Trump to North Korea: Be very, very nervous

President Donald Trump has warned North Korea it should be "very, very nervous" if it does anything to the US.

He said the regime would be in trouble "like few nations have ever been" if they do not "get their act together".

His comments came after Pyongyang announced it had a plan to fire four missiles near the US territory of Guam.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis warned that armed conflict with North Korea would be "catastrophic" and said diplomacy was bearing fruit.

"The American effort is diplomatically led, it has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic results," he said.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said his country is fully prepared to join a war against North Korea, were it to launch an attack on the US.

"If there's an attack on the US, the Anzus Treaty would be invoked and Australia would come to the aid of the United States," he said in a radio interview, "as America would come to our aid if we were attacked."

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks after North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

The UN recently approved further economic sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons programme.

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President Trump also said he was close to revealing his keenly awaited decision on the number of troops he plans to keep in Afghanistan.

He said he had "taken over a mess", but was going to make it "a lot less messy".

Speaking on Thursday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Mr Trump suggested his own statements on North Korea had not been tough enough, despite his threat this week to rain "fire and fury" upon the regime.

North Korea has dismissed his dire warnings as "nonsense".

Mr Trump railed against previous US administrations for being too weak on North Korea and also chided the North's closest ally, China, saying it could do "a lot more".

He said: "I will tell you this, if North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us they can be very, very nervous.

"I'll tell you why… because things will happen to them like they never thought possible."

However, he added that the US would always consider negotiations.

He added: "I will tell you this, North Korea better get their act together or they're gonna be in trouble like few nations have ever been."

North Korea said on Wednesday it planned to fire medium-to-long-range rockets towards Guam, where US strategic bombers are based.

However, there has been no indication that any attack on the Pacific island is imminent.

Analysis: Jitters in South Korea

Yogita Limaye, BBC News, Seoul

On the streets of Seoul, barely 50km (30 miles) from the border with North Korea, the latest developments have drawn mixed reactions. Kim Seong-su, 62, said he thought Pyongyang was bluffing to preserve its regime and justify its nuclear programme.

But others are more concerned. Yeon Eui-sook says she finds the situation scary. "I hope everyone can live in peace. Kim Jong-un keeps doing this and making us worry," she said.

Analysts say the language from Pyongyang always gets more aggressive in August, when the US and South Korea conduct joint military exercises. But this time - with a US president who also uses strong words - the confrontation is getting even fiercer than usual.

Mr Trump meanwhile denied there were any mixed messages from his administration.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson played down the rhetoric between the two sides.

But in an interview with the BBC on Thursday, White House Deputy Assistant Sebastian Gorka dismissed the top diplomat's comments.

"You should listen to the president," he said. "The idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical."

Mr Gorka recalled a quote from a Holocaust survivor he often refers to when lecturing on grand strategy, saying: "When a group of people repeatedly says they want to kill you, sooner or later you should take them seriously".

"North Korea has said they wish to annihilate the United States and use nuclear weapons. Sooner or later, somebody should take them seriously," he said.

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The tiny but important island of Guam

• The 541sq km (209 sq miles) volcanic and coral island in the Pacific between the Philippines and Hawaii.
• It is a "non-incorporated" US territory, with a population of about 163,000.
• That means people born in Guam are US citizens, have an elected governor and House Representative, but cannot vote for a president in US national elections.
• US military bases cover about a quarter of the island. About 6,000 personnel are based there and there are plans to move in thousands more.
• It was a key US base in World War Two, and remains a vital staging post for US operations, giving access to potential flashpoints like the South China Sea, the Koreas and the Taiwan Straits.

Guam profile from BBC Monitoring

Turkey coup anniversary: Emotional Erdogan hails 'defenders of nation'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has delivered an emotional address to tens of thousands of people in Istanbul on the anniversary of a failed coup.

Mr Erdogan said: "People that night did not have guns, they had a flag and more importantly, they had their faith."

He backed the death penalty for coup plotters and said they should wear Guantanamo Bay-style uniforms.

Some 250 people died and 2,196 were wounded fighting the coup attempt by an army faction on 15 July last year.

The government has since dismissed more than 150,000 state employees, saying it is rooting out coup supporters.

Critics say the dismissals, and a wave of 50,000 arrests, are part of an attempt to purge dissent.

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Mr Erdogan was addressing tens of thousands of Turks who had rallied to the bridge over the Bosphorus where civilians had confronted pro-coup soldiers last year.

