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Trump threatens to rip up Iran nuclear deal unless US and allies fix 'serious flaws'
California fire crews report progress in effort to contain giant wildfires
Kurdish and Iraqi troops in Kirkuk standoff amid fears of new violence
Parents of freed US hostage furious with son-in-law for Afghanistan trip
I did not 'hunt' for Harvey Weinstein, claims alleged fixer
Aung San Suu Kyi unveils relief plans for Rohingya Muslims
Iceland's president faints and breaks nose in ‘too hot’ bath
Harvey Weinstein: Oscars academy holds emergency meeting
What Trump did this week: Dueling wives, and an appeal to Christians
Canadian man Joshua Boyle tells of brutal treatment by Afghan kidnappers – video
On your Marx: meet the modern-day communists
'Thanks to Guardian readers, many children are now sleeping safely in warm beds'
Documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis – in pictures
Tail end of Hurricane Ophelia to bring rain, wind and warmth to UK
Trump risks making US rogue actor as he condemns Iran nuclear deal
Chinese museum accused of racism over photos pairing Africans with animals
Canadian held in Afghanistan says child was killed and wife raped in captivity
In Russia, nobody's laughing at Iannucci's The Death of Stalin
How Cosa Nostra's 'cattle mafia' is destroying Sicily's farmers
Australia to be elected to powerful UN human rights council
Dozens of Boko Haram members convicted in mass secret trial in Nigeria
In China women 'hold up half the sky' but can't touch the political glass ceiling
Perth’s Anglican church offers ‘heartfelt apology’ to LGBT community
Running with the rebels in South Sudan – in pictures
'If the land isn't worked, it decays': Tunisia's battle to keep the desert at bay
Dismantling Obamacare: what has Trump done and who will it affect?
Mr President? Donald Trump nearly forgets to sign bill – video

Trump threatens to rip up Iran nuclear deal unless US and allies fix 'serious flaws'

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 01:44 PM PDT

Trump says he will not recertify deal but stops short of pulling out entirely
President says US participation 'can be cancelled by me at any time'

Donald Trump has threatened to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Congress and US allies fail to amend the agreement in significant ways.

In a vituperative speech on Friday that began by listing Iran's alleged crimes over the decades, Trump announced he would not continue to certify the agreement to Congress, but stopped short of immediately cancelling US participation in the deal.

California fire crews report progress in effort to contain giant wildfires

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 03:27 PM PDT

9,000 firefighters battling 17 large fires across northern California
At least 35 people dead and 3,500 homes and business destroyed

A fifth day of desperate firefighting in California wine country brought a glimmer of hope Friday as crews batting the flames reported their first progress toward containing the massive blazes, and hundreds more firefighters poured in to join the effort.

Kurdish and Iraqi troops in Kirkuk standoff amid fears of new violence

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 11:13 AM PDT

Political leaders on both sides try to calm nerves as Iraq's prime minister insists he has no plans for an attack

Kurdish and Iraqi government forces have squared off south of Kirkuk after rushing troops and armour to the oil-rich city two weeks after the country's Kurds voted for independence from Baghdad.

Peshmerga forces massed about 20 miles from Kirkuk's southern limits on Friday after units loyal to the central government took positions on the city's approaches, prompting fears of fresh violence in one of the most bitterly contested corners of Iraq.

Parents of freed US hostage furious with son-in-law for Afghanistan trip

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 11:02 AM PDT

Caitlan Coleman's father calls Joshua Boyle's decision to take his pregnant wife to Afghanistan on a backpacking trip 'unconscionable'

The parents of an American woman who was rescued with her Canadian husband and three children after five years in captivity have said they were elated that the family is safe – but incensed with their son-in-law for taking their daughter to Afghanistan.

"Taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place, to me, and the kind of person I am, is unconscionable," Caitlan Coleman's father, Jim, told ABC News.

I did not 'hunt' for Harvey Weinstein, claims alleged fixer

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 07:19 AM PDT

Miramax executive Fabrizio Lombardo denies setting up Hollywood producer's alleged sexual encounters

In the week that allegations against Harvey Weinstein rocked Hollywood, Fabrizio Lombardo has emerged as a central figure in the scandal – the so-called "Italian connection" accused of enabling the American producer's alleged sexual harassment and abuses.

