Why Iran’s clerical regime still holds

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Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. An Iran official says 2,000 people have been killed in unrest, Russia launches this year's most concentrated barrage on Ukraine, and Trump's exercise of raw power sends friends and foes reeling.

Plus, astronomers spot a white dwarf star creating a colorful shockwave.

Today's Top News

Iranian demonstrators gather in a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2026. Stringer/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran

An Iranian parliamentarian said the government will face even bigger protests unless it addresses people's grievances, after more than two weeks of nationwide demonstrations. Officials say around 2,000 people have been killed in the unrest.
Despite the nationwide protests and years of external pressure, there are as yet no signs of fracture in the Islamic Republic's security elite that could bring an end to one of the world's most resilient regimes. Here's why.
US President Donald Trump says countries doing business with Tehran will face 25% trade tariffs. Steve Holland tells the Reuters World News podcast Trump has a range of options to pressure Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In other news

Russian forces launched the year's most intense wave of missile attacks on Ukraine, killing four people and injuring several others, while emergency power cuts were imposed in Kyiv after damage to infrastructure.
The BBC will file a motion to dismiss Trump's $10 billion lawsuit over its editing of a speech that made it appear he had directed supporters to storm the US Capitol.
The European Union can help provide security for Greenland, should Denmark request it, the European Commissioner for Defence and Space said warning that a US military takeover of Greenland would be the end of NATO.
The Trump administration's decision to open a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell drew condemnation from former Fed chiefs and a chorus of criticism from members of the Republican Party, following an unusually sharp public rebuke from Powell.
The US Supreme Court will consider the legality of laws banning transgender athletes from participating on female sports teams amid escalating efforts by dozens of states and Trump's administration to restrict the rights of transgender people.
Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of a soccer field in a crowded refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, eliminating one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play.

Business & Markets

Alphabet briefly hit $4 trillion in market valuation, as the Google parent's sharpened artificial intelligence focus allayed ‌doubts about its strategy and thrust it back to the forefront of the high-stakes race.
Oral weight-loss drugs could account for a third or more of the overall GLP-1 market by 2030, a Novo Nordisk executive said, a larger percentage than the company originally anticipated.
A mega trade deal clinched between the European Union and South America's biggest economies after a quarter-century of talks may signal the limits of the Trump administration's pressure tactics in the region, officials and analysts said.
Finance ministers from the G7 and other major economies met in Washington to discuss ways to reduce dependence on rare earths from China, including setting a price floor and new partnerships to build up alternative supplies, ministers said.
President Donald Trump will visit Detroit to refocus attention on US manufacturing and his efforts to tackle high consumer costs, shifting from recent foreign flashpoints to the economic anxieties gripping US households.
Stocks, bonds and commodities absorbed many shocks in 2025. Will they show the same resilience in the year ahead? In this episode of The Big View podcast, Peter Thal Larsen and Anna Szymanski, debate inflation, AI, and the buy-the-dip mindset.

Trump's exercise of raw power upends the world order

A man wears a Trump mask during a protest against US strikes on Venezuela in Sao Paulo, Brazil January 5, 2026. REUTERS/Tuane Fernandes/File Photo

He has toppled Venezuela's leader, vowed to control its vast oil reserves and threatened other Latin American countries with similar military action. He has talked openly about annexing Greenland, even by force. And, beyond the Western Hemisphere, he has warned Iran that the US could strike it again.

Ushering in the new year with a flurry of aggressive moves and fiery rhetoric just days before the first anniversary of his inauguration, Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the rules-based global order that the US helped build from the ashes of World War Two.

Read more

And Finally...

Shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838. European Southern Observatory (ESO)/K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al./Handout via REUTERS

Astronomers have observed a white dwarf - a highly compact Earth-sized stellar ember - that is creating a colorful shockwave as it moves through space, leaving them searching for an explanation.

The highly magnetized white dwarf is gravitationally bound to another star in what is called a binary system. The white dwarf is siphoning gas from its companion as the two orbit close to each other. The system is located in the Milky Way about 730 light-years from Earth - relatively nearby in cosmic terms - in the constellation Auriga.

Read more

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