New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday he is withdrawing from a virtual summit of world cities scheduled to be hosted by Saudi Arabia because of human rights concerns.
The Urban 20 summit is scheduled to run from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 ahead of the Group of 20 summit of the world's most powerful industrialized nations. Human rights activists had urged de Blasio and several other city leaders to boycott the meeting, pointing out that Oct. 2 is the anniversary of the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.