Time - USA (2021-03-15)

14 TIME March 15/March 22, 2021

TheBrief News

IN NEWLY DECLASSIFIED DETAIL, THE WORLD

can now read why the CIA believes Saudi Crown

Prince Mohammed bin Salman dispatched the

15-man hit squad that killed and dismembered

Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi

in 2018. MBS, as the prince is known, “viewed

Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom,” the re-

port asserts, and “broadly supported using vio-

lent measures if necessary to silence him.” The

plot, which saw Khashoggi lured to his death

at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, turned MBS

from a fi gure many hoped would modernize

Saudi Arabia into an international pariah.

But public shaming is where President

Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to hold MBS—

who denies ordering Khashoggi’s murder—

accountable appears to end. On Feb. 26, his

Administration announced new sanctions

and travel restrictions for dozens of MBS’s

alleged henchmen, but punishment of the

35-year-old de facto ruler is limited to bruis-

ing his ego. U.S. offi cials say they won’t be in-

viting him to visit anytime soon, and Biden

isn’t taking his calls, communicating instead

with his father, 85-year-old King Salman bin

Abdulaziz Al Saud. (MBS will have to make

do with conversing with the Pentagon chief.)

The slap on the wrist sparked immediate

criticism in Washington from lawmakers and

human-rights activists who want to see MBS

charged—or even, somehow, ousted from

PLAYTIME

Driving diversity

Hasbro announced Feb. 25 that it will drop

“Mr.” and “Mrs.” titles from an upcoming

Potato Head play set so everyone can

feel “welcome in the Potato Head world.”

Here, more toys updated for inclusion and

representation. ÑMadeleine Carlisle

CHANGING TONES

Crayola launched its Colors

of the World crayon box set in

May 2020, releasing new colors

meant to refl ect over 40 skin

tones from around the world.

The line has since expanded to

pencils and markers.

A DOLL FOR ALL

Mattel, the maker of Barbie, launched

its fi rst line of gender-neutral dolls

in 2019. A company spokesperson

said that it was time for a “line free

of labels” and that Mattel hoped

the new toys would help kids freely

express themselves.

F IGHTING WORDS

After a 6-year-old girl wrote to

ask why none of its iconic green

army soldiers were female, BMC

Toys decided to launch its fi rst

line of Plastic Army Women,

available in four military poses,

in December 2020.

NEWS

TICKER

Hong Kong

charges 47

under new law

In the most forceful

use yet of Hong Kong’s

new and wide-ranging

national- security law,

authorities charged

47 pro-democracy

figures on Feb. 28with

“conspiracy to commit

subversion,” carrying

a potential sentence

of life imprisonment.

The defendants

include activist Joshua

Wong and former law

professor Benny Tai.

Biden backs

unions amid

Amazon vote

In a Feb. 28 tweet,

President Joe Biden

expressed support for

employees in Alabama,

where Amazon

warehouse workers

are currently voting on

whether to become the

first unionized Amazon

facility in the U.S.

Every American worker

“should have a free

and fair choice to join a

union,” Biden wrote.

10 arrested

in Barcelona

protests

Ten people were

arrested in Barcelona

on Feb. 27 during

protests over the arrest

and conviction of a

rapper for glorifying

terrorism and insulting

royalty in his lyrics.

Pablo Hasel’s arrest

on Feb. 16 has since

sparked sometimes

violent protests in

Barcelona and Madrid,

and a debate over

freedom of expression.

power—for the killing. But the Biden Adminis-

tration has evidently calculated it has too much

at stake to alienate Riyadh; State Department

spokesman Ned Price described the diplomatic

slights “not as a rupture, but as a recalibration.”

Saudi Arabia is central to ongoing U.S. ef-

forts to off set Iran’s expansionist ambitions in

the Middle East, to continue to strengthen ties

between Israel and the Arab world, and to help

Washington fi ght the violent extremism Ri-

yadh’s fundamentalist clerics have been accused

of helping foster. The nation hosts key U.S. mili-

tary and intelligence posts, and buys billions

in U.S. military equipment, even after a recent

Biden ban on off ensive weapons sales to the

country to stop MBS’s increasingly bloody cam-

paign in Yemen. “Militarily speaking, we have

obligations there in Saudi Arabia, and we’re

going to continue to meet those,” Pentagon

spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Indeed,

Saudi news agencies reported that Saudi and

U.S. troops began a joint training exercise just

two days after the Khashoggi report’s release.

Biden offi cials hope the diplomatic snubs

are just enough to distinguish Biden from Don-

ald Trump’s coddling of the kingdom—and to

keep MBS from lashing out at other journalists

and dissidents. Saudi analyst Ali Shihabi says

the rising royal does feel insulted, and could

turn to Beijing both to hedge his bets and to

salve his battered pride if he continues to come

under attack from Washington. “But if this is

put behind us, he will forget about it,” Shihabi

says. Biden’s team appears to have calculated

that most Americans, coping with COVID-19’s

chaos at home, have already done just that.

—KIMBERLY DOZIER and W.J. HENNIGAN

GOOD QUESTION

Why isn’t the U.S.

sanctioning Mohammed

bin Salman?

HASBRO