Chapter 1: What details are emerging about Iran's deadly crackdown on protests?
The EU and India seal a free trade deal decades in the making. Plus, rights groups in Iran break through a communications blackout to shed light on the true death toll in recent protests.
Even at lower estimates of the crackdowns, this would rank as one of the biggest political killings in recent history, exceeding even the toll of China's 1989 move to clear Tiananmen Square.
and the latest from Minnesota as President Trump shakes up his immigration strategy. It's Tuesday, January 27th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. After two decades of on-again, off-again talks, the European Union and India say they've reached a free trade deal.
The deal will be the largest for both economies, linking together almost two billion consumers. And as trade reporter Kim McRaehl is here to discuss, it comes as a number of U.S. trading partners are actively taking steps to curb their reliance on America. Kim, thanks for being with us this morning. What should we know about this agreement, the broad strokes?
It's quite a big deal, actually, for both economies. They both say it's the largest one they have done with a bilateral trading partner. And it includes some pretty big concessions in terms of lowering tariffs on the Indian side. They're looking at quite a significant drop from the current level of 110% tariffs on European cars. That's supposed to gradually go down to eventually hit 10%.
We don't yet know exactly the timeline for that, but that could be quite a significant new market for European automakers. It is capped at 250,000, so it's not a notable one. We're looking at lower tariffs from India on European machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and some agricultural goods. So quite a bit there.
It's also, for the Indian side, it's quite a big deal to be lowering some of those tariffs because it's a country that has long had quite a bit of protection on its market. And some of the lower tariffs, according to the EU, are the biggest India has offered to a trading partner so far.
And Kim, this is coming at a very helpful time for India as well when trade barriers between it and the US notably have been going up.
That's right. Yeah. So India has been hit by 50% tariffs last year by the Trump administration. Those are some of the highest tariff levels that the US has applied to its trading partners. So this deal is expected to carry some benefits for India's textiles, jewelry, leather industries. And it also follows on a free trade agreement that India has agreed to last year with the UK.
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Chapter 2: How has the EU and India reached a significant free trade deal?
Maybe one of the notable ones here is the UK actually restarted trade talks with China last year after holding off for quite a long time. So China is of interest because it's a really large economy, but it does also carry some big risks. A lot of trading partners of the US are quite aware of those. So the EU has also talked about starting negotiations with other countries.
They've talked about Qatar, about the United Arab Emirates. The UK has also done a number of deals, including previously last year with India, updating an agreement with South Korea. I don't know which one might be next to come, but I think we're going to see these countries increasingly continuing to look for alternative trading options like this.
I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal trade reporter Kim McRae in Brussels. Kim, thank you so much for the update.
Thanks so much, Luke.
We go now to Iran, where details are emerging about one of the bloodiest crackdowns in the country in decades. Iran shut off the internet and blocked communications earlier this month, trying to keep the world in the dark about the deadly wave of violence it used to crush anti-government protests.
And now, as rights groups investigate, they say they're uncovering evidence that the death toll is far higher than they originally thought, as the journal's Margarita Stancati reports.
We knew from very early on that many people were killed when the government responded with brutal force, especially on January 8th and 9th. But Iranians are beginning to share their accounts with family, friends and activists outside. The true scale of the killings is only now becoming clear.
For instance, one group called Human Rights Activists in Iran has now confirmed close to 6,000 dead and more government forces were also killed. But they're also investigating something like 17,000 dead. Other groups are also saying that they believe the death toll is close to 10,000, possibly higher than that.
That would make it one of the deadliest episodes since the establishment of the Islamic Republic and even exceed the death toll of China's crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989. And Margarita says the sheer scale of violence has repressed protests and sent a chill through the Iranian population.
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