How To Eliminate Your Competition Without Bloodshed

Joint statement from UK, France and Germany says Riyadh needs to urgently clarify what happened to journalist

The UK, France and Germany have pressed Saudi Arabia to provide facts for its account of what happened to the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as ministers from western governments lined up to reject the official line from Riyadh.

After two weeks of denials that the kingdom was involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance on 2 October, late on Friday the Saudi regime said he had died in a fistfight inside its consulate in Istanbul.

• Nebraska senator: ‘People kind of tune most of it out’
  
• Sasse is author of book aiming to ‘heal’ political divide

Donald Trump was being “playful” when he praised a Montana congressman who assaulted a Guardian reporter, said a Republican senator whose new book sets out to “heal” America’s glaring political divide.

Related: 'He's my guy': Donald Trump praises Gianforte for assault on Guardian reporter

Use alongside traditional treatment in advanced cases ‘could benefit 3,000 men in UK’

Radiotherapy could increase the chances of survival for thousands of men with prostate cancer that has already spread by the time they are diagnosed, new research suggests.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men in the UK. About 47,000 are diagnosed every year and around 11,500 die. Significant numbers of men are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread, which reduces their chances of survival.

Deputy foreign minister insists Moscow has strictly observed missile treaty signed in 1987

Senior Russian officials have lashed out at the United States after Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from an arms control treaty.

The intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty, signed in 1987, has historically kept nuclear missiles out of Europe. The US president has accused Russia of violating the treaty first and told reporters on Saturday that the US would “have to develop those weapons” in response.

Mayoral candidate says push for independence has left Catalonia looking inward

Manuel Valls has warned that the Catalan independence movement’s “failed” attempts to bring about a sovereign republic have left the region frustrated and divided, hindering efforts to develop Barcelona as “a great European capital”.

The former French prime minister, who is hoping to become Barcelona’s mayor in next year’s municipal elections, said the push for independence had caused deep divisions and left Catalonia looking inwards rather than outwards.

MS diagnosis came in August but Hollywood star has lived with symptoms for years

The American actor Selma Blair has been praised for speaking candidly about having multiple sclerosis (MS).

In an Instagram post the 46-year-old Cruel Intentions star said she had been officially diagnosed in August but had experienced symptoms for years.

Thousands on the migrant caravan circumvent border gate in attempt to reach US

A growing throng of people from Central America have resumed their advance towards the US border in southern Mexico, despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the border with Guatemala.

Their numbers swelled to about 5,000 overnight and they set out walking at first light on Sunday toward the Mexican town of Tapachula, 10 abreast in a line stretching approximately a mile.

‘Now is time to play for the team,’ minister says as speculation about PM’s leadership continues

A party at war: could Brexit split spell end of the Tories?

Dominic Raab has conceded that Conservative backbenchers have become jittery about the status of the Brexit negotiations but insisted “now is the time to play for the team” as speculation about Theresa May’s leadership continues.

The Brexit secretary said the Tories needed to hold their nerve after weekend reports that hostile backbench MPs would try to force a leadership challenge. Forty-eight MPs are needed to force a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

More than 170 people injured after Puyuma express service came off tracks on a bend

Eighteen have been killed and 171 injured in Taiwan after an express train derailed on a popular weekend route, officials said.

The Puyuma service was carrying more than 366 passengers from a suburb of Taipei toward Taitung, a city on Taiwan’s south-east coast, when it came off the tracks at a curve at about 4.50pm local time.

Explanation sought for concentration of cases in Loire-Atlantique, Ain and Brittany

France’s health minister has announced a new investigation into the births of several babies with upper limb defects in various parts of the country in recent years, saying it was “unacceptable” no cause had been found.

Agnès Buzyn said she and her environment counterpart, François de Rugy, had decided to look more closely at what caused 14 babies to be born with stunted or missing arms since 2007, two weeks after health authorities said they had failed to find an explanation.

Manhattan’s skyline is the most famous in the world. Its horizon has been interrupted by verticals from the first 10-storey office buildings in the late 1800s, and will only continue to rise higher

The controversial Peace Bridge is now one of the most-used walking and cycling routes in Calgary. The councillor behind it reveals the project’s stormy process

“The level of hatred directed towards that piece of infrastructure was out of proportion with the cost,” says Druh Farrell as she recalls the stormy process leading to the construction of Santiago Calatrava’s pedestrian and cycling Peace Bridge in Calgary. “It was an incredibly painful process. It became so intense.”

The celebrated Spanish architect was brought in to address a complicated brief. The crossing – connecting downtown to the northern river pathway and the community of Sunnyside – had to completely span the Bow River, while being flat enough to avoid obstructing a nearby helicopter-landing area.

