Iran’s leadership on Saturday maintained its blockage of the internet for the second day amid snowballing mass protests in a number of cities, network observers reported.
NetBlocks, the global internet monitoring organization, posted on X that its “metrics show the nationwide internet blackout remains in place at 36 hours, severely limiting Iranians’ ability to check on the safety of friends and loved ones.”
That post was made at 8 am (0530 GMT).
On X, one user posted: “Another night of protests, another night of repression — and Iranians are still cut off from their loved ones because of the internet blackout.”
The Iranian security services have completely shut down the internet for the population. except for its security forces and selected state media.
According to reports, people are circumventing the blackout using Starlink satellite internet – provided they were able to illegally import the necessary terminals.
Observers say the leadership has two main objectives with the blockade: To make it more difficult for demonstrators to organize protests, and to suppress the publication of reports, photos and videos about the unrest and reprisals.
A wave of protests has roiled Iran for almost two weeks, triggered by a deepening economic crisis and a sharp plunge in the national currency, the rial.
Spreading from Tehran to other large cities, the demonstrations quickly turned into political protests against the country’s authoritarian government.
On Saturday the BBC reported that a doctor and a medic at two hospitals said their facilities are being overwhelmed by those injured during the protests.
A doctor at a Tehran eye hospital said his facility was in crisis mode and a medic at a different facility said he did not know if enough surgeons were on hand to cope with the patient influx.
Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threats from the country’s theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world. The protesters appeared to be taking encouragement from repeated declarations of support by the Trump administration, and by the country’s exiled crown prince, who called on them Saturday to try and overwhelm security forces and seize towns and cities.
An external rights groups that relies on information from contacts inside Iran says at least 65 people have been killed in the protests, which began in Tehran in late December as anger over Iran’s ailing economy, but quickly spread and morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused President Trump of having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” in remarks aired Friday on Iranian state TV, as supporters gathered before him shouted “Death to America!”
Protesters are “ruining their own streets … in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to the crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comments on nationwide protests, on Iranian State Television in the capital Tehran, Jan. 9, 2026
IRIB/Handout/Anadolu/Getty
State media later called the demonstrators “terrorists,” setting the stage for a possible violent crackdown – how Iran has responded to other major protests in recent years, despite Mr. Trump’s pledge to back peaceful protesters, with force if necessary.
Trump’s issues fresh warnings to Iran’s leaders
Trump has repeatedly pledged to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that has taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro. The president suggested Friday any possible American strike wouldn’t “mean boots on the ground but that means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”
“Iran’s in big trouble,” Trump said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago.”
He added: “I tell the Iranian leaders you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
In a brief social media post published in the very early hours of Saturday morning in Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “the United States supports the brave people of Iran.”
Iranian regime warns protesters will be punished “without any legal leniency”
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”
According to the Washington D.C.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which was founded by anti-regime activists, as of Friday, the 13th day of unrest in Iran, at least 65 people had been killed, including at least 14 members of the security forces. More than 2,300 people had been arrested, and protests recorded in at least 180 cities.
Protesters are seen near burning vehicles amid evolving anti-government unrest in Tehran, Iran, in a screengrab obtained from a social media video released on Jan. 9, 2026.
Social media via REUTERS
Iranian authorities shut down the internet on Thursday night as protests escalated sharply, seemingly as people heeded a call by the exiled crown prince, a vocal opposition figure, for Iranians to raise their voices against the regime.
According to an update posted online Saturday morning by the monitoring organization NetBlocks, “metrics show the nationwide internet blackout remains in place at 36 hours, severely limiting Iranians’ ability to check on the safety of friends and loved ones.”
That communications blackout has made it incredibly difficult to gain a clear picture of the scale of the protests overall – and the Iranian authorities’ response to it. Some other reports put the death toll from unrest much higher, with TIME citing a doctor in Tehran as saying at least 217 people had been killed, for instance.
Iranian authorities have acknowledged a few deaths, but usually only those of security forces.
Asked by CBS News how seriously he believes Iran’s autocratic rulers are taking the warnings from Mr. Trump not to kill protesters, Maziar Bahari, editor of the IranWire news website, said he was certain it had “really scared many Iranian officials, and may have affected their actions in terms of how to confront the protestors.”
“But at the same time … it has inspired many protesters to come out, because they know that the leader of the world’s main superpower is supporting their cause,” said Bahari, who spent months in Iranian prisons after being arrested during a previous round of massive unrest in 2009.
“Many people have called what is happening in Iran right now a revolution,” Bahari told CBS News’ Haley Ott. “And we can see different signs of revolution in Iran at the movement. But a revolution usually needs a leader for the revolution. But we don’t have that leader.”
