Freedom: Ending a long-running diplomatic dispute between the US and Turkey, the Turkish government has released American pastor Andrew Brunson ,who has been held for two years on charges that he was a spy.
Brunson, an evangelical pastor, was one of more than 20  Turkish-Americans swept up in a huge purge following a failed 2016 coup to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Thousands of Turks were arrested without any firm evidence.
Brunson’s release helps President Trump score big with evangelicals.
Body Count: With the toll at 16, searchers are expecting to find more dead in the rubble left on the Florida Panhandle by Hurricane Michael. Mexico Beach is  flattened. One and a half million people were left without power and residents are scrambling for food and water. There are long lines for gasoline.
A surprising number of people were killed in Virginia, two of them swept away in their car.
Tangled Web: Following the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist, Sir Richard Branson, the Brit who made his fortune with Virgin Records, has suspended his business with Saudi Arabia. That includes discussions about a $1 billion investment in his space exploration company. Also, nearly a dozen tech, media, and entertainment companies have quit a Saudi investment conference to be held this month.
Their stand is in contrast to President Trump, who said of the Saudis, “They’re spending $110 billion purchasing military equipment and other things. If we don’t sell it to them, they’ll say, ‘Well, thank you very much. We’ll buy it from Russia.’ ”
It’s the old amoral, “If I didn’t do it somebody else would.”
The journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered and dismembered in the Istanbul consulate, Turkish authorities claim. A story is out today that he may have recorded his own torture and death with an iWatch that sent the evidence to the cloud.
Columnist Fred Hiatt says in The Washington Post, “Even if we still needed Saudi Arabia’s oil, which we do not; even if Saudi Arabia was a strong and principled ally in the region, which it is not; even if it helped push the Palestinians toward peace, or kept its promises in Yemen, or bought the weapons that Trump thinks it is going to buy. . . . No matter what Saudi Arabia offered, could its supposed friendship be worth shrugging off the ensnaring and killing of a critic whose only offense was to tell the truth?
Is that the country we want to be?”
Politics and Money: Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke has raised more than $38 million, about triple the amount of campaign money collected by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the man he wants to unseat. It’s a stunning figure in a game in which raising money is the equivalent to votes. But not in this case. O’Rourke is trailing in the polls by an average of seven points and drifting further back as election day approaches. Young, smart, and handsome doesn’t appear to be a winning combo in Texas. The state prefers a man who reads aloud “Green Eggs and Ham” during a Senate debate.
The Royals: Princess Eugenie, the daughter of Britain’s Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson was married yesterday. What got the British press wagging was that Eugenie wore a low-backed dress that exposed a long scar from childhood spinal surgery. She has scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, and said revealing the scar was intentional to support people with her condition.
“Everyone”: President Trump tweeted yesterday that, “Everyone wants Ivanka Trump to be the new United Nations Ambassador.”
Could we define the meaning and exact number of “everyone?”

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