He said: "I am grateful to all members of my nation who defended their country."

Mr Erdogan said that 250 people had lost their lives but the country had won its future.

"Putschists who closed off the bridge on that night wanted to show the world that they were in control," he said, but were countered by "millions who took to the streets that night to defend the honour of their nation".

He said he would "break the heads of the traitors" who plotted the coup.

Mr Erdogan also said he had spoken to Prime Minister Binali Yildirim about the coup plotters, saying: "When they appear in court, let's make them appear in uniform suits like in Guantanamo."

The president then unveiled a "martyrs' memorial" at the bridge, which has been renamed the Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15.

Apple defends complying with China over VPNs

Apple boss Tim Cook has defended his company’s decision to comply with the Chinese government’s demand it remove VPN software from the App Store.

Virtual Private Networks are often used to skirt censorship and surveillance in countries with tight restrictions on internet use.

The company has been heavily criticised for removing several VPN apps, and was accused of “aiding Chinese censorship efforts”.

Apple said it disagreed with China’s position but had to comply with the country’s laws.

"We would obviously rather not remove the apps,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said on Tuesday.

"But like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business.

Mr Cook said comparisons to a legal battle in the US last year - in which the firm refused to help the FBI unlock a dead terrorist's iPhone - were unfair.

"They’re very different,” he said.

"In the case of the US, the law in the US supported us. I was very clear. In the case of China, the law is also very clear there. Like we would if the US changed the law here, we’d have to abide by them in both cases."

'Most drastic measure'

Activists and indeed regular citizens in China have been finding ways to poke holes in the country’s infamous Great Firewall of China which blocks “questionable” content and is heavily monitored.

To operate a VPN service in the country, companies must be authorised by the Chinese authorities.

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Those without permission, such as ExpressVPN, have been singled out for removal from Apple’s App Store.

“We’re disappointed in this development, as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date,” said ExpressVPN in a blog post.

“We are troubled to see Apple aiding China’s censorship efforts. ExpressVPN strongly condemns these measures, which threaten free speech and civil liberties.”

Mr Cook said Apple stated its opposition to the removal through the “appropriate” channels.

"We believe in engaging with governments even when we disagree,” he said.

"In this particular case, we are hopeful that over time the [restrictions] we’re seeing are loosened, because innovation requires freedom to collaborate and communicate.”

Mr Cook’s remarks were made during the firm’s quarterly earnings call. While the firm performed strongly in most of the world, it continues to struggle in China where revenues dropped 10% compared to this time last year.

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Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

Warming to boost deadly humidity levels across South Asia

Millions of people living in South Asia face a deadly threat from heat and humidity driven by global warming according to a new study.

Most of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will experience temperatures close to the limits of survivability by 2100, without emissions reductions.

The research says the fraction of the population exposed to dangerous, humid heat waves may reach 30%.

South Asia is home to one-fifth of the world's inhabitants.

Wet bulb threat

Most official weather stations around the world measure temperature with two thermometers.

The first, or "dry bulb" instrument, records the temperature of the air. The other, or "wet bulb" thermometer, measures relative humidity in the air and the results are normally lower than just the pure air temperature.

For humans, this wet bulb reading is critically important.

While the normal temperature inside our bodies is 37C, our skin is usually at 35C. This temperature difference allows us to dissipate our own metabolic heat by sweating.

However, if wet bulb temperatures in our environment are at 35C or greater, our ability to lose heat declines rapidly and even the fittest of people would die in around six hours.

While a wet bulb 35C is considered the upper limit of human survivability, even a humid temperature of 31C is considered an extremely dangerous level for most people.

Recorded wet bulb temperatures on Earth have rarely exceeded 31C. However, in 2015 in Iran, meteorologists saw wet bulb temperatures very close to 35C. In the same summer, a deadly heat wave killed 3,500 people in India and Pakistan.

This understanding of the potentially deadly impact on humans of wet bulb temperatures is key to this new study.

The researchers involved came to their conclusions by using a high resolution climate model, that was tested against observations.

They projected wet bulb temperatures to the end of this century using two different climate change scenarios.

When the model examined a high emissions future, the wet bulb temperature would approach the 35C threshold "over most of South Asia, including the Ganges river valley, north eastern India, Bangladesh, the eastern coast of China, northern Sri Lanka and the Indus valley of Pakistan".