But while decades of draconian control over the media and the deliberate sidelining of dissident voices in the country have deprived Iran of a clear opposition figurehead inside the country’s borders, many in the vast Iranian diaspora hope the nation’s ousted royal family could stage a comeback.
Head of Iran’s exiled royal family predicts his return is “very near”
Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has been seen by many analysts as a galvanizing force behind the momentum of this round of protests. On Saturday, he called on Iranians not only to continue coming out into the streets, but to try to seize control of towns and cities from the authorities by overwhelming them.
“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centers,” Pahlavi said in his latest video message posted on social media, calling for more demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday.”
Striking an optimistic tone, Pahlavi declared that he was “preparing to return to my homeland,” suggesting the day on which he would be able to do so, “very near.”
A protester holds a placard of Iranian opposition leader and son of the last Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, during a demonstration against the Iranian regime’s crackdown on protests in central Paris, France, Jan. 4, 2026.
Blanca CRUZ/AFP/Getty
But Pahlavi has lived in exile for nearly 50 years, and while he has long sought to position himself as a leader-in-waiting, it’s far from clear how much real support he has inside the country.
His father, Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was widely despised inside Iran when he fled into exile himself amid street protests in 1979, as the Islamic Revolution that brought the current regime to power took hold.
Thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran and other cities Thursday night, heeding a call by the country’s exiled crown prince to make their voices heard in the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic’s hardline rulers in many years.
The protests had spread across the country for 13 days, leaving about 65 people dead and more than 2,300 detained by security forces, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, but despite the arrests and a nationwide internet and phone service blackout, the unrest escalated dramatically on Thursday night and into Friday.
The protests have now spread to 180 cities in all 31 of the nation’s provinces, according to the HRANA.
It was impossible to get a clear picture of the extent of the unrest, given the clamp down on the flow of information. But Iran’s ruler appeared in a brief television address on Friday morning, defiantly accusing President Trump of inspiring the protests, showing he remained in charge, and vowing that his regime would “not back down.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, called for unity and accused “a bunch of vandals” in Tehran, where a state TV building was set alight, of having “destroyed a building that belongs to them to please the U.S. president.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comments on nationwide protests, on Iranian State Television in the capital Tehran, Jan. 9, 2026
IRIB/Handout/Anadolu/Getty
As he spoke, an audience in front of him shouted the familiar refrain of “Death to America!”
Given the communications blackout, which continued Friday morning according to the NetBlocks internet monitoring organization, short videos posted online, largely by anti-regime activists, provided the only real window into the chaos across the country.
It appeared to ramp up dramatically from 8 p.m. local time on Thursday, the moment at which exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi had urged Iranians to shout and chant from their windows against the regime.
“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight,” said Pahlavi, the son of the former head of state Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who fled the country just before the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought the current regime to power.
In statements posted online, he called for European leaders to join Mr. Trump to “hold the regime to account,” using “all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen. Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”
Speaking at the White House Friday, Mr. Trump reiterated, as he has in recent days, that he was open to some kind of U.S. intervention in Iran, although he said that would not involve a U.S. incursion.
“I’ve made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts. So, we don’t want that to happen.”
On Friday, Pahlavi made a direct appeal to Mr. Trump.
“I have called the people to the streets to fight for their freedom and to overwhelm the security forces with sheer numbers. Last night they did that. Your threat to this criminal regime has also kept the regime’s thugs at bay. But time is of the essence. The people will be on the streets again in an hour. I am asking you to help,” Pahlavi said on social media. “You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word. Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran.”
Iranian protesters block a street in Kermanshah, Iran, Jan. 8, 2026, amid nationwide anti-government protests.
Kamran/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty
Pahlavi issued his initial call several days earlier for mass chanting against the regime at 8 p.m., which is noon on the East Coast of the United States, on both Thursday and Friday.
In the videos, which are difficult to independently verify, many people could be heard chanting “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic,” while others called for a return of the monarchy, declaring: “Pahlavi will return!”
As of Thursday, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which relies on a network of contacts inside the country, said at least 42 people had been killed and more than 2,270 others detained, but that was before a clear picture could be gained of the chaos on Thursday night and Friday morning.
“All of the huge crowds in my neighborhood are pro-Pahlavi and from several areas my sources report the same — pro-Pahlavi crowds are prevailing, undeniably,” one source in Tehran told CBS News on Thursday night, calling it “monarchists responding to Reza,” before his communications were cut off.
“For the first time, the government decided to shut the internet yesterday, and usually when they shut the Internet, it means that they’re going to use violence against people,” Maziar Bahari, editor of the independent IranWire news site, told CBS News on Friday.
