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Iran crisis: Trump ‘unafraid’ to use ‘lethal force’ on Iran but wants diplomacy to be ‘first option’, says White House – as it happened

We’re pausing our live coverage – thank you for reading along. Here’s a quick recap of today’s key developments: At least 648 demonstrators have so far been killed in the ongoing crackdown by Iranian security forces against the most significant anti-government demonstrations in Iran in years, according to the latest count from the rights groups tracking the death toll. The true number, of course, could be far higher, given the difficulties arising from the days-long nationwide internet blackout. Here is a visual guide to the protest movement. Donald Trump said the United States was considering “very strong options” to intervene in Iran, having previously threatened to intervene militarily if the regime continued to kill protesters. Diplomatic channels between Washington and Tehran remain open, and the White House said today that Iran is sending “quite different” messages to the United States privately than what it is saying publicly, and the US has “an interest in exploring those messages”. While diplomacy remains the “first option”, Trump is “unafraid” to respond to the killing of protesters with military force “if and when he deems that necessary”, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She also said that the US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is and “will continue” to be a key player in diplomatic discussions with Iran. Iran’s supreme leader in turn accused the US of “deceit” and relying on “treacherous mercenaries”, while praising state-organised pro-government rallies in Tehran. You can read more about the staged rallies here. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi warned that Iran was not seeking war but was “fully prepared” for war with the US. “If Washington wants to test the military option it has tested before, we are ready for it”, Araghchi told Al Jazeera Arabic, referring to last summer’s bombings of three nuclear sites in Iran. “We have a large and extensive military preparedness compared to what we had during the last war. We are prepared for all options and hope Washington chooses the wise option.” He went on: “We are also ready for negotiations but these negotiations should be fair, with equal rights and based on mutual respect.” The UK’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told Araghchi that the Iranian government must immediately end its “horrific” violence against protesters. In response, Araghchi warned the UK “to avoid interfering in Iran’s internal affairs”. He also threatened to evacuate the Iranian embassy in London. Lastly, if it is safe for you to do so, we would like to speak to people in Iran. Could you tell us about your experience of living there during this time? How has the current situation affected your day-to-day existence? What are your thoughts on a US intervention? We would also like to hear from Iranians living abroad. How are friends and family coping? What are your views on Trump’s comments regarding a US intervention? Please note that while we’d like to hear from you, your security is most important. We recognise it may not always be safe or appropriate to record or share your experiences, so please think about this when considering whether to get in touch with the Guardian. IP addresses will be recorded on a third-party web server, so for true anonymity, use our secure messaging service, however, anything submitted on the form below will be encrypted and confidential if you wish to continue. You can share your views and experience in the form here.

