Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Iran’s policy of executing protesters, U.S. ambitions to annex Greenland, and China’s massive trade surplus.

Iranian authorities were prepared on Wednesday to execute 26-year-old Erfan Soltani, an anti-government protester who was detained just days earlier. However, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened “strong action”—including potential U.S. military intervention—if Tehran carried out death sentences, Iran appeared to backtrack.

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Iranian authorities were prepared on Wednesday to execute 26-year-old Erfan Soltani, an anti-government protester who was detained just days earlier. However, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened “strong action”—including potential U.S. military intervention—if Tehran carried out death sentences, Iran appeared to backtrack.

“We have been told that the killing in Iran is stopping” and that “there is no plan for executions,” Trump said on Wednesday, adding that he was “informed by very important sources on the other side.” There has been no confirmation elsewhere that Tehran no longer plans to carry out its threatened executions.

Iran has a history of executing protesters, including during the last wave of major demonstrations, which began in 2022 when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was allegedly killed by Tehran’s morality police. Last week, Tehran’s public prosecutor said that demonstrators could face death by hanging. And on Wednesday, the head of Iran’s judiciary signaled that the public should expect fast trials and executions in the coming days. Soltani’s killing would be the first death penalty to be carried out against a protester since the mass anti-government movement erupted in late December.

“We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen,” Trump told CBS News late Tuesday. “[I]f they want to have protests, that’s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging—we’ll see how that works out for........

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