The Financial Times, Reuters, BBC, the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Times report on the continued backlash from the international community over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and US President Donald Trump’s affirmation of US-Saudi Arabia relations in a statement on Tuesday. The Financial Times reports that President Trump, seeking to draw a line under the killing of Khashoggi  announced that “we may never know” all the facts of the case as he said the US would remain a “steadfast” partner of Saudi Arabia. President Trump said US intelligence agencies would continue “to assess all information”, adding: “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” In the statement, the president emphasised close economic ties between the two countries, and said the kingdom had agreed to spend and invest $450bn in the US, including a vaunted $110bn on the purchase of military equipment from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and “many other great US defence contractors”. The Times reports that in his statement, Trump placed the stability of US-Saudi relations above the murder. Reuters reports that Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu  is not entirely satisfied with the level of cooperation Turkey is receiving from Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi and may seek a formal United Nations inquiry if its liaison with Riyadh reaches an impasse. Speaking to reporters in Washington after meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Cavusoglu said Turkey has shared the latest information on the Khashoggi killing with the United States and repeated Ankara’s stance that the truth had to come out on who gave the orders to kill the journalist. The BBC reports that Republican and Democratic leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday sent a letter demanding a second investigation into the murder. In the letter, Senators asked the investigation to specify the Saudi Crown Prince’s role in the murder and “determine whether a foreign person is responsible for an extrajudicial killing, torture or other gross violation” of human rights. The Telegraph reports that a transcript of a tape recording of Khashoggi’s final minutes has been leaked, in which one of the alleged killers is heard calling him a “traitor”. The 11-minute audio, the contents of which are revealed for the first time, was released on Monday evening by Turkish news website Haberturk.”Let my hand go. Who do you think you are? Why are you doing this?” the report quotes Khashoggi as saying, as several members of an alleged 15-man “hit squad” accost him as soon as he enters the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2.”You traitor! Your day of judgment has come!” a man alleged to be Maher Mutreb, the suspected coordinator of the mission who worked for some time in the kingdom’s embassy in London, is quoted as replying to the Washington Post columnist.

The Financial Times and Reuters report that the US is targeting an Iran-Russia network sending oil to Syria. The Financial Times reports that the US Treasury has accused a network of Russian companies, including a state-run enterprise, of helping to ship Iranian oil to the Syrian government in defiance of US sanctions. Announcing that it would freeze the assets of at least two senior officials of the Central Bank of Iran, senior US officials said “millions of barrels” of Iranian oil had been shipped to Syria on vessels that had switched off their identification systems to avoid detection. Russia-based Global Vision Group, owned by Syrian national Mohammad Amer Alchwiki, worked with a subsidiary of the Russian Ministry of Energy, Promsyryoimport, to facilitate the shipments, the US said.  Reuters reports that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, announcing the sanctions commented; “Today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activity”.

The Daily Mail and Reuters report on the Israeli response to the Airbnb settlement ban. The Daily Mail reports that Israel has stepped up its boycott fight after the ban. Israel, on Tuesday, said it would slap high taxes on vacation rental company Airbnb and encourage legal steps against the site over its decision to ban listings from West Bank settlements. Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin called on Airbnb to reverse what he called a “discriminatory decision” and “disgraceful surrender” to the boycott movement, vowing that Israel would retaliate.” If you have a policy of discrimination against Israelis you cannot earn money in Israel,” he told The Associated Press. He also said the government would encourage hosts in West Bank settlements to sue the company to make it “pay” for its decision. Levin added that Israel would impose other restrictions on Airbnb’s operations in the country, without elaborating. Reuters reports that Israel plans to consult with the US government over the Airbnb decision. “We will approach the US government because 25 US states have sanctions against American companies that boycott Israel,” Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said on Israeli Army Radio that Airbnb “will have to explain why it is taking this discriminatory and racist line here in particular and not in other conflict zones in the world.”

