美国有线新闻 CNN 特朗普谈记者失踪案称将严惩沙特 土耳其释放美国牧师

First story we're explaining today is how the mysterious disappearance 1 of a journalist is having ripple 2 effects around the world. Jamal Khashoggi is a columnist 3 for the Washington Post. He's been living in Washington, D.C. He's originally from Saudi Arabia and he used to be an advisor 4 to the Saudi government. But he became critical of that government and wrote critical columns about it in the Post. On October 2nd, Khashoggi was Istanbul, Turkey. He was visiting the Saudi Consulate 5 there to get paperwork that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee. That's the last time he was seen.

Turkish officials say Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi's home country that he had criticized is responsible for his disappearance and possibly his murder.

Saudi Arabia's government says it hasn't been involved in any way in Khashoggi's disappearance and says he left the Saudi Consulate on the afternoon he visited it. But while Saudi Arabia and Turkey have formed a team to investigate, international pressure's been heating up. U.S. President Donald Trump 6 has threatened severe punishment for Saudi Arabia if it's government is found to be responsible for Khashoggi's murder. Saudi Arabia's government says it would respond to any action against it with even greater action.

Britain, France and Germany are also pushing Saudi Arabia for answers related to Khashoggi's disappearance. With all this going on a significant event just took place involving the U.S. and Turkey. Andrew Brunson was released from a Turkish prison. He's an American pastor 7 who'd lived and worked in Turkey for more than 23 years but he was arrested in March 2016 and accused of being involved in a failed coup 8 in Turkey. American officials and activists 9 said Pastor Brunson was innocent and was arrested mainly because of his Christian 10 faith. He returned to the U.S. over the weekend.

President Trump says the timing 11 of Brunson's release during the international tensions over Khashoggi's disappearance was strictly 12 coincidental and that the U.S. made no deal with Turkey for Brunson's return. He said the U.S. greatly appreciated the release and that it could lead to good, perhaps great relations between the U.S. and Turkey.

Stateside, his attention will be on Florida and southern Georgia this week when the President visits some of the areas damaged by Hurricane Michael.

He's issued a Major Disaster Declaration for Florida. That will add Federal funding to the state and local relief efforts. At least 18 deaths have been blamed on the storm. Hundreds of thousands of people are still without electricity five days after Michael made landfall. In some areas, residents expect it to take years before they're back to normal.