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‘The streets are full of blood’: Iranian protests gather momentum as regime cracks down

Sarah felt she had little left to lose. A 50-year-old entrepreneur in Tehran, she watched as prices soared higher while her freedoms shrank each year. So, when protesters started gathering in the high-end Andarzgoo neighbourhood of Tehran on Saturday night, she was quick to join them. In a video sent to the Guardian via her cousin who lives abroad, people walk through the street, joyous, despite a halo of teargas hanging over their heads. The crowd was mixed, with families, elderly people and men walking side by side. The mood was calm, until security forces approached, raised their assault rifles and began to shoot at the unarmed protesters at close range. The next video she sent was hurried. “Shameless!” she repeated again and again as she drove away, the crackle of gunshots audible as people hurry past. On Thursday, Iran went dark. Authorities shut down the internet and the ability to call abroad, cutting the country off from the rest of the world. The government’s rhetoric, initially conciliatory, quickly changed. Gone were the offers of dialogue, replaced by threats of death sentences for protesters, who the government accused of being backed by Israel and the US. What happened next was documented in grainy videos and panicked messages ferried out of the country by activists who managed to grab a momentary Starlink connection before GPS scrambling shut their line down. Crowds of thousands have marched across the country each night, chanting “death to the dictator”, a reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and for the return of the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled Iran before the 1979 revolution. A 19-year-old student activist said on Friday: “We are marching in thousands tonight. I saw children on the shoulders of their parents, a grandmother chanting ‘Death to Khamenei’ while she’s decked up in a chador [black robe]. Do you realise how significant this is?” The protest movement, which started as a modest demonstration by shopkeepers in Tehran against a sudden depreciation of the country’s currency on 28 December, rapidly moved beyond the government’s control. As the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, called for dialogue, cautioning that government action could cause inflation to rise even further, signs of a crackdown by security forces started to appear. Video emerged of riot police breaking into a hospital treating wounded protesters in the western province of Ilam on 4 January, shocking Iranians, who were outraged at the beating of patients and doctors. At least 538 people have been killed in the violence surrounding demonstrations, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, including 490 protesters. The group reported that more than 10,600 people had been arrested by Iranian authorities. Earlier, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented at least 28 people killed by authorities between 31 December and 3 January, with some shot with rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets. Pezeshkian called for an investigation into the hospital raid and other alleged ill-treatment by security forces and, unlike other Iranian officials, said that the Iranian government bore responsibility for demonstrators’ grievances, not foreign powers. His promises of accountability was not enough to satisfy Iranians, and crowds grew. They were incensed by the blatant use of force against demonstrations, a pattern they saw in previous protest movements in 2009, 2019 and 2022. Soran, a protester from the western city of Kermanshah, said on Wednesday: “We have seen for decades how government forces use maximum violence towards us during crackdowns and this time is no different. They are shooting at anyone and everyone.” Watching from outside Iran, diaspora and opposition figures began to think the protests held real promise for toppling the Iranian regime. On Thursday, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran who was expelled during the 1979 revolution, called for unified protests in the country. At 8pm on Thursday, Iranians across the country should chant from their windows and rooftops, Pahvlavi said, adding that he would announce next steps depending on the on-the-ground response to his call. Iranian authorities heard the call. At about 8pm on Thursday, they shut down the internet. Despite the blackout, a few videos showed massive crowds in the streets, many of them chanting in support