Two women – Asia Argento and Zoë Brock – have claimed that Lombardo, who formerly worked as a Miramax executive in Italy, helped set up encounters with Weinstein under false pretences.

Aung San Suu Kyi unveils relief plans for Rohingya Muslims

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 07:29 AM PDT

Nobel laureate aims to restore reputation by setting up civilian-led agency in Myanmar to deliver aid and resettle refugees

Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has announced plans to set up a civilian-led agency, with foreign assistance, to deliver aid and help resettle Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

A close adviser, speaking with Aung San Suu Kyi's knowledge, said the proposed body had been long planned, and was part of an attempt to show the civilian government she leads, rather than the Burmese military, can deliver humanitarian relief, resettlement and economic recovery.

Iceland's president faints and breaks nose in ‘too hot’ bath

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 09:08 AM PDT

Guðni Jóhannesson says he feels fine after being treated in hospital, where he received stitches

Iceland's president, Guðni Jóhannesson, has said he feels fine after he hit his forehead and broke his nose when he fainted and fell while taking a hot bath.

"A warm and cosy bath last night turned out to be too hot and cosy," the 49-year-old academic said in a Facebook post.

Harvey Weinstein: Oscars academy holds emergency meeting

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 01:53 AM PDT

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to discuss what action should be taken amid deepening sexual harassment scandal

The board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is holding an emergency meeting on Saturday morning to discuss what action should be taken against Harvey Weinstein amid the deepening sexual harassment scandal surrounding the Hollywood producer.

Comprised of leading actors, directors and executives including Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Steven Spielberg, the 54-member board may choose to expel Weinstein from the academy, following the exposure of sexual harassment and rape allegations against him going back decades.

What Trump did this week: Dueling wives, and an appeal to Christians

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 01:00 AM PDT

The president started the week making vague threats to North Korea and ended it by failing to follow through on vague threats to Iran over its nuclear program

Donald Trump stuck to some of his favourite themes. Only one thing will work with North Korea, he tweeted, and it isn't negotiating. Late-night TV hosts are biased against him … maybe Republicans "(and me)" should get "equal time" on their shows. NBC News is inaccurate. GOP senator Bob Corker, a former supporter who has lately become a critic, "begged" unsuccessfully for an endorsement and for the job of secretary of state, and is to blame for the Iran nuclear deal. Nobody appreciates the great job he is doing dealing with the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico.

Canadian man Joshua Boyle tells of brutal treatment by Afghan kidnappers – video

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 12:08 AM PDT

Boyle says in a statement after landing in Toronto that the Haqqani network in Afghanistan killed his infant daughter in captivity and raped his wife. The family were rescued, five years after they had been abducted by a Taliban-linked extremist group while on a backpacking trip

On your Marx: meet the modern-day communists

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 12:00 AM PDT

One hundred years after the Russian revolution, communists are still flying the flag in countries from Russia to Nepal to Italy. Photographer Jan Banning captures the enduring spirit of 1917. Introduction by Zoe Williams

No two modern communist parties are the same. In Nepal, the comrades look quite Ocean's Eleven, purposeful and united, glamorous despite their woolly hats. In Italy, the insistent sun gives them the air of drinkers in a rural bar with an eccentric owner. The reds of the Indian state of Kerala carry themselves with a distinctive authority and have the look of seasoned medics in a run-down but well-used county hospital. The Portuguese communists have an anarchic energy, a bit of versatility, as if they could be plotting a revolution, or opposing fracking. The Russians have a complicated, mournful alertness, as if they're running a seance.

'Thanks to Guardian readers, many children are now sleeping safely in warm beds'

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 12:00 AM PDT

Ishmael escaped Calais for security in the UK with the help of Safe Passage, one of three refugee charities supported by Guardian readers in 2016

Last October, Ishmael was one of many despairing migrants living in huts in Calais, risking his life regularly in an attempt to stow away in trucks to get to Britain, depressed to have fled violence in Syria only to find himself stuck in the squalor of the camp.

Now 18, Ishmael is settled with a foster family in north London and his English — almost non-existent when he left Syria alone aged 15 — is rapidly becoming fluent. He will soon begin a foundation course in politics at Birkbeck, University of London, the recipient of one of the college's Compass scholarships, which provide financial support for asylum seekers.

Documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis – in pictures

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 12:00 AM PDT

More than half a million Rohingya refugees have flooded into Bangladesh to flee an offensive by Myanmar's military which the United Nations has called 'a textbook example of ethnic cleansing'. Photographer Kevin Frayer is in Bangladesh to document the crisis

Tail end of Hurricane Ophelia to bring rain, wind and warmth to UK

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 04:54 PM PDT

Met Office warns of possible power cuts and transport disruption with 70mm of rain and wind speeds of up to 80mph

As Hurricane Ophelia approached the UK on Friday night, forecasters were warning of heavy rain and gusts of up to 80mph, while some areas were set to enjoy a balmy 25C (77F).

The Met Office issued severe weather alerts, warning of potential power cuts, damage to buildings and disruption to transport and mobile phone signals.

Trump risks making US rogue actor as he condemns Iran nuclear deal

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 11:00 PM PDT

If the US imposes new restrictions on Tehran, Washington will find itself isolated – and without leverage to limit Iran's nuclear programme, experts say

The content, tone and style of Donald Trump's speech about Iran on Friday was a reminder of how much the current president of the United States relishes conflict.

With his domestic legislative agenda stalled at home and a federal investigation scrutinising his finances and his relations with Moscow, Trump has taken to finding enemies to rail against, including the press and black football players who kneel during the national anthem.

Chinese museum accused of racism over photos pairing Africans with animals

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 09:27 PM PDT

More than 141,000 people visit the exhibit in Wuhan before it is eventually removed after sparking complaints from Africans

A museum in China has removed an exhibit this week that juxtaposed photographs of animals with portraits of black Africans, sparking complaints of racism.

The exhibit titled This Is Africa at the Hubei Provincial Museum in the city of Wuhan displayed a series of diptychs, each one containing a photo of an African person paired with the face of an animal. In a particularly striking example, a child with his mouth wide open was paired with a gorilla and other works included baboons and cheetahs.

Canadian held in Afghanistan says child was killed and wife raped in captivity

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 10:58 PM PDT

Joshua Boyle condemns the 'stupidity' of his kidnappers and says he now hopes to 'build a sanctuary' for his family after their five-year ordeal

A US-Canadian couple freed in Pakistan nearly five years after being abducted in Afghanistan have returned to Canada where the husband said one of his children had been murdered and his wife had been raped.

American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network. They arrived in Canada with three of their children on Friday night.

In Russia, nobody's laughing at Iannucci's The Death of Stalin

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 11:00 PM PDT

In the centenary year of the Russian Revolution, Veep creator's feted satire on the Soviet leader faces a hostile reaction

In Britain, early reviews of Armando Iannucci's dark satire on the aftermath of Joseph Stalin's death have been glowing. In Russia, nobody is laughing.

The Death of Stalin, which chronicles the Kremlin infighting in the aftermath of the Soviet leader's death in 1953, stars Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, who eventually succeeds Stalin, and Simon Russell-Beale as Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin's odious secret police chief. Beria is referred to as a "sneaky little shit" in one scene featured in the trailer by Georgy Zhukov, the commander of Soviet troops in the second world war, played in the film by Jason Isaacs, representative of the jokey tone of the film.

How Cosa Nostra's 'cattle mafia' is destroying Sicily's farmers

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 09:00 PM PDT

Broken by prosecutors and rivals, the Sicilian mafia has retreated to its rural origins, driving farmers from their lands with grisly intimidation campaigns

The Napoli sisters keep their entire harvest in a glass jar, resting on a wooden table in the living room. Inside, there are only a dozen stalks of wheat. The rest of the crop – 80,000 kilograms – was destroyed by the Sicilian mafia, determined to force out these three women working in the land of The Godfather.

For three generations, the Napoli family farmed wheat and hay in Corleone, the historic stronghold of Cosa Nostra. Their father, Salvatore, was a hard worker who, after much sacrifice in the fields, managed to send his three daughters – Marianna, Ina and Irene – to university.

Australia to be elected to powerful UN human rights council

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 08:30 PM PDT

Council wrestling with abuses among current and prospective members such as Philippines and Democratic Republic of Congo

Australia will be elected uncontested to the powerful United Nations human rights council on Monday in New York, as the council wrestles with rights abuses among current and prospective members.

Current council member the Philippines is waging a deadly extrajudicial 'war on drugs' that has killed at least 6,000 people, while prospective member the Democratic Republic of the Congo is riven by conflict, arbitrary arrest, torture and killings by security forces, and the persistent recruitment of child soldiers.

