00:00The head of Iran's judiciary signaled on Wednesday that there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests.
00:10It comes as rights groups say over 2,500 protesters have been killed in one of the biggest challenges to Iran's leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
00:30The comments stand as a direct challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump who repeated warnings on Tuesday that the U.S. would intervene if Iran's government kills more protesters.
00:55Monitoring the demonstrations from abroad remains difficult as internet access has been completely cut off.
01:02Activists said Wednesday that the satellite-based internet provider Starlink was offering free service in Iran, which has been a key resource to help Iranians get around the shutdown.
01:13European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed support for Greenland on Wednesday, saying the Arctic island belongs to its people.
01:26Her comments come as U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio host the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers at the White House.
01:35For me it's important that the Greenlanders know, and they know this by the deeds, not only by the words, that we respect the wishes of the Greenlanders and their interests and that they can count on us.
01:48Tensions have soared between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland this month as U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration continue to push the issue.
01:56And Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out using military force to take the island.
02:01Trump posted on social media on Wednesday that NATO should help the U.S. acquire Greenland, and anything less than American control is unacceptable.
02:10Meanwhile, Greenland's Prime Minister emphasized a day earlier that if faced with a choice, Greenland would choose Denmark over the U.S.
02:21Former European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy has told Euronews flagship morning show Europe Today he was in favor of the EU-Mercoso trade deal.
02:30If I had had on the table the deal of today, I would have signed this 25 years ago.
02:38The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will fly to Paraguay on Saturday to sign the trade agreement with major South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina.
02:49Despite the opposition of countries such as France and Poland, a majority of EU members voted in favor of the deal last Friday as a way to boost European exports in a time of global uncertainty.
03:02I can understand some worries on the green side because of deforestation in the Amazon.
03:09I can understand some worries on the farming side because there will be a bit, a bit more imports of beef or poultry.
03:17But I think so far, notably in the French case, these worries have been totally overblown.
03:27Meanwhile, famous protests erupted again in France opposing the deal.
03:32In 2001, Palestinian filmmaker Kamal al-Jafari traveled to Gaza looking for a former prisoner with whom he had lost contact over the years.
03:45Together with Hassan, a local guide, he started from the north and ended up in the south of Gaza crossing roads and landscapes and meeting locals.
03:54He recorded this journey with his camera. All of this was included in three milli-dV tapes, which the filmmaker discovered by chance last year as he had forgotten they existed.
04:05For me, the discovery of the tapes, these three tapes was really almost like a sign of life, you know, against erasure.
04:14And when I started watching, I was very touched by everything that I was seeing because the material that was filmed back then in 2001 with the aim of finding a friend
04:26all these people that appeared on the footage, all these faces, and all the places that, in fact, no longer exist today.
04:40Gaza, already back then, was an open-air prison.
04:55Gaza, where people had no freedom in, you know, moving, and they were living under occupation.
05:03And you can see the roots of the violence that, in fact, became worse and worse with years, and, of course, in the last two years,
05:10that the roots of that is there in the condition of people being occupied, not being free.
05:15What this war did was destroying any possibility of life with no schools, with no homes for people, with no hospitals.
05:24So, anything that happened there would make the people simply want to leave.
05:29And this was the aim of the war.
05:31It's very difficult to speak of hope in the condition we have today, because there's no real international pressure on Israel to basically,
05:43not only let the people of Gaza restore their life, which is really broken into pieces in every sense of the word,
05:52but also to have a perspective where the people of Palestine and the people of Gaza have a self-determination that they have their own country, you know.
06:02The documentary with Hassan in Gaza was honoured with the Europa Cinemas Label Award at the Locano Film Festival.
06:09It has participated in over 70 film festivals.
06:13It is nominated in the categories of Best European Documentary and Best European Film of the Year at the European Film Awards.
06:21China's trade surplus surged to a record of almost 1.2 trillion dollars, around 1.031 trillion euros last year, the government said Wednesday,
06:37as exports to other countries made up for slowing shipments to the United States.
