Morning Report

TODAY’S WHITE HOUSE story

Trump shrugs off Khashoggi murder, backs Saudi prince

What happened
President Donald Trump yesterday warmly welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Oval Office, and assailed a reporter who asked about the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives. The CIA concluded that the crown prince, known as MBS, ordered Khashoggi’s death, but Trump said the Saudi leader “knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking” such a “horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question,” he told ABC News’ Mary Bruce, adding that ABC’s broadcast “license should be taken away.”

Who said what
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said of Khashoggi. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” Trump wasn’t “merely glossing over” the journalist’s murder, CNN said. He “took offense” that the subject was even raised during “what he intended to be a splashy show of respect” for the Saudi ruler. The grand welcome and lavish dinner laid on for MBS was “more typical” for the leader of an “allied Western democracy” than an “absolute monarchy with a troubled human rights record,” said CBS News.

The U.S. government “often advances its national interests by working with nasty people,” and MBS “is one of the nastiest,” The Washington Post said in an editorial. But Trump’s performance yesterday was “something else entirely: weak, crass and of no strategic benefit to America.” His “distortions dishonor Khashoggi’s legacy,” and “no doubt other dictators took note” of Trump’s “debility” with the Saudi leader.

What next?
Trump and MBS are scheduled to participate in an investment conference at the Kennedy Center today, after which the crown prince was expected to depart the U.S.

TODAY’S ELECTIONS Story

Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymander

What happened
A panel of federal judges in El Paso ruled 2-1 yesterday that the new Texas congressional map drawn up at the behest of President Donald Trump was likely an illegal racial gerrymander. Texas Republicans engineered the map to add five GOP seats to their slim House majority, setting off a nationwide redistricting fight. The court ordered Texas to use its 2021 congressional map in next year’s midterm elections.

Who said what
Texas Republicans said publicly they were drawing the new districts for partisan reasons, as allowed by the Supreme Court, but “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, said in his 160-page opinion. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and the GOP-led state Legislature adopted “racial objectives” laid out by Justice Department civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon in a “legally incorrect” July 7 letter that was “challenging to unpack” because it “contains so many factual, legal, and typographical errors.”

The ruling was a “stinging setback” for Trump and Republicans, who initially had the “upper hand” in their “unusual” mid-decade gerrymander push, The Washington Post said. But “state-level backlash, Democrats’ big Election Day win for California’s redistricting measure and this court ruling have cut into that advantage,” Politico said. Trump now “stands to end the fight he began behind or near a draw,” leaving Republicans “wondering whether the nationwide remapping effort was worth the political capital.”

What next?
Abbot’s “quick appeal” of the ruling “will give the Supreme Court the last word on which maps the state uses,” The Wall Street Journal said. But the window for Texas congressional candidates to file closes Dec. 8.

It’s not all bad

Cameran Drew recently won a seat on the Surry County Board of Supervisors in Virginia, and his opponent couldn’t be happier. The 19-year-old defeated the incumbent, his former high school civics teacher Kenneth Bell, by eight votes. Bell’s “guidance” is what “helped me and prepared me so much for this moment,” Drew said to CBS News. It was a “brave step” for Drew to enter the race, said Bell, and he’s “so proud” of his former student.

Under the radar

God is now just one text away, thanks to AI

Churches are enlisting the help of AI to “stay relevant in the face of shrinking staff, empty pews and growing online audiences,” said Axios. Some houses of worship are employing the tools in “mundane ways,” like to “answer frequently asked questions such as service times and event details” or “feeding congregation attendance data into AI software to help them tailor outreach.”

But AI is also being used as a way to convey otherworldly messages. The technology can let people feel “they are talking to a divine power, clergy member or deceased person,” said Axios. For example, the app Text With Jesus quotes the Bible and lets users ask questions of “Jesus.” There are also “Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Islamic chatbots,” said Brian Owens at Nature. One church in Phoenix, Arizona, played an AI-generated beyond-the-grave message from Charlie Kirk, who told congregants his “soul is secure in Christ.”

Some pastors use AI technology to draft sermons, claiming these homilies “not only draw on a wealth of sources, but also leave more time for pastoral care,” Deena Prichep told NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. The “goal of a sermon is basically to tell a story that can break open the hearts of people to a holy message. So does it matter where that comes from?”

AI bots and other tools are “addressing an access problem,” said The New York Times. Many people have “longed for spiritual guidance, and have had to travel to reach spiritual leaders.” Now, “chatbots are at a user’s fingertips.”

On this day

November 19, 1969

Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean became the third and fourth humans on the moon, during NASA’s second crewed lunar landing. No people have landed on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, but the U.S. and China are in a race to return, with both countries planning crewed missions by the end of the decade.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Pomp and deference’

“Trump defends Saudi prince over journalist’s killing,” The Washington Post says on Wednesday’s front page. “Trump rolls out red carpet for Saudi,” says The Boston Globe. “Pomp and deference for Saudi royal,” The New York Times says. “Meta wins FTC suit alleging it is a monopoly,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Trump administration escalates effort to dissolve Education Dept.” says the Los Angeles Times. “Border Patrol arrests 130 in 2 days in Charlotte,” as “critics call for boycott of company that provided ICE vehicles,” says The Charlotte Observer. “Memphis National Guard deployment on hold” as “troop count was expected to ramp up,” says The Commercial Appeal. “Weather deaths tied more to cold” than “heat,” says USA Today.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Walk ’n’ wool

Hundreds of sheep temporarily took over the streets of downtown Nuremberg, Germany, on Sunday as they made their way out of the city to their winter quarters. Thomas Gackstatter led his flock of 600 sheep on a six-mile trek to the countryside, cutting through the central square as bystanders watched and filmed the procession. Over the summer, the sheep lived in different meadows around Nuremberg, eating the grass and keeping the lawns naturally mowed.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.