Iran holds pro-government rally as regime seeks to downplay protests

Tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators have rallied in Tehran as the Iranian regime sought to downplay the continuing nationwide protest movement. State TV showed crowds of people on Monday streaming through the streets of Tehran before gathering in Enqelab Square for the “Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism” rally. There, they listened to a speech by the speaker of the parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who railed against western intervention. Ghalibaf said Iran was fighting a four-front war: an “economic war, psychological warfare, military war against the US and Israel, and today a war against terrorism”. Flanked by the slogans “Death to Israel, Death to America” in Persian, he vowed the Iranian military would teach Donald Trump “an unforgettable lesson” if Iran were attacked. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the demonstration was a “warning” to American politicians following threats from the US president, Donald Trump, to intervene militarily in Iran. “These massive rallies, full of determination, have thwarted the plan of foreign enemies that were supposed to be carried out by domestic mercenaries,” he said, according to Iranian state TV. The show of support by regime supporters came as the Iranian government tried to project an air of normality, despite being rocked by the country’s largest protest movement since 2009. The US president has repeatedly threatened to intervene if Tehran killed protesters. The White House on Monday said Trump was not afraid to use military force, but wanted diplomacy. Iran’s foreign minister claimed the situation in the country had “come under total control” on Monday in an address to foreign diplomats. The few messages and videos to have emerged from Iran overnight showed that protests were continuing, but an ongoing internet blackout made it difficult to judge whether the authorities’ use of violence had been effective in blunting the movement’s momentum. The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, and thousands more injuries, but warned the death toll was probably much higher – “according to some estimates more than 6,000”, it said. Videos on social media showed protests continuing into Monday, in contrast to officials’ comments, but demonstrations thus far have been concentrated at night. The protests, now in their 16th day, started when traders in Tehran took to the streets to protest over a sudden depreciation in the national currency. They have expanded into nationwide demonstrations with protesters calling for the fall of the Iranian regime – triggering a heavy-handed response by authorities. Iran has beat back previous rounds of mass unrest through the use of force, notably in 2009 and 2019. The coming few days are being seen as a bellwether for the staying power of the current protest movement in the face of an increasingly lethal response. The foreign minister claimed that western powers had turned peaceful protests “violent and bloody to give an excuse” for military intervention. Iranian officials have accused Israel and the US of backing protests and using them to try to destabilise the country, despite the apparent vast popular participation of everyday Iranians in the protest movement. The government crackdown has drawn a wave of condemnation from the international community, with Germany and Canada calling on authorities to halt their repression of Iranians on Monday. What little information made its way out of Iran amid its internet blackout – now in its fourth day – showed continued use of force against protesters and a soaring death toll. “After some time, in the darkness, gunfire began and people were hit by bullets. There were no security forces present in the streets. Based on what we observed, we suspect the shots were fired either from drones in the sky or directly from rooftops,” said a protester in the Punak neighbourhood of Tehran. They added that authorities seemed to cut off electricity before firing at protesters, so that the crowds were plunged into darkness before bullets started flying. A video circulating over the weekend showed dozens of bodies in a warehouse in the Kahrizak area of Tehran. The Hengaw human rights group said the warehouse was being used as an overflow facility for a morgue that was too overcrowded. Footage showed families huddled around a widescreen television where faces of the dead at the morgue would appear, hoping to learn the fate of their loved ones who went out to protest but did not return. Iranian authorities have sought to clamp down on protests with a very public show of force inside Iran, handing out harsh sentences to those they deem to be involved in demonstrations. At least 96 cases of forced confessions had been broadcast by state media, evidence that was often used later to carry out death sentences, rights groups warned. One protester, 26-year-old Irfan Soltani, had been sentenced to death, with his execution slated for Wednesday, the Hengaw human rights group said, citing his family. Soltani would be the first protester executed by authorities since the protest movement began. Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, on Sunday urged Iranian security forces and government employees to join the swelling protest movement. “Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people,” Pahlavi posted on social media. Protesters have increasingly rallied around Pahlavi as an opposition figure to the regime, with demonstrators chanting support for his family dynasty. He has claimed that thousands of members of Iran’s security forces have signalled their intent to defect through an online platform he has created, and that he will give further instructions when the time is right. Thousands of Iranians rallied around the world over the weekend in support of protesters inside the country.

Dozens of artists call for end to Israel’s ‘systematic attacks’ on Gaza hospitals