of Pahlavi. There on the streets, they found security forces waiting for them. With the information flow out of Iran slowing to a trickle, authorities began to use force drastically. Mahsa, a 28-year-old journalist from Mashhad, said on Thursday before her phone connection disappeared: “They’re charging at crowds in vans and bikes. I have seen them slowing down and deliberately shooting at people’s faces. Many have been injured. The streets are full of blood. I fear I am about to witness a sea of dead people.” As the streets of Iran erupted into protest, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, visited Beirut. On Friday night he sat in the Crowne Plaza hotel for a discussion and a signing of his recently published memoir, The Power of Negotiation. During the discussion, he brushed off concerns that the protests were of great significance, saying that like in any other country, grievances around prices are sometimes aired in public. “Trump has deployed the national guard in his own country. We saw how border police [ICE] killed a woman. But if Iran does this, if even a single bullet is fired, that people want to come rescue them,” the foreign minister said, ending the discussion to sign copies of his book. Back in Iran, protesters reported otherwise. A demonstrator who gathered in the Tajrish Arg neighbourhood detailed how snipers were firing at crowds, saying that he saw “hundreds of bodies” in the streets. A picture of two Irans began to emerge. During the day, state TV and official government bodies projected an air of normalcy, airing pro-government demonstrations and footage of people going about their business in neighbourhoods that were free of any protest actions. At night, videos of protests raging through the streets leaked to the rest of the world, brought out at great effort by activists and shared with the Iranian diaspora abroad. Videos showed protesters braving the crackdown, with thousands marching through the streets across the country despite facing what appeared to be live fire from authorities. The true picture of the scale of protests was hard to discern, as only a few people could evade the internet blackout in Iran. Diaspora and opposition figures abroad amplified the few videos that emerged from the country, proclaiming that the end of the regime was near. What little testimony came out of the country was harrowing. A protester from Tehran dashed off a message on Friday, saying that they had been beaten with sticks and watched as authorities fired live ammunition into crowds. The number of killed was “very high”, they said, before going offline again. Video of bodies lying on a hospital floor in Tehran emerged on Friday, as human rights groups said that though they could not properly document each death, they feared massacres had been committed. On Sunday, a video of a large medical warehouse outside a makeshift morgue in the Kahrizak area of Tehran made its way to social media, bodybags stacked inside and lining an adjacent courtyard. Families gathered around a television screen, waiting with grim anticipation as a slideshow of brutalised faces appeared on their screen. The wailing of women could be heard in the background as people lifted the black plastic sheeting covering the dead. State TV insisted the bodybags contained people killed by protesters, claiming autopsies had shown bodies with stab wounds, not bullets. Emerging reports of bloodshed made its way to Washington, where Donald Trump doubled down on his threat to intervene militarily in Iran if the government killed protesters. The US president said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday night: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!” He was reportedly mulling over military options for a strike on Iran. The external threat only seemed to harden Iranian authorities’ stance against protesters, and fed into their narrative that the west was behind the protests. Iran’s police carried out arrests of protest figures; while its speaker of the parliament said it might strike the US or Israel in the case of US military intervention. Protests continued despite the crackdown, settling into a rhythm by Sunday, demonstrators gathering in the streets and rallying under the cover of night. The world watched as the Iranian people protested, unable to send their support to the demonstrators who were cut off from outside contact. A protester from Tehran said: “With great difficulty, thousands of us managed to get online so I could get the news to you. We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help.”

