Bedugul Coffee: Monday Morning Briefing: Saudi calls Khashoggi killing a 'grave mistake'

Highlights

Saudi Arabia called the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate a “huge and grave mistake,” but sought to shield its powerful crown prince from the widening crisis, saying Mohammed bin Salman had not been aware.

Foreigners sold a net 4.01 billion riyals ($1.07 billion) in Saudi stocks in the week ending Oct. 18, exchange data showed on Sunday - one of the biggest selloffs since the market opened to direct foreign buying in mid-2015.

Saudi Arabia has no intention of unleashing a 1973-style oil embargo on Western consumers and will isolate oil from politics, the Saudi energy minister said amid a worsening crisis over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would withdraw from a landmark Cold War-era treaty that eliminated nuclear missiles from Europe because Russia was violating the pact, triggering a warning of retaliatory measures from Moscow.

World

Photo essay: Some people in the Syrian capital Damascus have been able to enjoy a semblance of normality since fighting in the area ended in May, but in the rubble of shattered, destitute towns nearby, life could not be more different.

A U.S.-bound caravan of thousands of mostly Honduran migrants whom President Donald Trump has declared unwelcome, crowded into the Mexican border city of Tapachula on Sunday, setting up impromptu camps in public spaces under a heavy rain.

The outlook for global growth in 2019 has dimmed for the first time, according to Reuters polls of economists who said the U.S.-China trade war and tightening financial conditions would trigger the next downturn.

Japan’s government on Monday told Facebook to better protect its users’ personal data following lapses this year affecting tens of millions of people globally.

Commentary: Online political culture wars are threatening traditional media as well as mainstream parties, writes columnist John Lloyd. The friction between leftists who have become intolerant of sharp debate and rightists who are testing the boundaries of speech and humor "spills over into political choice. And if it becomes an even more powerful force in the news media, it will course through our politics like a hurricane, destroying old media and the politics that went with them – and creating a new political landscape which we can only now glimpse."