Dozens of artists, including Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo and Ilana Glazer, have joined with doctors, human rights leaders and humanitarian organizations to call for the immediate restoration of medical care in Gaza in a letter addressed to the state of Israel and world leaders. “Israel’s systematic attacks on hospitals and unlawful blockade have collapsed Gaza’s healthcare system,” says the letter, which was shared exclusively with the Guardian. “Through its policies and military activities, the government of Israel has deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza and then denied the very help that could save them.” The first signatory on Monday’s letter is the mother of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl from Gaza City who was killed by Israeli fire in January 2024 while waiting for a team of Palestinian paramedics whose ambulance was shelled while trying to reach her. Her story has been memorialized in the Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s latest film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, which has been shortlisted for an Academy Award. “Hind Rajab did not die because help was impossible, but because it was denied,” Ben Hania said in a statement to the Guardian. Ben Hania joined with Hind’s mother, Wesam Hamada, to sign the letter assembled by a group of non-profits. Other signatories include Brian Eno, Rosie O’Donnell and Morgan Spector. The Israeli organization B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights are among the human rights groups that signed the letter, which will be presented to UK and EU leaders in parliamentary meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The letter calls for the “immediate, unconditional, unhindered and sustained humanitarian access into Palestine”, including the entry of medical and humanitarian personnel. Israel recently banned dozens of aid agencies from work in Gaza and the West Bank, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), on the grounds that they would not fulfill onerous registration requirements that the groups say would put their staff at risk. MSF says it supports one in five of Gaza’s hospital beds and one in three mothers during childbirth. The UN Human Rights Office estimates that 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed since Israel’s assault on Gaza began in 2023. At least 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed by the Israeli military over two years of war, the group said. Many medical items, including wheelchairs and walkers, have been barred entry. A panel of UN experts determined that Israel’s attacks on the sector and its workers amounted to “medicide” – the systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system and a component of Israel’s larger campaign against Palestinians that legal experts have called genocide. The Israeli military said in a statement that “the claims that IDF forces are deliberately preventing medical teams from treating wounded civilians is completely baseless, both in the Gaza Strip and in the Judea and Samaria region,” using the term for the West Bank preferred by the Israeli government. “The IDF recognizes the importance of the special protections given to medical teams under international humanitarian law and takes action to prevent harm to them,” the statement continued. The letter asks world leaders to take “immediate action” to restore and enable medical access for patients in Gaza and the West Bank, where increasing restrictions on movement have affected access to medical care. More than 18,500 Palestinians await medical evacuation from Gaza, (MSF) estimated in December. The humanitarian agency said that at least 1,000 people have died awaiting care. Dr Thaer Gazawneh, a Chicago-based emergency physician who signed Monday’s letter, believes that Israel’s restrictions are designed to push Palestinians out of Gaza. “[They] are making the living conditions in Gaza so unbearable that people will be forced to be displaced again.” Gazawneh volunteers in the West Bank where he said it had become nearly impossible to dispatch emergency responders due to Israeli checkpoints and the threat of arbitrary arrests. At least 384 medical workers have been unlawfully detained by Israel’s military, according to the NGO Healthcare Workers Watch. “This call for medical access is urgent because medicine and care is the bare minimum of humanity, and when even that’s blocked, it puts every person on the planet at risk of being treated the same way: subhuman,” Glazer told the Guardian. Glazer, a New York-based Jewish comedian and actor first famed for her television series Broad City, has been a sharp critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, and previously signed a letter alongside 150 Jewish creatives calling for a ceasefire and the safe return of hostages. Hind’s mother told the Guardian that the issue of medical access felt particularly personal because her daughter had dreamed of becoming a doctor. “Hind never bought any ordinary toys or dolls like other children. She always chose doctor’s toys: a stethoscope, a plastic syringe, a small first-aid kit. She would treat her dolls, pat them, and promise them that everything would be all right,” Hamada said. “Hind’s dream is no longer to become a doctor, but for the children of Gaza to find a doctor, a hospital, medicine, and safety.”