The Guardian, BBC and the Telegraph report on Yemen. The Guardian reports that vicious fighting, described by residents as the worst so far, has flared up in Yemen’s vital port city, Hodeidah, despite calls for a ceasefire from the UN and promises from both the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels to consider a truce. A lull in combat was shattered on Monday night by intense street fighting that was edging towards the city centre and at least 12 coalition airstrikes on eastern districts, locals said. The jets were met with Houthi anti-aircraft fire. “We are facing indiscriminate bombing from both sides,” said local Ibrahim Seif. The Telegraph and the BBC report that some 85,000 children under the age of five in Yemen may have died from hunger, according to Save the Children. The charity, using data compiled by the United Nations, calculated that even by a conservative estimate 84,700 children with severe acute malnutrition may have died between April 2015 and last month. The UN has warned that up to 14 million people are still at risk of famine, a figure the charity says increased dramatically after the Saudi-led coalition imposed a month-long blockade of Yemen just over a year ago. Since then, commercial imports of food through Yemen’s main port in Hodeidah have declined by more than 55,000 metric tonnes a month – enough to feed four million. Save the Children says any further decline in imports would be likely to lead directly to famine.

The Telegraph reports that Netflix has committed a major faux pax in Jordan, transforming a street in the capital Amman into an Israeli street and sparking an outpouring of anger from Jordanians hostile to Israel. The set featured Hebrew-language street signs, cars with Israeli number plates and actors dressed as Israel Defence Force soldiers. The scenes were constructed over the weekend to portray Tel Aviv.

Maariv reports that opposition parties Meretz, the Zionist Union and Yisrael Beiteinu intend to introduce three bills to dissolve the Knesset today, the paper reports that at the very least, the opposition will succeed in forcing the coalition to scramble after it suffered ‘a stinging series of setbacks’ in the Knesset plenum on Monday. Coalition officials decided to cancel all scheduled trips overseas by MKs and to cancel pairing agreements between the coalition and the opposition. Prime Minister Netanyahu will also be forced to attend all the plenary debates. Only a relative majority is needed to pass a bill to dissolve the Knesset in a preliminary reading and in a second reading. However, even if a bill of that kind is passed today, it will need an absolute majority of 61 MKs to be approved in its third reading. Sources in the opposition said that if it became evident that the opposition would be unable to get a majority for those bills, it would withdraw the bills and would not put them to a vote. The reason is clear: if a bill is voted down, it cannot be reintroduced for a six-month period.

Maariv and Haaretz report that the police have found enough evidence against Shas leader and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of fraud, breach of trust and tax evasion. Israel Hayom argues that none of his fellow party members and coalition partners have called on him to resign, which “is the result of the current political constellations in place within Shas and the narrow coalition…the current rabbinical leadership of Shas is unstable and weak and Deri remains the all-powerful and irreplaceable boss. The only thing that might change that state of affairs is a conviction. Not even an indictment, certainly not a police recommendation.”

Kan Radio News reports the Palestinian man who allegedly stabbed an Israeli man south of Jerusalem yesterday gave himself up to Border Police officers at the Rahel crossing and was taken in for questioning. The Palestinian, a man in his 20s from Deheisheh, stabbed a 35 year-old Israeli man who was leaving a store in Beit Jala, and fled. The victim sustained light injuries.

Haaretz reports comments by US President Trump who said his administration will remain a partner with Saudi Arabia.

Maariv reports that “in what appears to be the beginning of the Likud’s election campaign, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev issued a scathing attack against the former chief of staff, Benny Gantz, and drew a link between the “anemones speech” he gave while chief of staff and the death of a four-year-old boy, Daniel Tragerman, in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Regev’s remarks drew numerous rebukes. Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni commented on Regev’s statements, saying: “When the culture minister creates linkage between the statements of the former chief of staff and the murder of the boy, Daniel Tragerman, she has a back that goes by the name of the prime minister, who allows those awful things to be said. The political dance on the blood—beginning with counting the murder victims in terror attacks and ascribing them to Oslo and up until today—must stop.”

Yediot Ahronoth reports that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is contemplating the possibility of initiating criminal proceedings against Airbnb, which announced that it would delete apartment listings in the settlements from its database. Shaked believes that Airbnb’s decision violates the law prohibiting discrimination in providing products and services and has asked the attorney general to consider an indictment. The law states that anyone who provides a public service or a product cannot discriminate on the basis of location.