10 things you need to know today: October 24, 2018

Mike Pompeo speaks to reporters about Khashoggi&#039;s disappearance

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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1. U.S. to revoke visas of Saudi suspects in Khashoggi killing
2. Hurricane Willa hits Mexico's Pacific coast
3. Bolton rejects calls to stay in nuclear arms treaty
4. Migrant caravan pauses in Mexico
5. Trump accuses Puerto Rico politicians of misusing hurricane relief money
6. Winning ticket from S.C. hits record $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot
7. EU rejects Italy's proposed budget over deficit
8. White nationalist leader's wife accuses him of abuse in divorce filing
9. Red Sox beat Dodgers in World Series Game 1
10. Sandra Day O'Connor leaving public life due to dementia diagnosis

published 24 October 2018

1. U.S. to revoke visas of Saudi suspects in Khashoggi killing

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Tuesday that the Trump administration is taking its first step to punish Saudi Arabia by revoking visas for the Saudi men accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The move came hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the killing of the Washington Post contributing columnist a "planned" and "brutal" murder. Pompeo said he was working with the Treasury Department on more sanctions. The Saudi government has given shifting accounts of what happened, but maintains that the country's day-to-day leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had nothing to do with Khashoggi's death. President Trump expressed growing frustration with Saudi Arabia's handling of the scandal, calling the official response "the worst cover up ever."

Hurricane Willa crashed ashore on Mexico's Pacific coast on Tuesday with top sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. The hurricane, once a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm, made landfall south of Mazatlan as a Category 3. Several cruise ships that had been headed to Mazatlan, a popular resort town, were diverted and more than 4,000 people along the coast were evacuated as locals braced for the potentially life-threatening storm surge, rainfall, and wind. The storm quickly started losing power as it headed inland, after making landfall as one of the most dangerous storms to hit Mexico in recent years. It is part of a heavy hurricane season in the eastern Pacific, where a total of 22 named storms have formed, five short of the record of 27 set in 1992.

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National Security Adviser John Bolton on Tuesday rebuffed Russia's call for the U.S. not to withdraw from a landmark nuclear arms treaty signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. Bolton said after two days of talks with Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, that the U.S. would present its official notice of the move "in due course." Germany and other U.S. allies in Europe have urged Washington to stay in the Soviet-era treaty instead of leaving after President Trump said Russia had violated the pact. The Kremlin denies any violations, and Bolton said that made it impossible for the two countries to work out their differences.

A caravan of an estimated 7,000 Central American migrants crossing Mexico en route to the U.S. paused on Tuesday in honor of a Honduran man who fell from a vehicle and died. A mobile medical clinic truck arrived in the southern Mexican town of Huixtla to treat people in the caravan, and locals set up portable toilets for the migrants in the corner of the town's central plaza. A smaller caravan earlier this year gradually dissipated on its way north, and only 200 out of 1,200 reached the California border. Mexico's interior department said the same could happen this time, as more than 1,000 people already requested asylum in Mexico and others have splintered off or turned back. President Trump on Monday blamed Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador for not stopping the migrants from leaving, and vowed to cut the countries' U.S. aid.

President Trump on Tuesday claimed that the "inept politicians" of Puerto Rico are trying to use the "massive and ridiculously high amounts" of disaster relief funding they have received to "pay off other obligations." He didn't provide any evidence to back up his statement. Puerto Rico is on track to receive $80 billion over the next 15 years to restore the island following devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. Neither the island's leaders nor members of the federal board that coordinated a new financial reform plan have proposed spending the $80 billion on anything other than recovery efforts. "The U.S. will NOT bail out long outstanding & unpaid obligations with hurricane relief money," Trump wrote on Twitter.

One winning ticket sold in South Carolina matched the six winning numbers in the Tuesday night drawing for the record $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot. South Carolina Education Lottery spokesperson Holli Armstrong said the details on the winner and the location where the ticket was purchased were not being immediately released due to "security procedures." Another 36 tickets matched the five white balls, good for $1 million prizes. "A million dollars is life changing. But a billion dollars is extraordinary," said Mega Millions host John Crow. The winning numbers were 5, 28, 62, 65, 70, and Mega Ball 5. The jackpot had been growing since a group of California office workers won $543 million in July.

The European Union on Tuesday for the first time sent back a member state's proposed budget, rejecting the spending plan of Italy's populist government because it violated the bloc's fiscal laws and would "suffocate" Italy. The European Commission repeatedly told Italy it would have to cut its 2019 deficit or face heavy fines, but Italy's leaders stuck with a proposed deficit of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product, even though Italy's total debt is already double the eurozone limit at 131 percent of GDP. Luigi Di Maio, Italy's vice premier and the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, wrote on Facebook after the rejection: "We know that we are on the right path, and therefore we won't stop."

The wife of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer accused him of being "physically, emotionally, verbally, and financially abusive" during their marriage, according to divorce filings in Montana first reported by BuzzFeed on Tuesday. Nina Koupriianova, who married Spencer in August 2010, described "being hit, being grabbed, being dragged around by her hair, being held down in a manner causing bruising, and being prevented from calling for help." Koupriianova, who has two young children with Spencer, said she was reluctant to call police because she feared reprisals. She also said Spencer's "controversial public life" put the family in danger, and that he kept a loaded weapon in a place "accessible by children." Spencer denies the allegations.

The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 in Game 1 of the World Series in Boston on Tuesday. The Red Sox got a lift from hits by Andrew Benintendi, J.D. Martinez, and Eduardo Nunez. Benintendi racked up four hits, Martinez contributed by driving in two early runs, and pinch-hitter Nunez hit a three-run homerun to put the game out of reach for the Dodgers. Mookie Betts' single set up a two-run first inning for the Red Sox. "It was important for us to score first and kind of put some pressure on them," he said. The teams meet again Wednesday for Game 2.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said Tuesday that she was diagnosed "some time ago" with "the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer's disease." This "condition has progressed," and now O'Connor says she is "no longer able to participate in public life." The 88-year-old was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. "As a young cowgirl from the Arizona desert," she wrote in a statement, "I never could have imagined that one day I would become the first woman justice." She retired from the court in 2005, but remained devoted to advancing "civic learning and engagement," even founding a free online learning platform called iCivics.

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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.