Iran says it is open to talks with US amid protest crackdown

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said Iran is willing to negotiate with the US about its nuclear programme on the basis of respect, but did not comment on claims by Donald Trump that Iran was arranging a meeting with the US. The US president, who has threatened to intervene in Iran, said on Sunday such a meeting was being planned, but added it could be derailed by the crackdown on protesters. He has claimed that Iran reached out and proposed negotiations, as he considers “very strong” military action against the regime. “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. It follows direct contact between Araghchi and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Araghchi was seeking to ward off a potential US attack on Iran, but the status of Iran’s nuclear programme was also discussed. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said communication lines with the US remained open but that the messages from the US were “often contradictory”. Araghchi, briefing foreign diplomats in Tehran with his first remarks after Trump’s comments, did not depart from the official line since the US and Israel bombed its nuclear installations last June that Iran could only hold talks on the basis of respect. He also claimed the situation in Iran had “come under total control” as authorities carry out a brutal crackdown against nationwide anti-regime protests, now in their 16th day. Trump suggested in his comments on Air Force One that Iran was seeking talks because “I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States. Iran wants to negotiate.” But asked whether Iran’s leaders had crossed a red line with the crackdown on protests, he replied: “It looks like it. There seems to be some people killed who weren’t supposed to be killed.” Estimates of the death toll vary from 300 to 3,000, an estimate provided by the National Council for Resistance in Iran. Pressed about his plans to intervene militarily, Trump said: “We’re looking at it very seriously, the military’s looking at it. And there’s a couple options.” An administration strategy meeting on Iran will consider the options in the next 24 hours. Trump also said he planned to speak with Elon Musk about restoring internet in Iran – where authorities have blacked out services for four days – using his Starlink service. Trump’s claims of discussions about talks – if true – would suggest a strong private debate inside the Iranian government about the essential need to lift US sanctions through a nuclear deal. It is widely accepted inside the reformist-led government that without US sanctions being lifted, the country’s economic problems, the spark for the protests, will continue. But there has been no sign that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the hardliner-dominated parliament are prepared to endorse such talks, and the often fantastical explanations for the protests, or denial of their existence, relieves Khamenei of a need for a policy response. But in a regime show of strength, mobilising its core base through mass demonstrations on Monday, it was significant that the reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, did not address the crowds, but instead that fell to the hardline speaker of the parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who called Trump delusional. Ellie Geranmayeh, Middle East expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Iranian government could have hit a ceiling in terms of what it could offer the protesters. Araghchi described Trump’s support for the protest movement that has roiled the country since late December as “interference in the internal affairs of countries […] No government has the right to threaten military intervention under the pretext of protests or human rights”. The regime showed no compunction about showing the body bags of protesters, describing them as terrorists. On Saturday, Araghchi met the key external mediator on Iran’s nuclear programme, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, Oman’s minister of foreign affairs. However, if messages about negotiations had been sent to Trump, his comments may make it less likely negotiations will occur since there will be a political backlash about talking to a man that Iran believes duplicitously held five rounds of talks with it before bombing its nuclear sites days before the sixth round. The reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, often accused of weakness, initially acknowledged the legitimacy of the protests and the need for economic reforms to weed out corruption and control the exchange rate, and thereby inflation. A man driven by the need for consensus, he is unlikely to change the thinking of the supreme leader or the security services.

