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Saudia Arabia’s crown prince went a ghastly step too far

Saudia Arabia’s crown prince went a ghastly step too far

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David B. Ottaway writes: According to news reports, Saudi Arabia’s leaders might be preparing to announce that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was indeed killed inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Apparently they plan to explain away his death as a botched abduction attempt carried out by “rogue” killers – an extremely unlikely scenario, given the ruthlessly centralized structure of the Saudi regime. Whatever happens next, it is already clear that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler,…

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Trump’s attacks on the press are illegal. We’re suing

Trump’s attacks on the press are illegal. We’re suing

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Suzanne Nossel writes: President Donald J. Trump’s frequent threats and hostile acts directed toward journalists and the media are not only offensive and unbecoming of a democratic leader; they are also illegal. In the Trump era, nasty rhetoric, insults and even threats of violence have become an occupational hazard for political reporters and commentators. To be sure, a good portion of President Trump’s verbal attacks on journalists and news organizations might be considered fair game in this bare-knuckled political moment….

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Former U.S. special operations fighters hired to assassinate politicians in the Middle East

Former U.S. special operations fighters hired to assassinate politicians in the Middle East

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BuzzFeed reports: Cradling an AK-47 and sucking a lollipop, the former American Green Beret bumped along in the back of an armored SUV as it wound through the darkened streets of Aden. Two other commandos on the mission were former Navy SEALs. As elite US special operations fighters, they had years of specialized training by the US military to protect America. But now they were working for a different master: a private US company that had been hired by the…

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Woodward missed everything that matters about the Trump presidency

Woodward missed everything that matters about the Trump presidency

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David Frum writes: The alleged killing of a Washington Post columnist on the orders of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has triggered many rethinks—and not least a rethinking of the lavishly flattering journalism that hailed the crown prince’s rise to supreme power. Among the biggest media boosters of the Saudi crown prince was Bob Woodward in his new book, Fear. Woodward observed that a National Security Council staffer, Derek Harvey, believed that “MBS was the future. MBS saw…

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‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss

‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss

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The Washington Post reports: Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations. A new report suggests that the problem is more widespread than scientists realized. Huge numbers of bugs have been lost in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico, the study found, and the forest’s insect-eating animals have gone missing, too. In 2014, an international team of biologists estimated that, in the past…

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Polluting giant turns to green energy to escape EU carbon risk

Polluting giant turns to green energy to escape EU carbon risk

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Blooomberg reports: Central Europe’s third-largest polluter plans to almost triple its clean-energy capacity as emission costs surge. Tauron Polska Energia SA is preparing to add at least 700 megawatts of clean, regulated power to “improve” its portfolio after carbon permits almost tripled over the past year, Chief Financial Officer Marek Wadowski said. That’s the equivalent of half a modern nuclear reactor and echoes moves by European utilities from Enel SpA to Vattenfall AB to boost their clean power generation. “We’re…

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Minority rule does not have to be here forever

Minority rule does not have to be here forever

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Jamelle Bouie writes: A central architect of the Constitution, James Madison was deeply sensitive to the threat majorities posed to minorities. On important social questions, “[N]o other rule exists … but the will of the majority,” he wrote in 1785 while a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, “but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority.” Our governing document shows this sensitivity in its structure, which diffuses powers across multiple institutions,…

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As America’s elite abandons a reckless Saudi prince, will Trump join them?

As America’s elite abandons a reckless Saudi prince, will Trump join them?

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Robin Wright writes: Last spring, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and the richest man in modern history, hosted the young Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Seattle. The Saudi press posted photos of Bezos in an open-necked shirt and the prince, having shed his Saudi robes, in a Western suit and dark-red tie. Both men beamed as they talked business and investment opportunities. Bezos was among the prosperous and powerful Americans who met the crown prince during a three-week…

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Trump parrots absurd ‘rogue killers’ story promoted by Saudis

Trump parrots absurd ‘rogue killers’ story promoted by Saudis

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Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that “rogue killers” may be responsible for the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, while also dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. “We are going to leave nothing uncovered,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. “With that being said, the king firmly denied any knowledge of it. … I don’t want to get into his mind, but it sounded…

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Yemen on brink of ‘world’s worst famine in 100 years’ if war continues

Yemen on brink of ‘world’s worst famine in 100 years’ if war continues

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The Guardian reports: Yemen could be facing the worst famine in 100 years if airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition are not halted, the UN has warned. If war continues, famine could engulf the country in the next three months, with 12 to 13 million civilians at risk of starvation, according to Lise Grande, the agency’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen. She told the BBC: “I think many of us felt as we went into the 21st century that it was unthinkable…

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A genocide incited on Facebook, with posts from Myanmar’s military

A genocide incited on Facebook, with posts from Myanmar’s military

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The New York Times reports: They posed as fans of pop stars and national heroes as they flooded Facebook with their hatred. One said Islam was a global threat to Buddhism. Another shared a false story about the rape of a Buddhist woman by a Muslim man. The Facebook posts were not from everyday internet users. Instead, they were from Myanmar military personnel who turned the social network into a tool for ethnic cleansing, according to former military officials, researchers…

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Republicans worry that Trump and his aides have no idea the hell that may await

Republicans worry that Trump and his aides have no idea the hell that may await

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McClatchy reports: Republicans who support President Donald Trump have grown fearful that the White House is unprepared for the onslaught that may await them in January. If a “blue wave” succeeds in giving the Democrats control at least of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November, Democrats will have the power to subpoena documents and force administration officials to testify about a slew of scandals, including aides using private email for government business, agencies spending taxpayer money…

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All we know about the White House portrait of Trump drinking Diet Coke with Abraham Lincoln

All we know about the White House portrait of Trump drinking Diet Coke with Abraham Lincoln

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The Avi Selk writes: Previously spotted in D.C. gift shops and jigsaw puzzle boxes, a fantasy print of President Trump entertaining Abraham Lincoln while every other Republican president in history watches now hangs outside the Oval Office. The portrait was shown hanging in Trump’s personal dining room during his “60 Minutes” interview Sunday, and the freeze frame instantly went viral, baffling people with questions such as: How did the painting get to the White House? Why does Trump look nearly…

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Saudi Arabia played Kushner, Trump and his other American acolytes for suckers

Saudi Arabia played Kushner, Trump and his other American acolytes for suckers

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Nicholas Kristof writes: [I]ncreasingly it seems that the crown prince, better known as M.B.S., orchestrated the torture, assassination and dismemberment of an American-based journalist using diplomatic premises in a NATO country. That is monstrous, and it’s compounded by the tepid response from Washington. President Trump is already rejecting the idea of responding to such a murder by cutting off weapons sales. Trump sounds as if he believes that the consequence of such an assassination should be a hiccup and then…

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Two princes: Kushner now faces a reckoning for Trump’s bet on the Saudi heir

Two princes: Kushner now faces a reckoning for Trump’s bet on the Saudi heir

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The Washington Post reports: When President Trump chose Riyadh to make his debut on the world stage last year, he was placing a bet on Saudi Arabia, which serenaded him with military bands, dazzled him with a flyover of fighter jets and regaled him with a traditional sword dance. The mastermind behind that wager — the White House adviser who convinced Trump to visit Saudi Arabia for his maiden foreign trip and who choreographed a veritable lovefest between the new…

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