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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.

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Top story: UK, France and Germany ask Saudis for more detail

The governments of the UK, France and Germany are pressing the Saudis to provide facts that would back up their widely-derided explanation for the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, insisted to Fox News on Sunday that Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October was a “mistake” by a “rogue operation,” unsanctioned by the Riyadh regime and unbeknown to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

– ‘Naked truth’. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has promised to reveal the “naked truth” of Khashoggi’s death, as uncovered by Turkish investigators, on Tuesday.

– ‘Playful’ comments. Donald Trump’s praise for the GOP congressman who assaulted a Guardian reporter was particularly incendiary in the context of the Khashoggi case. But Senator Ben Sasse says he was just being “playful”.

Kavanaugh lobbied for judge handling his ethics complaints

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Confirmation bias: Brett Kavanaugh. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

The newly confirmed supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh once lobbied on behalf of the judge who has now been appointed to review more than a dozen ethics complaints filed against Kavanaugh during his own confirmation process. According to emails obtained by the Guardian, in 2001 Kavanaugh helped Timothy Tymkovich, a fellow conservative with controversial views on same-sex marriage, to secure a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.

– Above the law. Critics say the appointment adds to a perception that supreme court justices are above the law. “Appearance of bias is important in the law and this fails the test,” said the civil rights lawyer Leslie Proll.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric ‘widespread’ ahead of 2018 midterms

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anti-racist campaigners march in New York earlier this year. Photograph: Erik M/Pacific/Barcroft Images

The success of Donald Trump’s inflammatory campaign style is thought to have emboldened other candidates to adopt anti-Muslim messaging ahead of the November midterms. According to a new report commissioned by the campaign group Muslim Advocates, there has been a dramatic rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric in campaigns across the US, and at every level of office.

– Republican majority. The report studied the campaigns of more than 80 candidates using anti-Muslim messaging. Almost all are Republican; 64% are either elected officials or boast of having Trump’s

Atlanta week reports from the capital of the ‘new south’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest New horizon: the Atlanta skyline. Photograph: Marilyn Nieves/Getty Images

Is Atlanta really a “black mecca” at the forefront of radical social change, or just the most unequal major city in the US? Maurice J Hobson examines the Georgia capital’s contradictions on the first day of the Guardian’s Atlanta week, a series of live, in-depth reports from the great gateway city of the “new south”.

– ‘Disneyland for adults’. Rowan Moore looks at how the legacy of the architect-developer John Portman has shaped the Atlanta cityscape.

- Midterm movement. Khushbu Shah asks whether the “great reverse migration” of African Americans to the US south could redraw Atlanta’s political map in Democrats’ favour.

Crib sheet

- A “caravan” of approximately 5,000 Central American migrants have crossed the Mexican border with Guatemala on their way north towards the US.

- The world’s longest sea bridge will open this week, linking Hong Kong and Macau to the Chinese mainland.

- The Australian government has formally apologised to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, following a five-year national inquiry into failings by multiple public institutions.

- A US general was shot and wounded in a Taliban attack in Kandahar province last week, amid an increase of violence in the lead-up to Afghanistan’s elections.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Netflix by night: The Haunting of Hill House. Photograph: Steve Dietl/Netflix

The real horror behind The Haunting of Hill House

The new Netflix adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has earned rave reviews, not least from the horror master Stephen King. Like Jackson, the programme-makers suggest horror comes as much from the mind as from the paranormal, writes Aida Edemariam.

Chuck Jenkins: Trump’s second-favourite sheriff

Fox News calls Chuck Jenkins America’s “second-toughest” sheriff on immigration. Jenkins’ office in Frederick County, Maryland, is making more than $4,000 per day by housing undocumented immigrant detainees. Daniel Moattar meets “the next Joe Arpaio”.

The evolution of black female models in art

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mickalene Thomas - Din, une très belle négresse, 2012. Photograph: shootArt Mobile/Courtesy of the artist

A new exhibition in New York traces how representations of the black model have influenced the development of modern art, “from Manet and Matisse to today”. Nadja Sayej spoke to its curator.

Struggling to sleep? You may be ‘overtired’

We recognise the notion of overtiredness in young children who are unable to switch off at bedtime. But sleep researchers say the same problem is increasingly common in adults, left restless by their “always-on” existence. Joanna Moorhead reports.

Opinion

Last week, the Guardian’s readers’ editor, Paul Chadwick, sent a reporter’s notebook containing a single question to the Saudi embassy in London, to symbolise Jamal Khashoggi and journalists everywhere.

Asking questions and disclosing the answers, or lack of them, is the fundamental responsibility, and contribution, of journalists to their communities. Those who rule by fear, and fear to explain their rule, fear questions.

Sport

Chris Paul, the Houston Rockets point guard and president of the NBA Players’ Association, has been fined $491,782 and suspended over his part in a brawl between Rockets and Lakers players during the Rockets’ win in LA on Saturday.

José Mourinho scuffled with Chelsea staff after his Man Utd team’s 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. Rafael Benítez is still in his job despite Newcastle’s worst run of form since 1898. Those are two of 10 talking points from the weekend’s Premier League action.

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