The CIA has "high confidence" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, officials first told The Washington Post.
The CIA reportedly drew its evidence from, among other things, a phone call between Khashoggi and bin Salman's brother Khalid bin Salman, in which Khalid told Khashoggi to visit the Saudi consulate where he was killed. The crown prince told Khalid to make the call, per the Post. A team of 15 Saudi operatives then reportedly flew via government airplane to Istanbul for the murder.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 17 Saudis it said were "involved in" Khashoggi's murder earlier this week. But this is furthest the U.S. has gone toward implicating Saudi Arabia for the crime, per reports from multiple sources.
Khashoggi was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, and Turkey has long maintained the Saudi government was responsible. Saudi Arabia once said the murder was a predetermined rogue operation, but shifted to say it was a random killing when announcing charges against 11 alleged perpetrators earlier this week. Bin Salman is close with President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and some have suggested the Trump administration avoided implicating Saudi Arabia to preserve an alliance with the country.
A spokeswoman for America's Saudi consulate told the Post that the CIA's claims in its "purported assessment are false." Kathryn Krawczyk
Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall on Wednesday near Atasta in the Mexican state of Campeche, bringing heavy rain that is expected to last through Thursday.
The storm formed Tuesday from the remnants of Pacific Tropical Storm Amanda, which left 22 people dead in Guatemala and El Salvador. At least 138 people were evacuated from Campeche by the Mexican army, due to high floodwaters. Forecasters say Cristobal will likely become a tropical depression by Thursday, before moving back to the Gulf of Mexico on Friday.
Cristobal could reach the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center said "the model guidance currently suggests that the atmospheric environment over the Gulf will not be very conducive for strengthening." Catherine Garcia
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is calling President Trump's threat to send the military to major cities "just another zig and zag deflection from the administration."
On Monday, Trump warned that if governors and mayors didn't do enough to quell protests, he would send "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officials" to cities. Newsom brushed aside the threat, telling reporters on Wednesday, "It won't happen. It's not going to happen. We would reject it. We would push back against that."
Following requests from mayors like Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Newsom has deployed 2,600 California National Guard troops to some parts of the state. Catherine Garcia
AMC, the largest theater chain in the U.S., said Wednesday it may not be able to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
AMC theaters were shut down in March, and the chain said in a regulatory filing that it has enough cash to reopen all of them in the summer, but if that can't happen, it will need more money.
The company listed several concerns, including whether customers are even going to want to return to theaters during the pandemic. Since March, some new movies have been released to streaming platforms for at-home viewing, and AMC and other theater chains are worried this practice will continue in the future. Because Hollywood has stopped production on movies, it will also take time before there are full slates of new films.
Due to all of this, AMC expressed "substantial doubt" of its "ability to continue" for an extended period of time. The company has 1,000 theaters in the U.S. and Europe. Catherine Garcia
In a stinging rebuke, Former Defense Secretary James Mattis criticized President Trump's response to peaceful protests, saying he is "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."
Mattis, a retired Marine general, resigned in 2018 in response to Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from eastern Syria. He broke his silence on Trump's behavior Wednesday, telling The Atlantic in a statement that watching protesters get tear gassed in Lafayette Square and hearing Trump threaten to use the military to crush demonstrations left him "angry and appalled."
The protests are "defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation," he said. The forceful removal of demonstrators in Lafayette Square for Trump's "bizarre" photo op in front of St. John's Church was an "abuse of executive authority," he said, and "we must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution."
The country can still come together without Trump, "drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society," Mattis said. It won't be easy, "but we owe it to our fellow citizens, to past generations that bled to defend our promise, and to our children." Read more at The Atlantic. Catherine Garcia
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) will announce on Thursday plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Monument Avenue in Richmond, an administration official told The Washington Post.
The statue, erected in 1890, will be put into storage. There are several monuments to the Confederacy along the avenue, and all have been spray painted during this week's demonstrations against racism and police brutality. Only the Lee statue is under state control, but Virginia's General Assembly passed a bill earlier this year that gives localities the authority to choose what happens to Confederate monuments on their property, and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Wednesday said his administration will introduce an ordinance on July 1 to remove all such statues on Monument Avenue.
"Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy," Stoney said in a statement. "It is filled with diversity and love for all — and we need to demonstrate that." Other Confederate statues have already been removed in Alexandria, Virginia, and Birmingham, Alabama. Catherine Garcia