Dozens of Boko Haram members convicted in mass secret trial in Nigeria

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 07:01 PM PDT

The 45 people were jailed for between three and 31 years, while another 468 suspects were ordered to undergo de-radicalisation programs

A Nigerian court has convicted 45 Boko Haram members in the largest ever mass trial involving the Islamist extremist group.

The closed-door proceedings began early this week at a military barracks in northern Nigeria but have raised the concerns of human rights groups about whether the hearings of 1,669 suspects will be fair.

In China women 'hold up half the sky' but can't touch the political glass ceiling

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 06:00 PM PDT

Few expect any women to be appointed to China's top political body when it holds its five-yearly meeting on Wednesday

"Times have changed … today men and women are equal," Mao Zedong pronounced more than half a century ago. "Whatever men comrades can accomplish, women comrades can too." Unless, of course, you mean running the country.

For not once since Mao's communists took power in 1949 has a woman been appointed to China's top political body, the politburo standing committee, let alone become the country's top leader.

Perth’s Anglican church offers ‘heartfelt apology’ to LGBT community

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 05:03 PM PDT

Diocese says it is 'deeply sorry for any harm we have done' by words and behaviour 'that have not displayed the love of God'

The Perth diocese of the Anglican church has offered a "heartfelt apology" to Australia's gay and lesbian community, saying the church was "deeply sorry for any harm we have done".

As the Archbishop of Sydney's Anglican Diocese Glenn Davies was announcing a $1 million donation to the no campaign in Australia's non-binding voluntary postal survey on same-sex marriage this week, his colleagues in Perth were saying sorry for the church's past behaviour.

Running with the rebels in South Sudan – in pictures

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 08:20 AM PDT

Conflict has raged in South Sudan since December 2013, when the country's president, Salva Kiir, a Dinka, accused Riek Machar, a Nuer, of plotting a coup. The country subsequently divided along sectarian lines and, although Machar has since fled, the Nuer rebel youth remain armed, at war and hungry. The "white army", now a disparate militia composed mostly of young Nuer, engages in armed cattle rustling and brutal violence against rival tribes and government troops. Photojournalist Olivier Jobard spent days in the remote east of South Sudan with Nuer rebels and civilians who have been forced from their homes

All photographs by Olivier Jobard/Agence MYOP

'If the land isn't worked, it decays': Tunisia's battle to keep the desert at bay

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 04:11 AM PDT

With social tensions high and unemployment rife, agriculture offers Tunisians a vital lifeline. But as vast swaths of countryside turn to desert, the race is on to ensure there is land left to cultivate

The dusty Peugeot rumbles along the road, parallel to the ancient aqueduct that once delivered water from the springs of Zaghouan in Tunisia's Dorsal mountains to ancient Carthage, about 57km north. However, the waters around Zaghouan have long run dry and, if action is not taken soon, so might much of the land around it.

It is not just Zaghouan. "Ninety-five per cent of the [arable] land is in the process of desertification," explains Sarah Toumi, president and founder of Acacias for All, a social enterprise aimed at checking the descent of Tunisia's countryside into arid desert. "There is less than 1% of fertile organic material left in the soil, meaning it's really poor and can easily become desert. By 2030, it will all become a desert if we do nothing."

Dismantling Obamacare: what has Trump done and who will it affect?

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 11:50 AM PDT

The president took two decisions – expanding access to cheaper, skimpier insurance and scrapping federal subsidies – that may transform healthcare

Donald Trump took two extraordinary steps to undo his predecessor's signature health law on Thursday, measures that could fatally damage Obamacare despite the repeated failure of Republicans in Congress to repeal it.

Having expanded access to cheaper and less comprehensive insurance – which experts predict will result in health plans for the sick becoming more expensive – with an executive order on Thursday morning, the president issued a surprise notice that night scrapping federal subsidies underpinning the system.

Mr President? Donald Trump nearly forgets to sign bill – video

Posted: 13 Oct 2017 02:47 AM PDT

Donald Trump has to be reminded to sign his bill weakening Obamacare by the vice-president, Mike Pence, on Friday. Trump presents the bill and his intention to give Americans 'great healthcare' but then turns to leave. Pence stops him, and Trump jogs back across the room to write his signature

• Trump accused of sabotage after signing executive order to weaken Obamacare