Senators pressure Trump to investigate disappearance of Saudi journalist

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump is facing new pressure to investigate the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and determine whether to impose sanctions on those responsible after receiving a letter from a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday.

The letter, which triggers an "investigation and Global Magnitsky sanctions determination" was penned by the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chairman Sen. Bob Corker and ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez, along with the leaders of the appropriations subcommittee for the State Department, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy.

Under the terms of the Magnitsky legislation, the President can impose sanctions on individuals or countries that are deemed to have committed a human rights violation.

Trump said Wednesday night in an interview on Fox News that "so far it's looking a little bit like" the Saudis are behind the disappearance of Khashoggi, but said "I do hate to commit to what recourse we would take. It's too early."

The President said blocking further arms sales to Saudi Arabia "would be hurting us."

Trump said the US is doing well economically in part due to "what we are doing with our defense systems," and said, "frankly I think that would be a very, very tough pill to swallow for our country."

15-man team

Khashoggi, a former Saudi royal insider who became a critic of the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has not been seen since Tuesday last week, when walked into the consulate general in Istanbul, intending to get paperwork that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancée.

Turkish authorities have privately said they believe Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was killed inside the consulate. The Saudis deny the allegation but have not been able to provide proof that he left the consulate alive.

In the latest developments on Wednesday, Turkish security officials concluded that the "highest levels of the royal court" in Saudi Arabia ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, according to a senior official cited by The New York Times.

Turkish officials have said that a 15-person team flew from Saudi Arabia into Istanbul on the day Khashoggi entered the consulate, and they have provided information about two private planes that, they say, were involved in the transit of these Saudis. Aviation data analyzed by CNN backs up evidence of the planes' arrival in Istanbul.

Trump said Wednesday that he's been in touch with the "highest levels" of the Saudi government about Khashoggi's case and expressed concerns about his possible murder. He said his administration was pressing the Saudi government to reveal more about the incident.

"We're demanding everything. We want to see what's going on here. It's a bad situation," Trump said in the Oval Office.

But he stopped short of saying whether he believed the Saudis have knowledge about his whereabouts, or may have played a role in his disappearance, stating that not enough was known to make a determination.

Senators' letter

The letter sent to Trump by the bipartisan group of senators increases the pressure on the administration to act. It gives the White House 120 days to "determine whether a foreign person is responsible for an extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violation of internationally recognized human rights against an individual exercising freedom of expression" and to report back to the Foreign Relations Committee with a decision on how it plans to act.

It specifically asks the President to make a determination in relation to Khashoggi.

Prior to the letter's release, senators were given access to a two-page classified report on Khashoggi, according to a Senate aide. "The intelligence reports are very direct, very short and give further credence to the fact that the focus needs to be on Saudi Arabia right now," Corker said.

Members of the Gang of Eight are being briefed in more detail: House Intelligence ranking Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff said he had been briefed on the matter, and Senate Intelligence ranking Democrat Mark Warner said he expected a briefing later.

One-fifth of the Senate — all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee besides Sen. Rand Paul — signed the letter.

"The entire Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sans Rand Paul, and the relevant appropriators all agreed to sign this request. The administration would be foolish not to follow the law here by rejecting their request," one Senate aide told CNN.

Asked if the letter puts pressure on the Trump administration, Corker responded, "Oh it does, of course."

"It's not intended though as a shot at them, it's intended to put in place ... it's the forcing mechanism to ensure that we use all the resources available to get the bottom of this and if in fact at the very highest levels of Saudi Arabia they have been involved in doing this, that appropriate steps will be taken to sanction them," Corker added.

Following the letter's release, Corker specifically noted that the sanctions could affect the highest levels of the Saudi regime.

"It's a very strong signal I think from the foreign relations committee. Again it's an act that we can take without passing legislation. It is a forcing mechanism. I don't look at this in any way to try to cross the bows of the administration. I don't. I do look at it certainly has a shot across the bow at Saudi Arabia and these are very serious steps," he said.

Corker also said that the administration was not given a heads up about the letter prior to its release to reporters, adding that he was unsure about how Trump might respond given his close relationship with the Saudi crown prince.

"This is a step that we are taking that we can take unilaterally that is a forcing mechanism and it does mean that in a serious way an investigation has to take place. And if in fact at the highest levels they have been involved in the murder of a journalist who just happened to write against some of the things they are doing in their country, they will be under tremendous pressure to follow this wherever it goes," he said.

The letter was also signed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Tom Udall (D-N.M).

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World's longest flight live updates: Preparing for take off

Singapore (CNN) — Spending nearly 19 hours cooped up in an airplane may sound nightmarish to some, but when Singapore Airlines flight SQ22 takes off from its home airport bound for New York, it's going to be a dream for others.

The record-breaking flight, involving a brand-new Airbus A350-900ULR (Ultra Long Range), will usher in a new era for air passengers and make the world just that bit smaller as it becomes the world's longest scheduled nonstop service.

