Macron boosting Saudi prince’s standing with dinner invite

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is planning to welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to his presidential palace and offer him dinner, marking another step in the Saudi leader’s diplomatic rehabilitation less than four years after the killing of writer and critic Jamal Khashoggi. Macron’s office described the meeting on Thursday evening as “a working dinner.” It will cap a long day for the French leader: He was in Guinea-Bissau, wrapping up a visit to Africa, on Thursday morning. The Saudi prince is making his first official visit to the European Union since the 2018 killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say the U.S.-based journalist’s body was dismembered with a bone saw.