Sunday's world stories
Report: Saudi officials sought to use private companies to kill enemies
Top Saudi officials, including deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri, who was blamed and fired last month for allegedly ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, inquired about assassinating the kingdom's Iranian enemies during a meeting with private businessmen in March 2017, reports the New York Times.
The big picture: The meeting was part of an effort by a group of international businessman to pitch the Saudis on an operation to sabotage Iran's economy. During the discussion, Saudi officials reportedly asked about killing Qassem Soleimani, a general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but were rejected by the businessmen's lawyer. Per the Times, the episode highlights the fact that more than a year before the killing of Khashoggi, officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had increasingly become interested in carrying out high-risk, covert operations targeting the kingdom's enemies.
Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will be published "soon"
White House Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt said in a speech at a closed event in London earlier this week that the U.S. "will soon be ready to publish" President Trump's long awaited plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, people who attended the event told me.
Timing: On September 26th, Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York and said he will release his peace plan within two to four months. This means the plan could be release as soon as the beginning of December. White House officials declined to say what Greenblatt meant when he said "soon." However, the main challenge for Trump's "peace team" is the fact the Palestinians have cut ties with the White House over the moving of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
The scientists caught between the U.S. and China
The escalating U.S. fear of Beijing's spies chipping away at the American tech edge has a new focus: Chinese scientists who are recruited to return to their homeland.
Driving the news: China is making its Thousand Talents Plan — a widely publicized government program that has lured an estimated 7,000 Chinese scientists back home to date — disappear, reports Nature. The program has been wiped from government sites, and interviewers have reportedly been instructed no longer to mention the initiative by name when speaking with prospective recruits.