For aviation fanatics like myself, it rarely gets more exciting.

I'm lucky enough to have a ticket for this inaugural flight and I'll be live-reporting my experiences as we depart from Singapore's Changi Airport, then fly northeast towards Alaska before landing in Newark Liberty International Airport, just outside of New York.

Take off is scheduled for 11:35 p.m. Singapore time (11:35 a.m. in New York, 4:35 p.m. in London) on Thursday October 11 and, all being well, we'll be wheels-down on the other side of the planet the following day, Friday at 6 a.m. in New York (11:00 a.m. in London, 6 p.m. Singapore).

But what will it be like to spend more than 18 hours in the air? How does the human body cope? How do the cabin crew cope? How do the airplane's bathrooms cope?

I'll be charting my observations -- good and bad -- and those of my 160 fellow passengers as we make aviation history.

Keep checking this story for live updates as we travel the 16,700 kilometers (10,376 miles) to our destination.

In the meantime, you can read more about the super-efficient aircraft we'll be flying, and the journey we'll be taking, here.

But first, a few words on what exactly is meant by the world's longest flight.

It seems so easy, but it isn't.

There are various ways to define it, with pedants arguing for hours over what it means.

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Of course there is the distance flown. Then there's the duration of the flight. Sometimes strong head winds can mean a shorter distance takes longer and vice versa.

However, we're usually safe saying the longest flights are measured when the plane is flying the Great Circle Route: the shortest distance between two points on the globe.

For instance: flying from New York to London, the plane doesn't go straight out over the ocean because that would mean flying at the wider part of the Earth's circumference.

Rather, the plane heads north, making an arc past Canada, Greenland and Iceland, and down across Ireland into London.

With that in mind, these are the commonly accepted world's longest flights:

Singapore to New York   

Singapore Airlines to reclaim world's longest airline route: On October 11, 2018, Singapore Airlines new Airbus A350-900ULR will go into service between Singapore and New York. The 19-hour trip will become the world's longest non-stop flight route.

Airbus

Previously operated by Singapore Airlines using an Airbus A340-500, this flight took 18 hours to get to Newark.

It ended up being an all-business class flight. The A340-500 is a four-engine, heavy and thirsty aircraft. When fuel prices rose to more than $100 per barrel, this flight stopped being profitable. (Remember: the longer the flight, the more fuel becomes a proportion of the cost!)

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The making of the airplane seats for the world's longest flight

By 2013 Singapore Airlines took advantage of an agreement to hand back the planes to Airbus, thereby ending the route.

Now, five years later, equipped with the more fuel-efficient A350-900 Ultra Long Haul, the airline can once again fly direct from Singapore to New York and make money.

From October 11, hands-down this will be, without controversy, the longest regularly scheduled nonstop commercial flight in the world.

Perth to London

Since 1947, the journey from Australia to London has been known as The Kangaroo Route. Back then, several hops were involved -- Sydney, Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Castel Benito, Rome, London -- and took some four days to complete.

And that was considered speedy.

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This year Qantas did the run all in one long hop, when a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner made the journey in just over 17 hours.

There have been other aircraft capable of this distance, like the Boeing 777-200LR, Airbus A380 and A340-500, but they are heavier planes with more seats than required. It would have been difficult to make money on this "long thin route."

Other flights in the top 10

Qantas' Sydney-Dallas using the A380, Qatar's Doha-Auckland, Emirates' Dubai-Auckland, United Airlines running San Francisco-Singapore with a 787-9.

The return of Singapore-New York will put an end to all the rivalry, at least for the moment.

By connecting these two commercial centers on opposite sides of the world, the flight is probably the final long-distance route an airline can conceive to run and remain commercially viable.

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Until Qantas' Project Sunrise comes to fruition.

The Aussie carrier has tasked both Airbus and Boeing to develop long-range aircraft capable of flying 17,000 kilometers nonstop from Sydney to London. Qantas hopes to order the revamped planes by 2019 with flights beginning in 2022.

That journey, if it happens, will clock in at around 20 hours, earning world's longest honors.

The REAL longest flight

Oh, did I say that these were the longest flights?

Because the actual longest flight, according to Guinness World Records, was a 22-hour and 42-minute flight in 2005, from Hong Kong to London.

Boeing was demonstrating the capabilities of its 777-200LR -- nicknamed the Worldliner -- so the flight went the long way round.

I was one of only 30 passengers on board -- Boeing was required to have some paying passengers to meet the criteria for beating the record.

During the nearly day-long trip, we played games, exercised, chatted with the eight pilots on board and slept on mattresses laid out at the back where the seats had been removed.

The flight took off from Hong Kong, crossed the Pacific, making landfall around Los Angeles.

From there, we flew across the United States, crossing over New York's JFK Airport before heading out over the Atlantic and landing in London to a water-cannon salute.

Now THAT was a long flight.

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