those planets could be inhabitable or not. So this is going to be transformative. It’s going to rewrite science books. Bill Nye is going to have a lot of work to do when this gets— Nye: Bring it on. Mooney: Worth a couple more years and a couple more—[OVERLAPPING] Hammel: But just to be clear, we’ll be able to do that work if we are lucky and win the lottery twice over and find systems that are close enough to us that will be within the reach of James Webb Space Telescope. And we do have the test satellite, which is looking right now. Hopefully, it will find them. I don’t know if y’all bought your lottery tickets right now. It’s super high. So maybe we can do that. But the reason I was talking about a future space telescope is we want to really able to answer this question, yes or no: Do Earth-like planets around sun-like stars truly have the ability to be habitable? And we may not be able to answer that question with Webb. That’s why we need to move forward and you and I talked a little bit about this and you said, “Don’t say that, Heidi.” And I’m going to say it anyway because I think this audience understands this. Building a facility like Hubble or James Webb or some future space telescope takes time. You can’t do it a year or two or five or 10. You sometimes take 20 years to truly build a cutting-edge, revolutionary facility. And that’s true for many of NASA’s great missions and we have to understand that and take it as part of the reality that we work in. Nye: And so for the politicians out there, when the NASA budget is uncertain when there’s a proposal to cut 5%. “No, let’s put back 10 trillion.” It’s very difficult for programs to count on the funding and then make adequate plans. So this leads to cost overruns. Mooney: Let me go to Twitter. Dr. [OVERLAPPING] asks—I think this is directed at you. “How can NASA reach its goals when the destination; the Moon, Mars, et cetera, changes with


Transcript: Transformers - Space

learn, what’s over that next hill, and I think there you engage the public. Beyer: We also see just culturally the American people are so excited about the space outreach. So when you get The Martian, the book, the movie; or Interstellar; or now First Man, you know, the theaters are filled because it appeals to our deeper nature. And I really love the science piece of it because all biology and all chemistry is based on the physics. And so much of the important physics is going to be done in space. You know, the nice part about commercial is it has freed up NASA to do ever more science with the James Webb Space Telescope and hopefully with WFIRST, and understanding about dark energy and dark matter and the cosmological constant and things that will ultimately affect all of our lives. Jordan: Right now if you have a lot of money and you’re just a regular person, even though Bill Nye said he was denied being an astronaut, you can go up in space now, if you have a lot of money, right? Magnus: There’s a couple of companies that are going to be flying people suborbital, Virgin and Blue. And for several hundred thousand dollars, so it’s quite a bargain, you can have a suborbital experience where you would go up, you’d experience four or five minutes of microgravity, and you’d see the Earth, a beautiful view of the Earth, and then come back down. And so that’s sort of the low ticket price right now. And I believe those two companies are hoping to fly in the next year or so. Jordan: When do you think we’ll see a lot of people and not just really rich people going to space? Magnus: Oh, that’s really a hard question because it’s all about the launch costs. And there are several companies who are working on reusability to try and bring the launch cost down, but think about it; if you have to build your car every time you want to drive to the grocery store and then you throw your car away, and then to go to the grocery store the next day you build another car, that’s really not cheap. Right? And so we’re doing that with spacecraft. And so we really have to get—and I hesitate to use the word routine, but we have to


Transcript: Transformers - Space

what’s next with Space Force. But before we get into that, I have so many questions on Space Force. I know everyone’s so interested in that. I wanted to talk, just for a couple minutes, about Jamal Khashoggi, our colleague here at The Washington Post. Pence: Right. Well, thank you, Bob. Thank you for hosting this forum on a topic of great importance to the life of the nation and to American leadership. Thank you, also, for giving me the opportunity to address the tragic murder of your colleague Jamal Khashoggi. The brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey was a tragedy for his family, for his loved ones, and for your colleagues here at The Washington Post. It was also an assault on a free and independent press. And our administration is determined to use all means at our disposal to get to the bottom of it. President Trump has already expressed his concern that there have been lies, there’s been deception. He dispatched the secretary of state to the region early on and the director of the CIA is there in Turkey now, reviewing the evidence. And we’re going to follow the facts. We’re going to demand that those responsible are held accountable. Once we have all the facts, President Trump will make the decision based upon the values of the American people and our vital national interest. But allow me to express my personal sympathies to his fiancée, to his loved ones, his family, and all the colleagues here at The Washington Post who admired and cherished the life and example of Jamal Khashoggi. Costa: What’s your response, Mr. Vice President, to President Erdogan’s report this morning? Pence: Well, the word from President Erdogan this morning, that is brutal murder was premeditated, preplanned days in advance, flies in the face of earlier assertions that had been made by the Saudi regime. And again, it underscores the determination of our administration to find out what happened here. The world is watching. The American people want answers and we’ll demand that those answers are forthcoming. We’ll also—as we go forward, as we demand that those who are responsible are held accountable for this barbaric act, we will also do so in the light and in the context of America’s vital natural interest in the region. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia goes back some 60 years,


