It’s been a week marked by brutality, brinkmanship and political theatre.
In Iran, a third week of protests spiralled into a nationwide uprising as the regime shut down the internet and phone lines. Graphic accounts of a violent crackdown emerged via Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, with human rights groups reporting thousands killed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in what they describe as an unprecedented massacre — even as President Trump urged protesters on, before appearing to shift his tone.
Meanwhile, urgent diplomacy unfolded in the Arctic, as Denmark and Greenland pushed back against renewed US pressure to annex Greenland. President Trump insists America “needs” the island for strategic defence, prompting European allies to boost NATO’s presence — and leaving Greenland’s leadership confronting an unsettling new reality.
And across Europe, politics turned volatile. France’s minority government survived two no-confidence votes sparked by anger over the EU’s Mercosur trade deal, as farmers clogged the country with tractor protests. In the UK, a dramatic defection saw a senior Conservative sacked and swiftly unveiled by Nigel Farage’s Reform party, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer added fresh bite to his rhetoric.
This story originally appeared on France24
