Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Banksy: Your Friday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/briefing/saudi-arabia-afghanistan-banksy.html

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Good morning. President Trump on Jamal Khashoggi, a major attack in Afghanistan and a reason to stay out of the water 150 million years ago.

Here’s the latest:

• Assigning blame in the Khashoggi case.

President Trump told The Times he believed that Jamal Khashoggi, the missing dissident Saudi journalist, was dead.

In another shift, he expressed confidence in intelligence reports pointing to high-level Saudi involvement.

The news came as Saudi Arabia was considering blaming a top intelligence official, Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, for the killing, according to three people with knowledge of the plans. General Assiri is an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and blaming him could be a bid to deflect scrutiny from the crown prince.

Turkish officials released one of their most striking pieces of evidence yet: a photograph of a frequent companion of the crown prince’s entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul the day Mr. Khashoggi disappeared.

In the U.S., Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin withdrew from the investor conference in Riyadh next week.

And we spoke to Mr. Khashoggi’s editor at The Washington Post, Karen Attiah, who has emerged as a leading voice of protest and grief. “It’s been exhausting,” she said.

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• A devastating Taliban attack in Afghanistan.

Two top leaders in Kandahar Province were assassinated in an attack that narrowly missed the top American commander in the country, Gen. Austin Miller. Above, one of the victims, the police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq. Accounts suggested it was an inside job.

The attack came just two days before national elections that have already been marred by violence; at least 10 candidates and dozens of their supporters have been killed.

With no clear path for the 17-year Afghan war and an unsustainable number of security forces dying, the country is experiencing an existential crisis.

Adding to the tension: The U.S. has held quiet negotiations with the Taliban, blindsiding the Afghan president.

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• A prank misfires.

Banksy wanted his painting “Girl With Balloon” to go all the way through a shredder, not stop halfway — as it did last week, to the shock of onlookers, immediately after it was auctioned off for $1.4 million by Sotheby’s in London.

That’s the story the street artist, whose identity remains mysterious, told in a video posted to YouTube.

The shredder was hidden in the frame. In rehearsals, paper copies of the painting were fully cut to ribbons. But the version that went on auction was canvas, perhaps jamming the shredder.

Banksy denied that Sotheby’s was in on the stunt.

The buyer kept the art, which is now called “Love Is in the Bin” and might be worth much more.

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• A prehistoric predator.

Some 150 million years ago, what is now southern Germany was a shallow tropical sea. Under the surface, a piranha-like fish was prowling.

Researchers have found the fossil of a creature with razor-sharp teeth that they think ripped chunks of flesh, especially fins, from other fish.

The finding represents the earliest record of flesh-eating in bony fish and may cause scientists to rethink the predatory practices of this group.

• China reported its slowest economic growth since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009: 6.5 percent in the last quarter. Above, a mall in Beijing.

• Singapore, India and France could become major players in A.I., challenging U.S. and Chinese dominance in the space. And here’s a glossary of A.I. jargon.

• Their numbers remain small, but more women are being trained in automotive design. One woman who paved the way for them: Raye Montague, a pioneering female designer of U.S. Navy ships who also advised automakers. She died this month at 83.

• Sears, the U.S. retail chain, went bankrupt under the leadership of the financier Edward Lampert. He told us how he got it wrong.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• Meeting with Pope Francis, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, above left, relayed an invitation for a visit to North Korea from the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The Vatican has been silent on whether the pope will accept. [The New York Times]

• Meanwhile, the Trump administration banned American aid workers from entering North Korea, one of the world’s poorest countries, as part of its pressure campaign to get the nation to denuclearize. [The New York Times]

• For three decades, hundreds of children went to a doctor at a prominent New York hospital because they were not growing. Now he is accused of sexually abusing many of them, and the hospital says it knew. [The New York Times]

• Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing France Unbowed party, was questioned by the French police in two investigations into party spending. [BBC News]

• Hungary has removed gender studies, a subject the conservative government scorns, from the list of available master’s programs. [DW]

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

• 10 to 14 percent of car trips during morning rush hour are for school. Want to cut your emissions and save some time? Put kids on the bus instead.

• Traveling soon? Here are five things you should leave behind.

• Recipe of the day: Master a classic dessert this weekend: apple pie.

• Long derided as relics of an oppressive regime, Poland’s Communist-era Brutalist buildings are getting a second look, and a new life.

• Reflections of a #MeToo leader: Tarana Burke started the original Me Too movement more than a decade ago on MySpace. She spoke to us about the movement’s future, the #HimToo backlash and advice for survivors. And in Opinion, we asked men to share stories of past bad behavior toward women.

• Okwui Enwezor was hired to run the Haus der Kunst, one of Germany’s most important contemporary art museums, with fanfare in 2011. But in the wake of his exit in June, questions arose about his tenure.

• In memoriam: Ara Guler, a Turkish photographer who lovingly chronicled a bygone Istanbul.

You could track Canada’s road to legalizing marijuana from many starting points.

A major one came in 2013, when Justin Trudeau saw someone holding a sign advocating decriminalizing marijuana in British Columbia. “I’m actually not in favor of decriminalizing cannabis,” Mr. Trudeau said without prompting. “I’m in favor of legalizing it — tax and regulate.”

At the time, his prospects of becoming prime minister seemed remote. But two years later, he defied expectations and came to power. On Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau’s promise became reality as legal sales of recreational marijuana began in Canada.

Over the past five years, Mr. Trudeau carefully avoided suggesting that using marijuana was a good idea. He acknowledged having smoked it about a half-dozen times but maintained that he never really liked it.

Instead, he and members of his cabinet focused on other benefits. A tightly regulated system, they argued, could keep marijuana away from children and put billions of dollars into government budgets and legitimate companies, rather than enrich biker gangs and other members of organized crime. Criminal records for minor possession would end.

On the whole it worked. And on Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau continued to talk about regulation rather than strolling out for a ceremonial legal toke in front of the Parliament buildings.

Our Canada correspondent Ian Austen wrote today’s Back Story.

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