Transcript: Transformers - Space

about safety, right? Because you had the accident in 2014 that killed one of the pilots, Michael Alsbury. You’re talking about taking not these sort of best-of-the-best who’ve been through all the NASA training that we just had here up on stage, but more ordinary people. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what you’ve done since the accident and what you tell your customers about safety and what you’re doing. Whitesides: Sure. Well, I think all of us in the human spaceflight business know that we won’t have a business if we don’t have a safe vehicle. And that’s why we’re spending so much effort in the test flight program, when we can work through many of the challenges that we have, so that when we get to commercial operations we have a vehicle that we can really believe in. Our accident, we had to put in sort of a check to make sure that the pilots didn’t make a certain action during a phase of flight, which we’ve done. And then we’ve done a few other improvements on our vehicle which we call unity, and so we’re feeling really good. As you know, Chris, I’m a customer. I was a customer before I was an executive, so I bought a couple of tickets for my wife and I, and we’re looking forward to riding on board as soon as it’s ready to go. Davenport: I just want to remind people who are watching online, if you want to tweet any questions to George you can do that using the hashtag #Transformers. So, the cost now is $250,000 a ticket; I think it started out at $200,000 a ticket. Ultimately, I think the goal—and I’ve heard Richard say this—is to bring that down if you’re flying more. But, what does that look like? Is it going to go up? Is it going to go down? If so, what’s the sort of timeline there? Do you have any sense of that? Whitesides: Well, I think that the long-term goal is, no question, to bring the cost down. Right? I mean, if you look at the earliest trips across the Atlantic in air travel on a sort of a real-dollar basis, those were $100,000, sometimes $150,000, $200,000 tickets. So, it’s not uncommon for this kind of experience to start up relatively expensive and then come down. Now, I


Transcript: Transformers - Space

would save half of your journey time or more. And what’s exciting is that we’re actually seeing that interest internationally, as well, so we’re talking, obviously, with Italy and various other places about potentially setting up spaceports abroad. We will start, and our headquarters will remain, in New Mexico, in the United States, but there is this idea of establishing the start of a network out there. Davenport: I’m sure there are technological challenges that you’re working on now, but also regulatory ones when you’re—whether it’s the FAA here in the U.S. or going into a foreign country. What are some of the hurdles that you’re facing that you would have to clear before you are able to sort of do that point-to-point transportation? Whitesides: Well, space technology is restricted under this thing called the ITAR, so we have to obey those laws, and generally speaking we have very good relations with our regulators. I think the important thing to recognize form a policy perspective is that we’re no longer alone in advanced space technology. Space technology is now permeating around the planet. And so, intelligent policy-making has to happen as it pertains to exports, right? I mean, the Chinese are building vehicles. They’ve announced that they’re building a suborbital vehicle. The Russians are talking about a suborbital vehicle. Obviously, there’s a wide range of competition internationally. Many of those firms are subsidized essentially by their national governments. And so, I think we need to have an openness to providing an export out of the country for some of this technology, or else they’re just going to buy it from somebody else. The other thing that I would say is—and just to make a plug on another D.C. policy issue—is that Congress really should get the U.S. export/import bank up to full speed, because there are deals that I have right now that could be done if the bank could actually do deals above $10 million, and it is really hurting American aerospace to not have the bank at full strength. And I would just urge anybody who has any ability to affect that to work on it, because we have hundreds of jobs, thousands of jobs—hundreds of jobs for us, thousands of jobs for other firms—that are dependent on these export deals, and it me it’s inexplicable that we cannot reauthorize something that actually makes money for the United


The Daily 202: Trump’s fantastical promises of imminent new tax cuts showcase his failure to sell last year’s bill

states, including New York. -- In the Trump administration’s latest move to undermine Obamacare, insurance subsidies can now be used for leaner health plans that don’t cover “essential” benefits or preexisting conditions. -- White House Chief of Staff John Kelly got into a physical altercation with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski after a February meeting with the president in the Oval Office that required Secret Service intervention. GET SMART FAST: THE KHASHOGGI CRISIS: -- Erdogan speaks. --CIA director Gina Haspel is headed to Turkey. -- A bipartisan group of more than 50 lawmakers sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats demanding information about whether U.S. officials attempted to warn Khashoggi about plans to target him. -- -- How Khashoggi's family could go after the perpetrators: NEW GRISLY DETAILS EMERGE: -- Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide to the crown prince, “ran” the killing of Khashoggi by giving orders over Skype, Reuters reports: -- Jamal's final hours: Turkish media published photos of Khashoggi and his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, entering an apartment complex in Istanbul on Oct. 2, just hours before his death. -- Khashoggi met with the crown prince’s brother, MORE ON THE MIDTERMS: -- Nancy Pelosi suggested that, if she were to become speaker of the House again, she would serve at least though the 2020 elections. -- If Democrats retake the House, they might look to cooperate as well as investigate the Trump administration. -- Barack Obama, stumping for Nevada Senate candidate Jacky Rosen in Las Vegas yesterday, is treading carefully. -- Trump’s approval rating has trended upward in recent weeks, but it's still at a point historically that means trouble for his party in the midterms. -- Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) has caught flak for borrowing heavily from the work of former Fed chief Ben Bernanke in a paper he wrote as a Randolph-Macon College economics professor. -- Florida’s suburbs highlight the divide between the state’s generally right-leaning white retirees and the more left-leaning and diverse young adults. -- Republicans are making a last-ditch effort to prevent the reelection of Sen. Joe Manchin in the reliably red state of West Virginia. -- A dozen family members of Nevada Republican Adam Laxalt published an op-ed opposing his gubernatorial bid. -- The RNC has spent more than $1.5 million at Trump-owned properties during the 2018 election cycle, according to FEC filings. -- And 2020 has begun: Kamala


