CNN reports:

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, hit back at Joe Biden after the US President confronted him about the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting between the two leaders on Friday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

In the meeting, Bin Salman, also known as MBS, denied responsibility for the killing of Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate. Biden said he inidicated that he disagreed with MBS, based on US intelligence assessments, according to the source.

In response to Biden bringing up Khashoggi, MBS cited the sexual and physical abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison by US military personnel and the May killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank as incidents that reflected poorly on the US, the source said. [Continue reading…]

Reuters reports:

United Arab Emirates authorities have detained Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen and civil rights attorney who previously served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said U.S.-based rights group DAWN of whose board Ghafoor is a member.

A senior U.S. administration official, when asked on Saturday by reporters about the detention, said the United States was aware, but could not say whether President Joe Biden would raise the issue in planned bilateral talks with the UAE president on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

“Certainly I think we have points on that about the importance of consular access and everything else,” the official said, adding “there’s no indication that it has anything to do with the Khashoggi issue”. [Continue reading…]