06:42Beijing's exports rose 5.5 percent in 2025 to 3.77 trillion dollars, around 3.6 trillion euros,
06:52but imports for the year were flat at 2.58 trillion dollars.
06:58According to customs data, the surplus was boosted by trade gains in December, with exports climbing 6.6 percent from the year before, better than economic estimates.
07:10Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office and intensified his trade rift with the world's second-largest economy,
07:17China's exports to the U.S. have drastically decreased, but sales to other markets, including Europe, have more than made up for this reduction.
07:27On Monday, the European Union signaled a de-escalation in its EV trade dispute with China,
07:35by issuing new guidelines allowing Chinese electric vehicle makers to offer minimum prices, instead of facing steep anti-subsidy tariffs.
07:45Analysts expect exports to continue supporting China's economy this year, despite trade friction and geopolitical tensions.
07:54Joining us on Euronews is the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola.
08:01President, thank you very much for joining us.
08:03You've had some very severe condemnation to the Iranian regime and words of support for the people of Iran.
08:10The difference is important. How concerned are you about the situation on the ground?
08:14Well, ever since I became President of this Parliament, I have made it my mission to make sure that we stand with fights for freedoms around the world.
08:23And this is why we are appalled by what's happening in Iran.
08:27And we could not stand idly by when we see that a regime is using violence, it's using repression, it's using regression and abuse in order to clamp down on what we believe to be fundamental freedoms.
08:40In fact, these are universal freedoms. And that is why we took the step to ban Iranian diplomats and staff representing the regime from entering these premises.
08:50This has brought political support inside this house because we stand for the very opposite of what the regime stands for.
08:57And President, the international community set a very clear red line and that is the protest should not turn into a bloodshed.
09:03Unfortunately, it seems that is the way it's going. What can the European Union do at this point?
09:08Well, we've stood with the protesters ever since we've started to see people gather in the around on the streets.
09:15We've also condemned the fact that communications have been blacked out.
09:20We've seen four whole days of blackouts. We're now starting to see a little bit more of messaging coming through.
09:25We welcome any attempt to help them technologically because we need to see what is happening.
09:30And as you said, these are not just protests that are being accepted and being respected, they are being clamped down upon.
09:39We've seen violence, we've seen assassinations. This is not something we will tolerate.
09:43And the Iranian community, the Iranian protesters have asked us for solidarity, for help, for messages,
09:49but not only for us to go a step further, to increase sanctions, to put the IRDC on the list of terrorists.
09:55They should be considered now as a terrorist organization.
09:58We've been in a position of the European Parliament for many years now.
10:01Ever since we've seen those brave women on the streets of Iran calling out for their life and their liberty and their rights and their dignity.
10:10This is why we have said that this theocracy, autocracy, should no longer be in power.
10:17We are calling for the Iranians to be able to see how this regime could come to an end, and we fully support them in that.
10:23Would you like to see the capitals and the rest of European institutions moving as fast as you have done with the actions in the European Parliament,
10:30and with that kind of clear language, saying yes, more sanctions, and yes, this is a terror group?
10:34Because it seems from the outside, the world is waiting to figure out whether President Trump is going to intervene in military or not.
10:40Should the European Union wait?
10:42I think the European Union has a golden moment in order for it to show its firmness, its strength, and also its clarity.
10:50We support freedom. This is a fundamental pillar of everything we've built our union on.
10:57So there's no need to wait for President Trump? The EU should go from now?
11:01Our appeal is to go now. We think that 2026 should be the year when dictatorships are over.
11:08And this is a golden moment for the European Union, for Europe, for member states, governments to say,
11:13this regime, as the German Chancellor said, is on its last legs. We fully agree with it, and we should go further.
11:19And that is my final question. Do you believe now, this is 2026, this is the ending of this regime, it comes to an end in 2026?
11:26If not now, when? The people of Iran are calling for this to happen. We believe in them. We believe in all their efforts in order to see that there is a change.
11:37There is a fall of the regime. How that happens, that's not for us to say, it's for the Iranian people to determine, but we support them.
11:44President, thank you very much for joining us on Iran News.
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