10 things you need to know today: October 22, 2018

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1. Saudi foreign minister calls Khashoggi killing 'rogue operation'
2. Migrant caravan swells as it continues toward U.S.
3. Russia threatens retaliation if Trump withdraws from landmark nuclear treaty
4. Report: Trump administration wants a new legal definition of gender
5. U.S. general identified as one of two Americans wounded in Kandahar attack
6. Taiwan train crash kills 18
7. Julia Louis-Dreyfus honored with Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
8. 4 Americans among 5 killed in Costa Rica rafting accident
9. Hurricane Willa strengthens into 'extremely dangerous' storm off Mexico's Pacific coast
10. Halloween debuts at No. 1

published 22 October 2018

1. Saudi foreign minister calls Khashoggi killing 'rogue operation'

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, denied Sunday that his country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "This was an operation that was a rogue operation," al-Jubeir told Fox News. Saudi officials have given changing accounts of what happened to Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul three weeks ago, first claiming he left the consulate on his own, and later saying he died in a fistfight. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would soon reveal the "naked truth" about Khashoggi's death. Senior Republicans and Democrats are demanding severe punishment against Saudi Arabia, long a key U.S. ally. Saudi media reported Sunday that the crown prince called Khashoggi's eldest son to offer his condolences.

A caravan of Central American migrants crossed into Mexico, with migrants swimming or rafting across a river along the country's border with Guatemala and getting around Mexican police sent to stop them at a border bridge. The migrants regrouped and continued on their march toward the U.S., with their numbers swelling from 2,000 to about 5,000 on Sunday. President Trump repeated his threat to shut the southern border of the U.S. to keep the migrants out. "Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our Souther [sic] Border ... The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat [sic] Party. Change the immigration laws NOW!"

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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Sunday responded to President Trump's vow to withdraw from a landmark Cold War-era nuclear treaty with Russia, saying pulling out unilaterally would be "very dangerous" and would trigger a "military-technical" retaliation. Trump said the U.S. would pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, because Russia was violating the agreement. The treaty required both nations to eliminate short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles. Gorbachev, now 87, said quitting the treaty would be a mistake, because it would undermine work both sides did to end the Cold War arms race.

The Trump administration is considering narrowing the government's definition of gender, rolling back recognition of transgender people by defining gender as either male or female, strictly according to the genitals a person is born with, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing a memo on the issue that was written in the spring. The move by the Department of Health and Human Services would reverse the Obama administration's loosening of the definition of gender in federal programs, including in education and health care. The Obama administration policy recognized the estimated 1.4 million Americans who identify as a gender other than the one on their birth certificates. Changing the definition could roll back protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley was one of two Americans wounded in the Thursday insider attack that killed two top Afghan security officials in Kandahar Province. Smiley oversees the NATO military advisory mission in southern Afghanistan. "I can confirm that he is recovering from a gunshot wound he received during the attack in Kandahar," Navy Cdr. Grant Neeley, a spokesman for the NATO Resolute Support mission, told CNN Sunday. Smiley has remained in command while being treated for the wound. Gen. Scott Miller, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, reportedly drew his sidearm during the attack but did not fire. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said "the notorious police chief" was their main target.

At least 18 people were killed and about 160 injured when a passenger train derailed in Taiwan on Sunday evening local time. The train was carrying 366 people, and rescue efforts continue, as several dozen were trapped on board. The line runs in a coastal area and is popular with tourists; an American woman was among those hurt. In a Facebook post, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen pledged "all our strength and efforts for the rescue" and offered condolences for the families of the victims, cautioning against speculation as to the cause of the crash while the investigation is underway.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Sunday received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring lifetime achievement in comedy. Louis-Dreyfus, the 21st person the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has recognized with the award, is best known for playing Elaine Benes in Seinfeld and foul-mouthed Vice President Selina Meyer in Veep. Tina Fey, a fellow Saturday Night Live alum and the 2010 Mark Twain recipient, praised Louis-Dreyfus for the "secret precision" of her comedy, and the flaws she uses to give her characters more punch. "Julia let Elaine be selfish and petty and sarcastic and a terrible, terrible dancer," she said. "Julia's never been afraid to be unlikable — not on screen and not in person." PBS will air the ceremony on Nov. 19.

Four American tourists and a local guide died over the weekend in a rafting accident in Costa Rica. The victims were on a bachelor party weekend adventure when three rafts carrying 18 people flipped on the Naranjo River on Saturday. Thirteen managed to hold onto the rafts, but the five victims were swept downstream. "What was meant to be a weekend to remember for 14 friends turned into a living nightmare," the survivors wrote in a statement on a GoFundMe page they set up to aid the families of the victims. The Organization of Judicial Investigations identified the dead as Ernesto Sierra, Jorge Caso, Sergio Lorenzo, and Andres Dennis. All of the men were from Florida, aged from 25 to 35. The local guide was identified as Kevin Thompson Reid.

Newly formed Hurricane Willa rapidly strengthened off Mexico's Pacific coast on Sunday. It reached major Category 4 status with maximum sustained winds near 155 miles per hour, just below Category 5 strength. The National Hurricane Center warned the "extremely dangerous" storm could make landfall by Tuesday between San Blas and Mazatlan. Forecasters said Willa could produce "life-threatening storm surge" and up to 10 inches of rain in parts of western Jalisco, western Nayarit, and southern Sinaloa states. At the same time, a weakening Tropical Storm Vicente was heading toward the same area from the south, although it was expected to weaken into a tropical depression overnight.

Halloween led the weekend box office, with the latest in the slasher-movie franchise bringing in $77.5 million in North America in its debut, Universal Pictures said Sunday. It was the second biggest horror film opening in history, behind last year's It. The film also posted the second highest October opening ever behind Venom, which brought in $80.3 million earlier this month. Venom fell from No. 1 to No. 3, while A Star is Born held firm at No. 2. Jim Orr, Universal's president of domestic distribution, said Halloween benefited from the "ridiculously potent combination" of nostalgia for the 1978 original Halloween, the return of the original star Jamie Lee Curtis, and the production success of Blumhouse Productions, which was behind the wildly successful Get Out.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.