Eva Schloss obituary

At the time, in 1940, when the 11-year-old Eva Schloss (then Eva Geiringer), newly arrived from Vienna, played with a group of children that included Anne Frank in the grassy square between their Amsterdam flats after school, she could not have imagined how intimately linked her name and Anne’s would become. Eva, who has died aged 96, and Anne were not close: although born a month apart and neighbours in Merwedeplein (Anne lived at flat 37 and Eva at 46), they were unalike – Eva athletic, Anne more interested in fashion, films and flirting. But when Eva’s mother married Otto Frank, Anne’s father, in 1953, she became Anne’s posthumous stepsister, a moniker she never sought but used to brilliant effect in 40 years of Holocaust education. The story she eventually recounted was not of Anne’s death but of her own survival, after being transported to Birkenau (the part of Auschwitz in which the gas chambers were situated) with her parents and brother in 1944. Eva was born in Vienna into a middle-class Jewish family, the daughter of Elfriede Markovits, known as Fritzi, and Erich Geiringer, a businessman. The family observed the main Jewish festivals and did not eat pork but were not orthodox. Their comfortable lives changed overnight with the Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria, in 1938. After Eva’s older brother, Heinz, came home from school with blood streaming down his face, having been beaten up because he was a Jew, the Geiringers decided that they must leave Vienna. They moved, via Brussels, to Amsterdam, but when the Netherlands capitulated to the Nazis, they were forced to wear the yellow star on their coats. As the situation for Jews worsened, they acquired false papers and went into hiding, moving seven times in two years before ending up in an attic flat that, like the Franks’s, had a secret compartment behind a trapdoor. At 8.30am on Eva’s 15th birthday, they were enjoying a celebration breakfast when the Gestapo stormed in and marched the family to their headquarters, where they were beaten with truncheons. From Westerbork, the Dutch deportation camp for Jews, they were transported to Auschwitz. Separated from Eva’s father and brother, Eva and her mother had their heads shaved and Eva was tattooed with the number A/5272. In the first of her three co-authored books, Eva’s Story (1988, with Evelyn Julia Kent), Eva recounts in unsparing detail the unendurable conditions and repeated humiliations that they suffered there: starvation; infestations of black beetles and lice; brutal beatings by sadistic kapos (Polish prisoner-guards); frostbite as a result of hours standing in the icy cold for the Appell (roll call) or to watch an escaper being hanged; being forced to carry dead bodies; diarrhoea. They also experienced an extraordinary stroke of luck: when Fritzi persuaded Eva, who had a high fever, to go to the Birkenau hospital block, she shrieked with joy to see Minni, her cousin from Prague, working as a nurse there. Minni enjoyed protected status because her husband, a dermatologist, also in Auschwitz, treated Nazis in the camp with skin problems. She procured extra food for Eva and Fritzi, kept them in the ward for longer than usual and, crucially, was able to intercede on their behalf with Josef Mengele to save Fritzi, after she had been selected for the gas chambers. Without Minni, neither Eva nor Fritzi would have survived. After Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army in January 1945, Eva and her mother returned to Amsterdam, only to learn from the Red Cross that her brother had died in Mauthausen of exhaustion in April, after the forced march from Auschwitz ahead of the Soviets’ arrival, while her father had perished three days before the war’s end. Eva returned to school but could not settle: she felt bitter, angry and depressed. Otto Frank, who had learned of the death of his wife, Edith, and his daughters Anne and Margot, began to get close to Fritzi, especially after the discovery and then publication of Anne’s diary in 1947. He told Eva that she should not go through life hating everybody because she would be the one to suffer, and he gave her the Leica camera he had used to photograph Anne and Margot. At Otto’s suggestion, she went to London to take a photography course. In the boarding house in Cricklewood where she stayed, Eva met Zvi Schloss, an Israeli citizen born in Bavaria, now studying in London. They married in 1952 and went on to have three daughters, while Eva opened an antiques business in Edgware. In March 1986, Eva’s life changed again. Eva and Fritzi were invited to the opening of the Anne Frank and the World exhibition at the Mall Galleries, near Buckingham Palace. The event was chaired by Ken Livingstone, leader of the Greater London council, who seated them on the top table, with Eva next to him. Livingstone spent the evening asking her about herself and how she had met Otto. As the formal proceedings wound to a close, he suddenly pushed back his chair and stood up. To her horror, Eva heard him announce to the audience, “And now, just before we finish, Eva is going to say a few words to you.” Eva had never spoken publicly about her experiences before, but found, after she was handed a microphone and nervously got to her feet, that once she started speaking, she could not stop. After this, Eva spoke at openings of the exhibition around the UK, in cathedrals and civic halls, in schools, colleges and prisons. She co-founded the Anne Frank Trust UK with Gillian Walnes Perry, who described her as indefatigable. Eva tailored her speeches to her audience. One of her first prison speeches was to female inmates at HMP Durham. “Some of you are full of hate,” she told them. “I was full of hate, too, and I think I have a message for you.” The message was that she was a survivor and that they could survive too. To gay prisoners, she described the fate of her homosexual Auschwitz inmates. In a London prison Eva met one woman, who baldly announced that she had killed her “darling husband”. They corresponded for years afterwards. Eva felt survivor’s guilt, not about Anne, but in relation to her brother Heinz, who had feared death. In 2017 she instigated an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in London of the 30 paintings of his that they had retrieved from beneath the floorboards of their Amsterdam hiding-place. Eva never spoke in public about the postwar Pollyanna fetishisation of Anne Frank, except to note, of the oft-quoted words of the diary, “I still believe that deep down human beings are good at heart”, that “I cannot help remembering that she wrote this before she experienced Auschwitz and Belsen.” She published her second book, The Promise, aimed at much younger readers, in 2006, followed by the bestselling After Auschwitz (“remarkable for its unflinching gaze at the past and also for its hope”) in 2013. In 2012 Eva was appointed MBE for her work with the Anne Frank Trust and other Holocaust charities. She believed that “we need to learn to live with each other in harmony, to accept each other for who and what we are. We must learn the lesson that human differences actually enrich our lives. We should not be afraid of people who are different from us, but we need to embrace their faiths and ways of life so that we can give our children and future generations a safer life to live.” She became an Austrian citizen again in 2021. Fritzi died in 1998 and Zvi in 2016. Eva is survived by their daughters, Caroline, Jacky and Sylvia, and by five grandchildren. • Eva Geiringer Schloss, Holocaust survivor and educator, born 11 May 1929; died 3 January 2026