Avalanche kills British skier in La Plagne in the French Alps

A British skier has been killed by an avalanche in the French Alps. The man, believed to be in his 50s, was found under 2.5 metres of snow after a 50-minute search, a statement from the La Plagne resort in south-eastern France said. He was skiing off-piste when the avalanche took place, the resort added. A team of more than 50 people, including medics, ski school instructors and dogs were involved in the rescue mission on Sunday afternoon. The man was skiing alongside a group when the incident occurred, but the resort said he was not equipped with an avalanche transceiver or accompanied by a professional instructor. La Plagne said its thoughts were with the man’s family.

Unpredictable Trump weighs up Iranian pleas for help against calls for restraint

Donald Trump is being warned by Iranians that it will be too late unless he acts quickly to fulfil his promise to help protesters under fire from security services in Iran but the president is receiving conflicting advice about the potential effectiveness of a US intervention. A major intervention by Washington, some are warning, will only fuel the fire of an Iranian government narrative that the protests are being manipulated as part of an anti-Islamic plot being led by the US and Israel. Trump has promised that he will “shoot at Iran” if Iranian security services attack protesters; however, analysts suggested the speed of the crisis meant his team has no developed response ready. There has been no major movement of US military assets, and many of his closest Middle East partners such as Qatar are urging restraint. Military options and other possibilities were being placed in front of the unpredictable president, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday. The population density of Tehran – where roughly 12 million Iranians live – means it is hard to mount a targeted campaign from the air without risking many civilian casualties, as the US-Israeli assault in June showed. More than 1,000 Iranians died, creating a new, now apparently dissipated, nationalism. Obvious potential US targets – leading Revolutionary Guards figures, as well as the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – have strengthened their personal security precautions, making a decapitation strategy harder. However, Revolutionary Guards bases in south Tehran and police barracks are seen as potentially more feasible targets. Over the weekend Iranian opposition leaders lobbied Washington, arguing that the scale of the regime violence amounted to a crime against humanity. One group warned that the protesters could probably withstand two more days of the current level of police and army violence. In a letter, seven Iranian political, civil and cultural figures urged Trump to recognise the scale of the repression under way. The letter was signed by Javad Akbarin, a religious scholar and journalist, Nazanin Ansari, the managing director of the Kayhan newspaper in London, Foad Pashaei, the secretary general of the Constitutionalist party of Iran, Yazdan Shohadai, spokesperson for the Transition Council, Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer and Nobel peace prize winner, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a writer and director, and Abdullah Mohtadi, secretary general of the Kurdistan Komala party of Iran. They pointed out Trump has repeatedly promised to intervene and warned “every minute of delay will expand the dimensions of the crime against the defenceless people of Iran”. The son of the former shah Raza Pahlavi who claims to have some control over the protests has also appealed for Trump to act. But he has tempered his advice to protesters, highlighting self-protection. He said: “Go to the main streets of the cities in groups with your friends and family members; along the way, do not separate from one another or from the crowds of people; and do not take side streets that could endanger your lives.” Many external observers are advising caution, arguing US bombing could be counter-productive. Danny Citrinowicz, a former senior Israeli defence intelligence specialist on Iran, said the key question was that if Trump took a deliberately limited action designed to prevent escalation, whether that “would actually affect the regime’s ability to confront the protesters, or whether it could instead produce the opposite outcome, given expectations within the Iranian opposition for deeper and more decisive US involvement”. Sanam Vakil from Chatham House’s Middle East programme said the likely primary impact of a US intervention would be to “shore up elite unity and suppress fractures within the regime at a moment of heightened vulnerability”. Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, the chief executive of Bourse and Bazaar, said “The strongest argument against US intervention is the Trump administration’s failure to steward peace in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon or political transitions in Syria and Venezuela. In each place they made bold promises. But they have no bandwidth and no strategy to actually see things through.” The former UK ambassador to Tehran Rob Macaire said US strikes “may not necessarily play out as people expect”, pointing out that the attacks in June were not seen as helping to diminish the power of the state. At the same time he admitted Trump’s statements meant “we are going to get to a point where there is a gap between rhetoric and reality”. He urged policymakers to think more about how a transition could be achieved. He said: “This is a government that came in with an economic reform platform saying it will make the lives of ordinary people better and that was hung in part on the idea there was an agreement with the west and sanctions would be lifted. But that has not happened.” The Iranian government “do not have answers to the inequality, the structural challenges, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] dominating the economy, the smuggling that goes on with sanctions, and how that narrows the resources of the government. They do not have any way of solving the problems the protesters are so angry about. Yet there is no one out there that does – there is no one you can go to enthrone, whether it is Pahlavi or anyone else.” The Iranian government is already seeking to persuade Iranians that they are responsible for saving the country from chaos being engineered from abroad. In a TV interview on Sunday Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, repeatedly appealed for national unity, urging the country to go forward “hand in hand” against an external enemy that was encouraging the rioters. He said 80% of the protesters had legitimate complaints but that those burning mosques and shops were rioters and terrorists. He accused the US of “using the economy as weapon to make us bend down. I am asking the nation: please, stay and back us.”

