After more than two weeks of denials, Saudi Arabia has admitted that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Saudi state television said he died after a fight broke out inside the consulate. It said eighteen Saudi nationals had been arrested. Two senior officials have been sacked, the deputy intelligence chief and a royal court adviser. Here's Jon Donnison. Saudi Arabia will be hoping this partial admission will help to damp down international anger. That is unlikely. No mention was made of what happened to Mr. Khashoggi's body, which Turkish officials have said was cut up and disposed of. And the role of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, wasn't addressed either despite allegations a number of his personal body guards were involved. Instead, state media reported the Crown Prince had been asked to oversee a restructuring of the country's general intelligence agency.
President Trump has praised the Saudi authorities, describing the announcement on Mr. Khashoggi's death as a good first step. He said Saudi Arabia had acted quicker than many had expected, but he said he would be careful about imposing sanctions. I would prefer, if there is going to be some form of sanction or what we may determine to do, if anything, but I would prefer that we don't use as retributioncanceling 110 billion dollars worth of work, which means 600,000 jobs. I know it sounds easy and it sounds good. And a lot of people have said oh, let's just not sell them 110-billion order. I guess you take it a step further. Let's not sell them four hundred and fifty billion, which is the largest order in the history of our country.
The United States has charged a Russian woman with conspiring to interfere in its political system, including an attempt to influence next month's congressional elections. Jane O'Brien in Washington has more details. 44-year-old Elena Khusyaynova has become the first foreign national to be charged in connection with a Russian funded conspiracy to sow discord in the US political system ahead of the midterm elections. It's alleged she managed the 35-million-dollar budget of an online campaign known as Project Lakhta, which pushed misinformation about contentious topics including immigration and gun control. Unnamed conspirators used social media to promote a variety of opposing views in an effort to exploit existing divisions. Prosecutors say only a portion of the money was targeted at the US.