Carlos Marchand photographs basketball hoops in Queens, New York City, as a way of framing suburbia

Santa Maria Tonantzintla was set to be one of Mexico’s first smart cities – but residents saw it as an attempt to westernise their town and leave tradition behind

Lupita Tecual Porquillo had heard a rumour that the plaza was going to be “remodelled”. The 51-year-old grocery store owner lives around the corner from the centre of Santa Maria Tonantzintla, a sleepy town in the state of Puebla, about three hours from Mexico City. She assumed “remodelling” meant repairing the plaza’s centuries-old cobblestone pavement.

In November 2017, heavy machinery arrived to tear out the characteristic cobblestones and replace them with smooth, uniform stone tiles. On 11 January, Tecual Porquillo discovered the municipality had also knocked down the clock tower and stucco bridge – both beloved landmarks in the central plaza.

After days of denial, Saudi Arabia has now said that the writer Jamal Khashoggi died in a ‘fist fight’ at its Istanbul consulate. Martin Chulov pieces together events surrounding this death and the investigation, and links to Riyadh’s controversial crown prince

The Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul is a homely looking place, much smaller than it seems, nestled into a quiet suburban street, and painted pastel yellow. Were it not for a giant steel door and a green flag flying on the roof – both sporting two large swords – it could easily be an Ottoman-era cottage like many nearby.

Police barriers to the left of the building mark a point where visitors gather before being allowed through to apply for visas or tend to official business. On 2 October one Saudi citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, stood at the fence line, pondering his next move. Khashoggi needed to deal with paperwork that proved he had the legal right to marry the woman nervously standing with him that day, his new Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He paced the barricade for around 20 minutes, removed his two phones from his blazer and gave them to Cengiz. “Wish me luck,” Khashoggi said. “This will be a birthday present,” she replied.

Strong winds will batter parts of northern England and Scotland, forecasters say

Sub-zero temperatures will reach some parts of the UK by the end of this week, bringing to an end a stretch of mild autumn weather.

Temperatures look likely to fall below zero in some parts of the country by Friday, with forecasters saying a cold blast will make parts of the UK feel like they have been plunged into an early winter.

• Senator: INF exit could be gambit like threat to scrap Nafta
• Russia laments ‘blackmail to forcefully get certain concessions’

Amid rising alarm over Donald Trump’s announced withdrawal from a key nuclear weapons treaty with Russia, the Republican chair of the Senate foreign relations committee said he hoped it was “just a move” to achieve a new deal, in the way the president threatened then renegotiated the Nafta trade agreement.

Related: Ditching nuclear arms treaty would be dangerous step, Russia warns US

• Corker: US intercepts ‘point to involvement at a very high level’
• Trump ‘would love’ if Mohammed bin Salman not responsible

A senior Republican senator on Sunday said he believed the Saudi crown prince was responsible for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and that the US had intelligence suggesting “very high-level” involvement.

Related: Jamal Khashoggi: murder in the consulate

Riot police on streets and opposition activist prevented from attending protest

Cameroon’s two major cities were tense on Sunday and riot police were on the streets as security forces try to prevent protests before the results of the country’s controversial presidential election are released.

Dozens of riot police, some armed with machine guns, surrounded the activist and politician Kah Walla’s house on Sunday afternoon, preventing her from leaving to attend a peaceful demonstration planned in the centre of Douala, the economic capital.

French group asked attorney general to use extraordinary powers to black out sections of report that criticised the deal

The Coalition suppressed the auditor general’s finding that Australia could have paid half the amount for its new $1.3bn combat vehicle fleet after pressure from a multinational arms manufacturer, documents reveal.

Documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that Thales, a French multinational arms company, was “aggrieved” at auditor general Grant Hehir’s finding that Australia could have saved hundreds of millions of dollars had it gone to the United States to buy its new fleet of light protected army vehicles, instead of buying 1,100 of Thales’s locally built Hawkeis.

At least 33 countries ignored International Criminal Court’s warrants for arrest of Omar al-Bashir, say lawyers

Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been travelling freely around the world despite an eight-year-old international warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and genocide, human rights lawyers have found.

A project to document the travels of Bashir has called in question a key component in international law after repeated failures to arrest him.

Physical and sexual violence against women is commonplace in Tajikistan, but a project designed to address the issue has produced remarkable results

• All photographs by Anisa Sabiri for the Guardian

• The scheme ending abuse against women in Tajikistan

For 22 years, Rano Mahmurodova was violently abused by her husband. A groundbreaking new project changed everything

• Women in Tajikistan get a new lease of life – in pictures

The change in behaviour of Rano Mahmurodova’s husband was nothing short of a “miracle”.