Iran warns US against attack as protest death toll reportedly soars

Iran has warned the US not to attack over protests that have rocked the country, as Donald Trump weighed the options for a response from Washington, with the reported death toll from the demonstrations soaring to the hundreds. At least 538 people have been killed in the violence surrounding demonstrations, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, including 490 protesters. The group reported that more than 10,600 people were arrested by Iranian authorities. Another rights monitor, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, said on Sunday that at least 192 protesters had been killed. Casualty figures varied between rights groups as they struggled to access people within Iran amid the internet blackout in the country, but all are expected to be undercounts. The regime has not supplied its own figures and it was not possible to independently verify them. The drastic rise in the reported death toll came as authorities intensified their crackdown on the protests, now in their second week. Rights groups were struggling to reach contacts within Iran due to a complete internet shutdown in the country, and warned that the death toll was likely to climb even further. The brutal crackdown has raised the likelihood of US intervention, with Trump saying he would “rescue” protesters if the Iranian government killed them. He reiterated his threat to intervene on Saturday night as the protests raged. “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!,” the US president said on the Truth Social platform. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was to be briefed by his team on Tuesday on options including military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources. Iranian officials bristled at the prospect of a US strike, with the speaker of parliament warning that Israel and US interests in the Middle East would be “legitimate targets” if Washington struck Iran. “In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centres, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said. The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, accused the US and Israel of being behind unrest in the country, saying they had brought in “terrorists” who were attacking public property. “Families, I ask you: do not allow your young children to join rioters and terrorists who behead people and kill others,” Pezeshkian said in a TV interview, appearing to adopt a harder line against demonstrations. On Sunday evening the Iranian government declared three days of national mourning for “martyrs” including members of the security forces killed in two weeks of protests, state television said. Pezeshkian urged people to take part in a “national resistance march” of nationwide rallies on Monday to denounce the violence, which the government said was committed by “urban terrorist criminals”, state television reported. The protest movement in Iran is the most significant unrest the country has experienced in years. Though triggered initially by a sudden slide in the country’s currency, protesters soon demanded political reform and called for the downfall of the government. Iran’s regime has weathered mass protest movements before, but analysts say the current unrest is happening because the government has been weakened by an economic crisis and in the aftermath of its summer war with Israel. Iranian authorities have arrested key members of the protest movement, the national police chief has said. “Last night, significant arrests were made of the main elements in the riots, who, God willing, will be punished after going through legal procedures,” the police chief, Ahmad-Reza Radan, told state TV on Sunday, without specifying the number of those arrested. Iran’s attorney general had said earlier that those who were caught protesting, or even helping protesters, could be charged with being “an enemy of God” – which is punished with the death penalty. US senators echoed Trump’s call, with Sen Lindsey Graham saying on social media that Iranians’ “long nightmare is soon coming to a close”. Israeli officials said they were on high alert for any US intervention in Iran, with Israeli media reporting that they are remaining silent on the issue to avoid allowing Iranian authorities to cast the protest movement as foreign-backed. Authorities cut off internet access in the country on Thursday, imposing a nearly impenetrable nationwide blackout. Human rights groups said Iranian authorities had used the cover of the internet shutdown to expand their crackdown against protesters, using deadly force and live ammunition to disperse demonstrations. Previously, when the US struck Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites in June, Iran carried out a strike on a US military base in Qatar. The strike was seen as mostly symbolic as it was telegraphed and did not lead to any deaths among US military personnel. Despite the crackdown, protests continued overnight on Saturday and more were expected on Sunday. Videos showed what appeared to be thousands of protesters in northern Tehran, banging pots and chanting protest slogans. In Mashhad, the birthplace of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, protesters appeared in videos facing off with police, creating roadblocks and lighting fires. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former shah of Iran, called for more protests on Sunday, instructing people to go to the main streets of cities in large groups. He promised to “soon be by your side”, the second time in recent days that the exiled leader said he would return to Iran. Pahlavi has emerged as a popular figure in the current round of protests, with protesters rallying around him as an alternative to the Iranian regime. Rights groups have said that while proper, exhaustive documentation is near-impossible due to the communications blackout in the country, there have been increasing reports of soaring a death toll among protesters. The Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Sunday that it had received credible reports from witnesses that hundreds of protesters had been killed in recent days. Messages and videos trickle out of Iran sporadically, mainly ferried by activists who have Starlink satellite internet services. A protester in the central Iranian city of Sari, according to messages forwarded via the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, said security forces had placed the city under complete martial law. “A large number of security forces armed with military weapons have set up checkpoints. Every car is being stopped, even if there are just two people inside. They are telling everyone that anyone who is outside will be shot,” the protester said. An Iranian activist abroad said their cousin managed to call them via Starlink on Saturday night in a panic. She was fleeing a protest in the Andarzgoo neighbourhood in Tehran after authorities started using “military weapons” on unarmed protesters, describing security forces opening fire on men, women and children at close distance. In videos forwarded to the Guardian, large crowds can be seen streaming through the streets with what appears to be teargas around them. A second video shows the protester fleeing, with the sound of gunshots heard in the background as she repeats the word “shameless”. A video verified by the Hengaw human rights group shows several bodies of what the group said were protesters killed by authorities in a warehouse in the Kahrizak area of Tehran. The organisation said the warehouse was a facility adjacent to a morgue and was being used as an overflow facility as the morgue was too overcrowded. Iranian state media blamed the death on protesters.

