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An ophthalmologist in Tehran has documented more than 400 eye injuries from gunshots in a single hospital, as overwhelmed medical staff struggle to cope with the toll of a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests by Iranian authorities.
Three doctors, in messages forwarded to the Guardian on Monday, described overwhelmed hospitals and emergency wings overflowing with protesters who had been shot. Medical staff said the gunshot wounds were mostly concentrated on protesters’ eyes and heads – a tactic that rights groups said authorities used against demonstrators in the country’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Donald Trump told Iranians to keep protesting and said help was on the way on Tuesday, in the clearest sign yet that the president may be preparing for military action against Tehran.
What did Trump say? “Iranian Patriots, keep protesting – take over your institutions!!! … help is on its way,” he posted on Truth Social. Trump later told CBS News: “When they start killing thousands of people – and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them.”
What do we know about the crackdown? More than 2,000 people have been killed in the protests – more than 90% of whom were demonstrators – and more than 16,700 people have been arrested, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said.
Human activity helped make 2025 third-hottest year on record, scientists say
Last year was the third-hottest on record, scientists have said, with mounting fossil fuel pollution behind “exceptional” temperatures.
The EU’s Copernicus climate agency said 2025 had been marginally cooler than 2023 at the end of a scorching three-year run during which surface air temperatures averaged 1.52C above preindustrial levels.
What does this mean for the Paris agreement target to limit global heating? Current rates of heating could breach the Paris agreement limit of 1.5C (2.7F) – which is measured over 30 years to iron out natural fluctuations – before the end of the decade, according to Copernicus. That is more than 10 years sooner than scientists expected when world leaders signed the pledge in 2015.
Trump administration ends temporary protected status for Somalis in US
The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said on Tuesday the administration was terminating temporary protected status for Somalis in the US, giving hundreds of people two months to leave the country or face deportation.
Trump later said his administration was going to revoke citizenship for any naturalized person from Somalia or any other country who is convicted of defrauding what he referred to as “our citizens”.
What is the context? The administration has used Minnesota’s issues with fraud as a pretext to send a surge of immigration officers into the state. Trump has called Somalis “garbage” and referenced unverified reports, amplified by Republican lawmakers, suggesting the militant group al-Shabaab in Somalia benefited from fraud committed in Minnesota, though these claims have not been substantiated.
How are critics responding? The Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized the latest rollback of rights as a “bigoted attack” that would send some Somalis back to a war-torn nation. On Monday, Minneapolis and St Paul filed a lawsuit against the administration, alleging Minnesota was being politically targeted.
In other news …
Eight people were arrested outside a federal building in Minneapolis on Tuesday when the Trump administration doubled down on threats to protesters and local officials opposing their mass deportation agenda.
Israel plans to start work next month on a bypass road that will close off the heart of the occupied West Bank to Palestinians, cementing the de facto annexation of an area critical for the viability of a future Palestinian state.
Netflix is reportedly preparing to switch to an all-cash offer to seal its takeover of Warner Bros Discovery as it tries to fend off a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance.
At least 22 people in Thailand have been killed and scores injured, after a crane collapsed on to a passenger train and derailed it on Wednesday, officials said.
Stat of the day: Consumer prices rose 2.7% from a year earlier amid pressure on Trump over cost of living
The consumer price index rose 2.7% in the year to December. Trump hailed the US’s economic performance in a speech in Michigan. “We’ll go down as the greatest first year in history that nobody’s ever had,” he said.
Is Trump right to be triumphant on the economy? It’s true that inflation is much lower than the 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022. However, under Trump’s tariff policies, prices have ticked upwards as millions of Americans face cost of living pressures. Twice as many Americans believe their financial security is getting worse than better, according to a Harris Poll for the Guardian last month.
‘Why do I keep waking up at 2am – and how do I get back to sleep?’
“Several times a week, I find myself wide awake at 2am – stressing about a work deadline, wondering if my daughter is adjusting to her new school or making a note on my phone,” writes Jillian Pretzel in this October piece. So she spoke to experts. One specialist tells her not to jump to sleep medication before other options have been explored.
Don’t miss this: Is Marco Rubio using Trump? – podcast
“I don’t think Trump would have gone in and captured Nicolás Maduro if it hadn’t been for Marco Rubio pushing him behind the scenes,” the Guardian US political correspondent Lauren Gambino tells the Today in Focus podcast. But how far is Rubio willing to support Trump to achieve his own ends – and might he emerge as Trump’s heir?
Climate check: How the world is losing its forests to wildfires – mapped
As this Guardian’s interactive feature shows, over the past 24 years wildfires have erased 1.5m sq km of forest, an area the size of Mongolia. Experts warn that climate change is making wildfires bigger, longer and more destructive – as 2023 and 2024 saw the most forest area burned by wildfires on record.
Last Thing: Writers on their favorite unlikable movie characters
The arrogance of Marty Supreme, played by Timothée Chalamet, has got people talking about unlikable protagonists. Guardian writers weighed in with their favorites. Catherine Shoard writes that Daniel Day-Lewis’s Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood may be a “resource-sucking murderer”, but the movie wouldn’t work if he wasn’t also funny, formidable and relatable.
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