Married at 18, the 42-year-old had spent more than two decades being physically and verbally assaulted by her husband, who was fuelled by drink, drugs and unemployment.

The development secretary was dramatically interrupted while addressing delegates at a conference on sexual abuse in the aid sector when Alexia Pepper De Caires, a charity whistleblower and former Save the Children employee, strode on to the stage

• Penny Mordaunt confronted on stage by protester over failings on aid sex abuse

Development secretary allows demonstrator to address audience at event called in response to Oxfam scandal

Penny Mordaunt was dramatically confronted on stage by a protester who accused her of failing to give women a voice at a conference on sex abuse in the aid sector.

Alexia Pepper De Caires, a whistleblower and former Save the Children employee, approached the minister while she was delivering her speech in London on Thursday.

It’s not just arms sales and business contacts, Trump needs Saudi Arabia to boost oil production when Iran sanctions kick in and to fund US plans for Syria

The murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi has come at time when the Trump administration is at its most dependent on Riyadh for the success of both its foreign and domestic policies.

Related: Saudi Arabia admits Khashoggi killed but claims he died in 'fistfight'

Jamal Khashoggi’s death leaves the crown prince’s reputation in the west in tatters, however much Trump says otherwise

This is where truth and realpolitik collide. Saudi Arabia’s belated, incomplete and highly tendentious explanation for the death of Jamal Khashoggi is barely credible, and will certainly be dismissed by critics of the Saudi regime and by the journalist’s friends and supporters as an ugly fabrication or, at the very least, a gross distortion of the facts.

But for western governments, first and foremost the US, the statement in the early hours of Saturday from Riyadh claiming that Khashoggi was unintentionally killed in a “fist fight” offers a possible way out of a diplomatic crisis that has threatened to disrupt, or even destroy, a political, security and financial relationship they regard as vital to their national interests.

A recent poll found Trump voters think men are one of the most persecuted groups in the US. Really?

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Few believe the Saudis’ explanation. The question is whether they pretend to do so

“Here’s the smell of blood still. Not all the sweet perfumes of Arabia will sweeten this hand,” bewails Lady Macbeth as she confronts her guilt. And so with the leaders of the Saudi Arabian court as they seek to wash their hands of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by pinning the blame for his murder on a gang of senior intelligence officers.

Donald Trump has said the Saudi explanation of Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is credible and insisted sanctions will not be countenanced. It is a step forward for the Saudi court to admit the murder took place. There had been two weeks of denial, including by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself in an interview in Bloomberg.

A man on a Ryanair plane has been filmed calling a woman sitting in the same row an 'ugly black bastard', and shouting 'don’t talk to me in a foreign language' when she spoke to him in English with a Jamaican accent. The airline, criticised for not removing the abusive passenger, has referred the incident to Essex police

• Ryanair accused of inaction over racist incident on plane

Speaking at Luke air force base in Arizona, the US president welcomed an admission from the Saudi government that Jamal Khashoggi was dead. He said that arrests of a number of high-ranking Saudi officials were 'good first steps' but he would prefer retribution would not include cancelling weapon contracts with the kingdom

About 3,000 central American migrants have streamed over the international bridge from Guatemala into Mexico after breaking through metal gates at the border fence. Locals cheered and handed out bottles of water, while Guatemalan police officers stood to the side of the road and watched the migrants pass

• Caravan of 3,000 Central American migrants crosses into Mexico

Dozens of people died in northern India when a train ploughed into a  group of people who had gathered to watch fireworks during a religious festival. The victims were standing on the tracks on the outskirts of Amritsar and did not hear the train approaching 

• At least 50 dead as train hits crowd watching fireworks in India

The US president draws laughter at a Montana rally with advice to 'never wrestle' local Congressman Gianforte, who in 2017 assaulted a  Guardian reporter. 'Any guy that can do a body slam ... he's my guy,' says the US president. Trump’s comments mark the first time the president has openly and directly praised a violent act against a journalist on American soil. 

It comes in the wake of Trump’s refusal to condemn Saudi Arabia despite growing evidence its leader, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the decapitation and dismemberment of the journalist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.

• 'He's my guy': Trump praises Gianforte for assault on Guardian reporter
  

The US president tells reporters that 'it certainly looks like' missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead. Trump said his administration is still awaiting the results of a number of investigations into the journalist's disappearance after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul 

• UK and US pull out of Saudi event over alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Abdel Fatah al-Sisi sits upfront as the Russian president takes the wheel for a lap of a race track in the Black Sea resort of Sochi where the two have been holding talks