Trump tells Cuba to ‘make a deal’ or face the consequences

Donald Trump has told Cuba to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, adding that no more Venezuelan oil or money would flow to the communist-run Caribbean island that has been a US foe for decades. As Cuba, a close ally of Venezuela and big beneficiary of its oil, braced for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as the South American nation’s leader, the US president ramped up his threatening language on Sunday. “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He provided no details about what form such a deal could take. Venezuela is Cuba’s biggest oil supplier but amid a strict US oil blockade, shipping data shows that no cargoes have left Venezuelan ports headed to the Caribbean country since last week’s capture of Maduro by US forces. Dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel were killed in the US raid, after which Trump said Cuba was “ready to fall”, noting the island’s deep economic crisis and that it would be difficult for Havana to “hold out” without cheap Venezuelan oil. Earlier on Sunday, the US president reposted a message suggesting the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, whose parents were Cuban immigrants, could become the country’s new president, adding: “Sounds good to me!” In a separate message soon afterwards, Trump said Cuba had “lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE! “Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week’s USA attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection any more from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.” Cuba’s president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, vowed to defend the country against any attack. “Cuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation. No one tells us what to do,” Diaz-Canel wrote on X, adding that the Caribbean island was “ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood”. Some Republican US lawmakers on Sunday lauded Trump for his aggressive comments. Mario Díaz-Balart, a US congressman from Florida, said that after “decades of misery, tragedy, and pain” the regime in Havana was nearing its end. Caracas and Washington are working on a $2bn deal to supply up to 50m barrels of Venezuelan oil to the US, with proceeds to be deposited in US Treasury-supervised accounts – a test of relations between Trump and Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez. Trump’s remarks came after the US on Saturday urged its citizens to leave Venezuela immediately amid reports that armed paramilitaries are trying to track down US citizens in the country. In a security alert sent out on Saturday, the state department said there were reports of armed members of pro-regime militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching cars for evidence that the occupants were US citizens or supporters. “US citizens in Venezuela should remain vigilant and exercise caution when travelling by road,” the alert added, urging citizens to depart immediately now that some international flights from Venezuela had restarted. Speaking to the New York Times last week, Trump said he would like to visit Venezuela in the future after having claimed the US was “running” the South American country after removing its leader. “I think at some point it’ll be safe,” the US president told reporters. But the state department alert exposed how volatile the situation remains after last weekend’s special forces raid, during which scores of people were killed. Responding to the security alert, the Venezuelan foreign ministry said the US state department warning was “based on fabricated accounts aimed at creating a perception of risk that does not exist”. “Venezuela is in absolute calm, peace, and stability,” the ministry said. “All populated centres, communication routes, checkpoints, and security devices are functioning normally.” It said the government was “the sole guarantor of the legitimate monopoly of force and the tranquility of the Venezuelan people”. Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Gaza’s garden is a rare story of hope | Brief letters

What a brilliant message of hope for the new year (As the Israeli bombs fell, my family committed an act of rebellion: we planted a garden in Gaza, 8 January). Taqwa Ahmed al-Wawi’s article is inspirational for those who believe in the real world of human life and reject the synthetic values of a world viewed as real estate. Ruth Baker Matfield, Kent • Years ago there was an advert for the railways with the slogan “This is the age of the train” (Letters, 7 January). On one of them someone had written “This train takes ages”. Maggie Rylance Winchester • Regarding the curtness or otherwise of Aberdeen shop assistants (Letters, 9 January), in Russia, a waiter taking your order will say “Slushayu” (I’m listening). Harry D Watson Edinburgh • I can’t help feeling that the residents must be disgusted (Tunbridge Wells residents without water again as supplier blames cold weather, 8 January). Hilary Clarkson Manfield, Darlington • I’m not sure how many readers are familiar with startups valued at over $1bn, but I suspect that most will know the name of a certain mythical horse (Quick crossword, 9 January). Anne Unseld Beckenham, London • “50 places to go in 2026” says your front page (10 January). To go? Or to smugly count how many you have been to? (14 by the way). John Quigley Walsall, West Midlands • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