National security adviser John Bolton rebuffs Russian appeals to remain in key nuclear-arms pact

MOSCOW — National security adviser John Bolton held firm Tuesday to President Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from a landmark arms control treaty in place since the Soviet era. Bolton said the United States would present “in due course” an official notice leaving the treaty limiting intermediate-range nuclear weapons. He also echoed Trump’s assertions that Russia is violating the pact, suggesting that no progress was made to ease the impasse during Bolton’s two days of talks with top Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin. Bolton’s comments seemed sure to disappoint Germany and other U.S. allies in Europe that have urged Washington to work to overcome disputes with Russia rather than walking away from the treaty entirely. The Kremlin denies any violations and says scrapping the 31-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, would be a dangerous development that could spark a new arms race. “The American position is that Russia is in violation,” Bolton said at a news conference. “Russia’s position is that they are not in violation. So one has to ask how to ask the Russians to come back into compliance with something they don’t think they’re violating.” President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty in 1987, leading to the elimination of an entire category of nuclear missiles and the removal of more than 2,500 of them from installations across Europe. Since the Obama administration, U.S. officials have said Russia’s development of a ground-launched missile is skirting INF rules. In a bit of dark humor that underscored the moment, Putin referred to Washington’s announced withdrawal from the INF and then quipped about the balance between peace and force represented by the Great Seal of the United States. “As far as I can remember, the U.S. seal depicts an eagle on one side holding 13 arrows and on the other side an olive branch with 13 olives,” Putin said, sitting across from Bolton at talks before the news conference. “Here’s the question: Did your eagle already eat all the olives and only the arrows are left?” “Hopefully I’ll have some answers for you,” Bolton replied. “But I didn’t bring any more olives.” “That’s what I thought,” Putin said, provoking laughter from Bolton. Bolton’s mission waded deep into the frictions between Washington and Moscow, while leaving open the question of what, if any, arms-control architecture the Trump administration envisions for the future.


Cold War arms pact hangs in the balance as Bolton meets with Putin

INF came after an agonizing episode in the Cold War arms race. Beginning in the late 1970s, the Soviet Union deployed intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missiles, known as SS-20s, that could hit European capitals in a matter of minutes. The United States responded by stationing intermediate-range Pershing II nuclear missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles in Western European nations. The buildup of nuclear missiles prompted more than a million Germans to protest in the streets, and caused concern throughout Europe. The pressure on Moscow ultimately led to the INF, which eliminated SS-20 and Pershing II missiles altogether. If the United States withdraws from the INF, NATO will have to decide how to build up defenses against a Russia unfettered in its production and deployment of intermediate-range missiles. Tension between the Trump administration and European capitals would likely stymie the redeployment of intermediate-range nuclear missiles to Europe. Bolton, writing in the 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal, suggested the United States wouldn’t need to put Pershing II-style missiles back in Europe. He expressed confidence that NATO could safeguard Europe and counter Russia with intermediate-range deployments on weapons systems in the air and at sea. The INF covers only ground-launch missiles. “If worst comes to worst, we could follow the Russians and use intercontinental-ballistic missiles at less-than-intercontinental ranges,” Bolton wrote. The United States could find other ways to defend against a Russia unfettered by the INF. The Trump administration earlier this year announced plans to develop a nuclear-tipped, sea-launch cruise missile in response to Russia’s violations of the INF. The U.S. military could also put Tomahawk cruise missiles on ground launchers and deploy them in the Pacific. They are currently on ships and submarines. The Pentagon, mandated by Congress, is also in the early stages of developing a missile banned under the INF for possible deployment if the treaty falls apart. Europeans are watching the negotiations anxiously. The European Union’s foreign policy arm said in a statement that while it expected Russia to address violations, it also expected the United States to consider the consequences of a withdrawal. “The world doesn’t need a new arms race that would benefit no one and on the contrary would bring even more instability,” the statement added. When it comes to the treaty ceasing to exist, advocates of withdrawal see little to lose other than constraints on the U.S. military, particularly in Asia. “The INF Treaty doesn’t