According to the scientists, around 30% of the population is projected to live in a climate characterised by a median of the maximum annual wet bulb temperature of 31C or more. At present, the number of people facing this level of threat is essentially zero.

"The valleys of the Indus and the Ganges rivers are where the water is, they're where the agriculture is and they're where the population has exploded," author Prof Elfatih Eltahir from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told BBC News.

"Our map that shows where the temperature extremes are, it's the same place that you have relatively poor people who predominantly have to work in agriculture and there are so many that they happen to coincide in a region where the hazard is maximised."

Impacts of Paris

If the rise in global temperatures is contained to just over two degrees, roughly in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, the fraction of the population exposed to humid heat above 31C drops to 2%.

Heat waves up to and beyond 31C are projected to become much more frequent if little action is taken on cutting carbon. In most locations, the once-every-25-year heat wave in the present climate is projected to become an approximately once-a-year occurrence. If the limitations agreed in Paris are met, these heat waves are likely to happen every two years.

"Climate change doesn't look like an abstract concept if you look at India," said Prof Eltahir.

"This is something that is going to impact your most vulnerable population in ways that are potentially pretty lethal. But it is avoidable, it is preventable."

Other researchers say the "damaging and downright deadly" conditions described in this study are likely to occur if the world doesn't embrace rapid and substantial cuts in carbon emissions.

"This study provides a crucial glimpse of the future," said Prof Matthew Huber from Purdue University, US, who wasn't part of the research team.

"Either we - the whole world - decide to reduce carbon emissions substantially or we face a highly dangerous scenario in one of the most populous regions in the world, with a deep history and culture, and also a history of political instability."

According to Prof Christoph Schaer from the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich, the work is "alarming".

"The study is credible as extremely hot and humid heat waves already occur under current climatic conditions in some of the areas considered," he said.

"As conditions are close to a critical health threshold already today, a warming of a few degrees could strongly increase the risk of deadly heat waves."

The study has been published in the journal Science Advances.

Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook.

Receptionist dead after blast hits Minneapolis school

A Minnesota school receptionist has been killed in an explosion that partially levelled the building and injured nine others, officials say.

Ruth Berg, 47, who was engaged to be married, was found by search crews in the rubble of Minnehaha Academy in the city of Minneapolis.

One other person, 82-year-old school janitor John Carlson, is still missing after Wednesday morning's blast.

Investigators suspect natural gas caused the explosion.

School officials said in a Facebook post that Ms Berg had worked there for 17 years.

"As our receptionist, she welcomed everyone with a smile and was always willing to go the extra mile to help our students, families, and staff," they wrote.

"She will be greatly missed. Please keep Ruth's family, and our school community, in your prayers."

Rescuers plucked three people from the roof after the explosion, which set part of the building ablaze.

Medics said three people were in a critical condition, four in a serious condition and two had "minor trauma".

Mr Carlson, the missing janitor, was a 1953 graduate of Minnehaha Academy who also sent his children there, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

He began his caretaker job at the school in 2003 and was known for his generosity in handing out ice cream bars to staff and students.

Kenyan election official Chris Msando 'tortured to death'

The Kenyan election official whose body was found earlier this week had been severely tortured and strangled to death, an autopsy has found.

Chris Msando had deep scratches and cuts on his back and hands, the chief government pathologist said.

Mr Msando was in charge of Kenya's computerised voting system for next Tuesday's presidential elections.

His body was discovered next to the corpse of a woman in a forest on the outskirts of Nairobi at the weekend.

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"There was no doubt that he was tortured and murdered," Wafula Chebukati, chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), said on Wednesday.

An autopsy on the body of the woman found alongside Mr Msando, thought to be that of his companion Carol Ngumbu, will take place on Thursday.

The investigation is still ongoing, government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe confirmed, dismissing earlier reports that three suspects had been arrested.

In a joint statement, the United States and the United Kingdom said they were "gravely concerned" by the murder, calling for "free, fair, credible and peaceful elections" in Kenya.

The two countries also offered assistance in the investigation. Mr Msando's family urged the Kenyan government to accept the offer in order to "conclude the matter with urgency".

"We are deeply devastated at the tragic loss," the family said in a statement.

"Chris Msando was a loving family man, who cherished and adored his wife and children.

The family also asked social media users to be mindful of what they post, saying: "A lot of the information out there is false and meant to injure and paint the family in a bad light."