‘Fateful moment’ for Denmark amid Trump threats to take over Greenland

Mette Frederiksen has said that Denmark is at a “fateful moment” amid Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, accusing the US of potentially turning its back on Nato. Speaking at a party leader debate at a political rally on Sunday, the Danish prime minister said her country was “at a crossroads”. Her comments came before a crucial week in increasingly tense relations between Denmark, Greenland and the US in which the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, are due to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. “We are at a crossroads, and this is a fateful moment,” said Frederiksen. “What is at stake is bigger than what the eye can see, because if what we experience from the Americans is that they are actually turning their backs on the western alliance, that they are turning their backs on our Nato cooperation by threatening an ally, which we have not experienced before, then everything will stop.” On Friday, Trump said the US would take action on Greenland “whether they like it or not”. He said: “We’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.” His administration has refused repeatedly to rule out the use of military force – despite Denmark and Greenland being Nato allies. The Greenlandic prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, alongside the leaders of the country’s four other political parties, responded by issuing a united statement that read: “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders. The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.” At the domestic political debate in Nyborg, Frederiksen said although she had seen Trump since then, she had not discussed Greenland with him since a phone call a year ago. Denmark was, she said, “doing everything we can to make our position prevail in an American reality” but that it had to “stand firm” on the issue of Greenland. She said: “In our time, there will be a lot of setbacks where you can only choose between what is right and wrong, and this is one of them.” Describing the current situation between the longtime allies as a “conflict over Greenland”, she said: “We have received massive support from the countries in Nato.” Meanwhile, at a national conference of people and defence in Sälen, north-west Sweden, the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, spoke out in support of neighbouring Denmark. The US, he said, should thank Denmark for its longtime loyalty rather than issuing “threatening rhetoric” against Denmark and Greenland. He also condemned the US attack on Venezuela, saying it violated international law and “risks encouraging more countries to act similarly”. Sweden on Sunday announced that it was to invest about 15bn Swedish kronor (£1.21bn) in territorial air defence capabilities. “The world we know continues to be shaken,” said Kristersson. “Take it seriously, but don’t panic. We shouldn’t be afraid, but we should be prepared.”

EU wants ‘Farage clause’ in Brexit ‘reset’ talks with UK

The EU is reportedly demanding guarantees the UK will compensate the bloc if a future government reneges on the Brexit “reset” agreement Keir Starmer is currently negotiating. The termination clause is a stark reminder of the painful and costly divorce in which the EU set up a colossal €5.4bn (£4.7bn) fund to help its member states cope with the disruption caused by the UK’s exit in 2020. According to the Financial Times, a draft text of an agreement on agriculture trade, aimed at removing post-Brexit checks on farm produce, calls for any party pulling out of the agreement to cover the cost of reinstating border and infrastructure controls in the future. Nicknamed the “Farage clause” by EU diplomats, it is seen in some quarters as a means of ensuring the bloc is not left out of pocket should the Reform leader win a general election and make real his threat to cancel any UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS)agreement. However, UK sources dismissed this notion, saying such a clause was routine in international deals and was written “to work both ways”, and would therefore also force the EU to compensate the UK if it backed out of the deal in future. A Labour source said: “Exit provisions are a basic staple of any international trade agreement. Pretending these routine legal contingencies constitute a democratic outrage [is] frankly exhausting.” Negotiations on the SPS deal have not yet started but are due to commence this month. They may take months to complete, however, as the topic is one of the most complicated in the reset package that also includes a return to Erasmus, which was agreed before Christmas. A deal on carbon dioxide emissions on goods exported to the EU has also proved to be complicated. Hopes that Labour could secure an agreement on the carbon border adjustment mechanism before Christmas came to nothing. Anand Menon, the director of UK in a Changing Europe, said: “We shouldn’t be surprised that the EU is playing hardball. After all, they have decided that we need these agreements more than they do. As such, they will extract every last concession.” According to the FT, the “Farage clause” states that if either side pulls out of the agreement, compensation would include the costs of setting up “the infrastructure and equipment, initial recruitment and training, in order to set up the necessary border controls”, which could run to billions of pounds. When pricing the cost of Brexit, the EU put a €5.4bn adjustment reserve in place in 2020 to deal with disruption, with Ireland allocated €920m and the Netherlands more than €800m to put in place customs officers, veterinary officers and other controls, not seen since before the single market was set up in 1993. France was allocated €672m and spent at least €200m putting customs officers, border police, plant and veterinary inspectors in Calais, Boulogne, Dunkirk, Le Havre and at the Channel tunnel including special checks for horses being transported to race meetings that cost Eurotunnel €20m. The Netherlands employed more than 900 customs officials and an additional 145 veterinarians for the port of Rotterdam, while Spain hired an additional 860 employees for airports, ports and border control. The European Commission and UK government have been approached for comment.