Greenland’s security ‘firmly’ belongs in Nato, says prime minister, after latest Trump threats to take over territory – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! The Greenlandic government has issued a statement saying it “cannot accept under any circumstances” the US desire to control the territory, as it insisted that the territory’s security could be secured through the Nato alliance (15:42). Greenlandic prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted that Greenland was firmly a part of Denmark and Nato, and its security and defence were Nato matters (16:16). The latest comments come as the US president, Donald Trump, repeatedly confirmed his intention to take control of the territory “one way or the other” as he ridiculed Denmark’s defences and insisted it was facing threats from Russia and China (9:41, 13:20). His comments prompted EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius to warn that the US move to take Greenland by force would spell the end of Nato (13:48), as he also pointed to a little-known mutual assistance clause in the EU treaties (15:09). Nato secretary general Mark Rutte did not criticise Trump over Greenland, instead discussing the alliance’s need to strengthen its forces in the High Arctic (14:33). And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Greenland says it cannot accept US takeover ‘under any circumstances’

Greenland’s government has said it “cannot under any circumstances accept” Donald Trump’s desire to take control of Greenland, as Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said the organisation was working on ways to bolster Arctic security. At the start of a critical week for the vast Arctic island, a largely self-governing part of Denmark, the US president restated his interest in the strategically located, mineral-rich territory, saying the US would take it “one way or the other”. The US president has rocked the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize Greenland, which is covered by many of their protections since Denmark belongs to both. Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, and her Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, are due to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in Washington on Wednesday. Denmark, which has pointed out that a 1951 treaty already allows the US to significantly expand its military presence in the territory, has repeatedly said Greenland is not up for grabs and it hopes a diplomatic solution can be found. Greenland’s government said on Monday that the island was “part of the kingdom of Denmark” and “as part of the Danish commonwealth, a member of Nato”. It would increase its efforts to ensure its defence took place “in the Nato framework”, it said. The statement added that the territory’s ruling coalition “believes Greenland will for ever be part of the western defence alliance”, and that “all Nato member states, including the US, have a common interest” in the island’s defence. Trump has said the US needs to control Greenland to increase Arctic security in the face of an alleged threat from China and Russia. Rutte said on Monday that Nato was “working on the next steps to make sure that we collectively protect what is at stake”. Speaking on a visit to Croatia, the alliance’s secretary general said: “All allies agree on the importance of the Arctic and Arctic security, because we know that with sea lanes opening up there is a risk that the Russians and the Chinese will be more active.” Nato diplomats have said some alliance members have floated suggestions including launching a new mission in the region, deploying more equipment or holding exercises, but talks are at an early stage and there are no concrete plans. Rutte did not address Trump’s comments on Greenland, but said he welcomed other allies’ “discussions on how we can basically [come] together as an alliance”. Denmark was also “speeding up their investments when it comes to defence”, he added. The EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said on Monday it would be the end of Nato if the US used military force to take Greenland, adding that EU states would be obliged to come to Denmark’s aid if it faced aggression. “I agree with the Danish prime minister that it will be the end of Nato,” Kubilius told Reuters at a conference in Sweden. He said article 42.7 of the EU treaty, the bloc’s mutual assistance clause, would oblige members to act in the event of an attack. “It will depend on very much on Denmark, how they will react, what will be their position,” he said. “But definitely there is such an obligation of member states to come for mutual assistance if another member state is facing military aggression.” The article has only been activated once so far, when France called for assistance after the 2015 Bataclan terrorist attack, and experts have questioned whether Greenland, which is outside the EU, would qualify without a change to EU’s legal order. A group of US senators including Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who last week said taking Greenland “should not be on [the US’s] list”, are also due to visit Copenhagen to meet politicians from the Danish parliament’s Greenland committee. The chair of the committee, Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician sitting in the Danish parliament, told reporters the planned meeting was “good news” as it was “important for us to use all the diplomatic connections we have at our disposal”. Chemnitz said “lots” of incorrect claims were circulating about Greenland, and it was “absolutely crucial we get some truths on the table”. She declined to give more information about the meeting, saying details were yet to be fully decided. Germany’s former vice-chancellor Robert Habeck suggested Greenland should be offered an EU membership to fend off US interest in the territory. Writing in the Guardian, Habeck called for a “pragmatic and phased” proposal. “This should be the moment to explicitly offer EU membership to Greenland, and by extension to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Norway,” he said in an article with Andreas Raspotnik of Nord University in Norway. Greenland withdrew from what was then the European Community in 1985, after gaining home rule from Denmark in 1979, but the world had “entirely altered” since then and “Europe should respond accordingly”, they said. China on Monday criticised the US interest in Greenland. “The Arctic concerns the overall interests of the international community,” the Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Mao Ning, said at a press conference. She said China’s activities in the Arctic aimed to promote peace, stability, and sustainable development in the region and called for the rights and freedoms of all nations to conduct lawful activities in the Arctic to be respected.

