Axios

Two people have been killed amid violent anti-government protests in Iran, AFP reports. Lorestan province deputy governor Habibollah Khojastehpour told state television that the two people were killed in the western town of Dorud late Saturday night, but denied the involvement of security forces.

The backdrop: Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli went on state television to say, "Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price."

"Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, ... providing an economic lifeline to the secretive Communist state," Reuters reports, quoting two senior Western European security sources:

• "The sales of oil or oil products from Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter and a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, breach U.N. sanctions, the security sources said."
• "The transfers in October and November indicate that smuggling from Russia to North Korea has evolved to loading cargoes at sea since Reuters reported in September that North Korean ships were sailing directly from Russia to their homeland.
• But, but, but ... One of the sources "said there was no evidence of Russian state involvement in the latest transfers."

About 4,000 pro-government demonstrators rallied in Tehran on Saturday in support of Iran's leaders after days of unauthorized protests broke out in the country, per The New York Times. The pro-government rallies had been previously scheduled to but "took on new importance" after the anti-government rallies, the AP reported. According to the AFP, the Iranian government warned against further protests.

Why it matters: These have been the largest pro-reform protests in Iran since 2009.

• AFP: "Since the 2009 protests were ruthlessly put down by the Revolutionary Guards, many middle-class Iranians have abandoned hope of pressing for change from the streets."
• "But low-level strikes and demonstrations have continued, often on a sector-by-sector basis as bus drivers or teachers or workers from specific factories protest against unpaid wages or poor conditions."

The U.S. relationship with China will be the world's most consequential in 2018. The two big issues, straight from President Trump:

1. "China's hurting us very badly on trade, but I have been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war. O.K.?" he said in an interview with the New York Times.
2. "Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!" he wrote on Twitter.

Go deeper: Here are the 7 things to watch with China, from the rise of the Communist Party and its absolute leader Xi Jinping, to the prospects for war with North Korea and China's growing influence in the world.