By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet Wednesday against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”

The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. American fighter jets and other equipment appears to be moving in the Mideast after a major U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

Meanwhile, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq claimed Iran targeted one of its bases in a drone and missile attack that killed at least one fighter. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which would be the first foreign operation Tehran has launched since the protests started.

Araghchi makes threat in column

Araghchi made the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal. In it, the foreign minister contended “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence. Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite an internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.

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“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel on Iran in June. “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

He added: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”

Araghchi’s comments likely refer to Iran’s short- and medium-range missiles. The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in the war and left its stockpile of the shorter-range missiles unused, something that could be fired to target American bases and interests in the Persian Gulf. Already, there have been some restrictions on U.S. diplomats traveling to American bases in both Kuwait and Qatar.

Mideast nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had lobbied Trump not to attack. Last week, Iran shut its airspace, likely in anticipation of a strike.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.

While naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region. Meanwhile, U.S. military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike Eagles arriving in the Mideast and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in the country in 2022.

Kurdish exiles claim Iranian attack in Iraq

The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, claimed Iran launched an attack against one of its bases near Irbil, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Baghdad. It said one fighter had been killed, releasing mobile phone footage of a fire in the predawn darkness.

Iranian state television, which has confirmed attacks on the group in the past, did not acknowledge the assault.

A handful of Iranian Kurdish dissident or separatist groups — some with armed wings — have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, where their presence has been a point of friction between the central government in Baghdad and Tehran. The PAK has claimed it launched attacks in Iran as a crackdown on the demonstrations took place, something reported by semiofficial Iranian news agencies as well.

Protest death toll rises

The death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said. The agency has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll.

The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic into being. Although there have been no protests for days, there are fears the death toll could increase significantly as information gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed shutdown of the internet since Jan. 8.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the United States. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties.

More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners. That and the killing of peaceful protesters have been two red lines laid down by Trump in the tensions.

Associated Press writers Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.

By CHAN HO-HIM and MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writers

Global markets mostly declined Wednesday while trading on Wall Street stabilized somewhat ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each ticked down 0.1% before the bell, while Nasdaq futures retreated 0.3%. All three indices are coming off steep losses from a day earlier after Trump threatened to slap higher tariffs on eight European countries over their opposition to his push for U.S. control of Greenland.

Gold prices crossed the $4,800 mark for the first time, gaining 2.2% to $4,873 per ounce as money flowed into assets considered to be safe havens at times of uncertainty.

Trump’s plane landed in Switzerland following hours of delay after a minor electrical issue aboard Air Force One forced a return to Washington to switch aircraft.

Trump told reporters he planned to highlight his administration’s accomplishments during his speech later Wednesday to world leaders, elites and billionaires gathered in Davos.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who spoke on a panel on Tuesday, said the U.S. message was that “globalization has failed.”

Trump has said he will impose 10% tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland beginning in February. That would be on top of a 15% tariff specified by a trade agreement with the European Union that has yet to be ratified.

European leaders have hit back as Washington’s relations with its Western allies sour, considering countermeasures, including perhaps slow-walking ratification of the trade agreement or ordering retaliatory tariffs, analysts say.

In equities markets, Netflix tumbled 7.2% after the streaming service reported slowing subscriber growth last year, underscoring the importance of its contested $72 billion bid to take over Warner Bros.’ movie studio and HBO Max.

Netflix topped Wall Street’s fourth-quarter sales and profit forecasts, but the company’s subscriber growth fell to 23 million in 2025, down from a gain of 41 million in 2024.

Kraft-Heinz tumbled 5.5% after Berkshire Hathaway warned investors Tuesday that it may be interested in selling its 325 million shares in the name brand food giant that former CEO Warren Buffett helped create back in 2015.

Berkshire took a $3.76 billion write-down on its Kraft-Heinz stake last summer. Buffett said last fall that he was disappointed in Kraft Heinz’ plan to split the company in two, and Berkshire’s two representatives resigned from the Kraft board last spring.

In energy markets, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 71 cents to $59.65 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 88 cents to $64.04 per barrel.

Natural gas futures are up more than 8% Wednesday and have soared 30% in less than a week as a cold snap and brutal storms hit large swaths of the U.S.

At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX shed 1% while the CAC 40 in Paris and Britain’s FTSE 100 each dipped 0.3%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% to 52,774.64. Markets in Japan have been riled both by geopolitical uncertainty and by domestic issues.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has called a snap election for Feb. 8, sending yields of long-term government bonds to record levels. The assumption is that Takaichi, who is capitalizing on strong public support ratings to try to consolidate a majority for her Liberal Democratic Party, will cut taxes and boost spending, adding to the challenges Japan faces in handling its massive government debt.

The yield on the 40-year Japanese government bond was trading at 4.061% early Wednesday, down from the all-time high of 4.22% that it hit on Tuesday.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.5% to 4,909.93.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rebounded to add 0.4% to 26,585.06. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher, to 4,116.94.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave back 0.4% to 8,782.90.

Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.6% and India’s Sensex lost 0.4%.

PARIS (AP) — France’s sports minister says her country is not currently thinking about boycotting the soccer World Cup in the United States amid growing tensions related to Donald Trump’s quest to control Greenland.

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“At the moment we are speaking, there is no desire from the ministry to boycott this major, much-anticipated competition,” sports minister Marina Ferrari told reporters on Tuesday evening. “That said, I am not prejudging what might happen.”

Ferrari added that she wants to keep sports separate from politics.

“The 2026 World Cup is an extremely important moment for all sports lovers,” she said.

With the tournament kicking off in June in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the U.S. president’s ambitions to wrest control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark has the potential to tear relations with European allies.

In France, leftist lawmaker Eric Coquerel said the opportunity of a boycott by France, a two-time winner of the men’s World Cup, should be considered.

“Seriously, can we really imagine going to play the footie World Cup in a country that attacks its ‘neighbors,’ threatens to invade Greenland, undermines international law, wants to torpedo the UN,” he asked in a message posted on social media.

“The question seriously arises, especially since it is still possible to refocus the event on Mexico and Canada,” he wrote.

France lost to Argentina in the final of the World Cup in 2022.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it will appeal the November ruling in favor of Meta in its antitrust case against the social media giant.

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The FTC said it continues to allege that, for more than a decade, Meta Platforms Inc. has “illegally maintained a monopoly” in social networking through anticompetitive conduct “by buying the significant competitive threats it identified in Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Meta had prevailed over the existential challenge to its business that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly in social networking.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued his ruling on Nov. 18 after the historic antitrust trial wrapped up in late May. His decision runs in sharp contrast to two separate rulings that branded Google an illegal monopoly in both search and online advertising, dealing regulatory blows to the tech industry that for years enjoyed nearly unbridled growth.

In a statement, Meta said the court’s decision “to reject the FTC’s arguments is correct, and recognizes the fierce competition we face. We will remain focused on innovating and investing in America.”