How Iran’s protest movement has gained increasing momentum – a visual guide

A protest movement in Iran that started as a small demonstration by shopkeepers in Tehran over a weakening currency has exploded into the largest nationwide uprising in years against the country’s theocratic leaders. Fearing a threat to its decades-old grip on the country, the government has responded with deadly force. Rights groups have reported that hundreds of people have been killed by security forces and the state-backed Basij militia. In an attempt to isolate the movement, authorities have shut down the internet and telephone networks. Here is a guide to the Iranian protests: How did the protests begin? Demonstrations initially focused on economic issues after the rial went into freefall, losing half of its value against the dollar last year. The currency crash compounded an already dire situation, with high prices on basic foods and a worsening inflation rate that had been well over 30% for years. As the demonstrations spread they became more overtly political, with protesters chanting “death to the dictator”, a reference to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photos from the demonstrations show burning cars and smashed up shops. Where are the demonstrations and how big are they? Crowds have been marching across the country each night since late December. What has been the regime’s response? Security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands, according to exiled rights groups that are in contact with Iranian activists. These figures are hard to independently verify in a closed media environment. The global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Iran is “one of the world’s most repressive countries” for press freedom, and places it 176 out of 180 on its World Press Freedom Index. Still, protesters have managed to post videos of the rallies – and footage of dead bodies – online using satellite internet services. Pro-government rallies were also held in central Tehran on Monday, according to state media. These are being encouraged by the authorities. How do the rallies compare to previous protest movements? Iran has been ruled by autocrats since 1979. For the past two decades, there has been wave after wave of protests – often led by students – calling for regime change. Significant moments include a public outcry over the disputed 2009 presidential election and the crackdown on the 2022-23 “Woman, life, freedom” movement that was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab the wrong way. Anti-government observers say the protests are growing in size and concentration, but it is difficult to verify those claims without independent observers on the ground. One noteworthy aspect of this year’s protests has been references to Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s deposed shah. Videos have shown crowds calling for the return of the shah, who is based in the US, although it is unclear how widespread the support is for the former monarchy. What is the international response? Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to power 18 months ago vowing to reform the economy, has accused “rioters” and the government’s arch-enemies – the US and Israel – of being behind the uprising. Donald Trump has said he is considering “very strong” military action against the regime, and there are fears that violent intervention by Washington could inflame the situation. The US president is reportedly weighing a range of options including using cyber-weapons and widening sanctions. The US and Israel openly call for regime change. Last summer, Israel waged a 12-day bombing campaign against Iran that targeted top military commanders and destroyed air defences. The US joined the war, bombing nuclear facilities.