Iranian protesters block a street in Kermanshah, Iran, on Jan. 8, 2026, as nationwide protests continue.
Kamran / Middle East Images /AFP via Getty Images
Bahari said activists and journalists outside Iran had heard reports of security forces shooting at people in different parts of the country, but that the information was impossible to verify. Other CBS News sources, both people inside the country and those in contact with family in Iran, said there did not appear to have been massive, widespread violence on Thursday evening, but they stressed that it was difficult to get a clear picture amid the communications cuts.
“Even Starlink, which has been the main line of communication for some activists in different parts of the country, has been jammed,” Bahari said, referring to the satellite communication system run by Elon Musk.
CBS News has sought comment from SpaceX, which runs Starlink, but did not get any immediate response.
Bahari said this would likely result in the “incarceration of hundreds or even thousands of protesters. It’s gonna lead to torture and interrogation of thousands of protestors, into killing of the protestors. But it has not prevented protests in the past. People have continued to protest, and this time, because the middle classes – the traditional bazaar merchants – they have joined the young people, I think the protests, it will be very difficult for the regime to stop.”
How might Iran respond?
“Many people have called what is happening in Iran right now a revolution, and we can see different signs of revolution in Iran at the moment, but a revolution usually needs a leader for the revolution … We don’t have that leader,” said Bahari, who was working as a journalist in Iran in 2009 when a previous round of massive protests swept across the country. He was arrested and detained for over 100 days.
He said he expects the protests to continue, regardless of any steps the regime takes to crack down, which he said could vary significantly based on the whims of local and regional commanders.
“I think people are more desperate than before. In 2009, the economic situation was not as bad as it is now,” Bahari said. “In 2009 the protests were really about dignity and citizen rights. In 2022, the ‘woman life freedom’ [movement] was mainly about the rights of women to determine their own destinies. But I think these protests, they are about the economic situation, but also about dignity. It’s about the national pride. And because of that, these protests will be very, very difficult to contain.”
“I was very lucky that I was a journalist for a foreign publication at that time … and because of that, I wasn’t treated the same way that unknown prisoners were treated,” Bahari told CBS News.
But despite his status as “a VIP prisoner,” Bahari said he was “tortured physically. I was tortured psychologically. I was threatened with execution. And I know for a fact that many of the protesters in 2009 who were arrested with me and did not have my profile, they were treated much more harshly by the prison guards in different parts of the country.”
“Iranian people, they do not lack bravery. They lack leadership in terms of opposing the government,” Bahari said. “But at the same time, many of the protesters, they have nothing to lose. Their rate of suicide in the past couple of decades in Iran is really high. And when you’re suicidal, when you have nothing to lose, you don’t care about what may happen to you in a protest. So you just come out and ask for your rights.”
Echoing Khamenei, Iran’s state-controlled media on Friday accused “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel of causing the violence. It acknowledged casualties, but gave no details.
The protests began on December 28 as merchants in Tehran closed their shops and took to the streets to vent anger over Iran’s long-ailing economy, which has been hobbled for years by global isolation and a raft of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other nations over its nuclear program and backing of armed proxy groups across the region.
Iran’s autocratic regime has quashed several previous waves of unrest, violently, and the source in Tehran told CBS News there was significant fear among many people that the current protests would draw a similar draconian crackdown.
This time, however, the protests are playing out under the threat of a direct U.S. intervention by President Trump.
“I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots — they have lots of riots — if they do it, we are going to hit them very hard,” Mr. Trump said Thursday during a radio interview.
Vice President JD Vance told reporters at the White House that the U.S. stood by anyone engaged in peaceful protests in Iran. Asked if the U.S. would, as it did over the summer, join in any new Israeli strikes on Iran, Vance called on Tehran to negotiate with Washington over its nuclear program, but said he would “let the president speak to what we’re going to do in the future.”
Bahari said that Iranian officials had told him they were concerned about Mr. Trump potentially intervening in Iran even before these protests.
The recent U.S. attack on Venezuela, “has really scared many Iranian officials and may have affected their actions in terms of how to confront the protesters. But at the same time, it has inspired many protesters to come out, because they know that the leader of the world’s main superpower is supporting their cause.”
Iran has faced intense nationwide protests for nearly two weeks, marking the largest challenge to the country’s ruling regime in years — and drawing vows from President Trump to intervene on the protesters’ behalf if they face a violent crackdown.
Initially sparked by Iran‘s economic freefall and severe inflation, the protests have boiled over, with about 180 cities facing demonstrations. One monitoring group has reported thousands of arrests and dozens of deaths since the protests began.
Here’s what you need to know:
How the Iran protests started, and what they’ve become
The current wave of protests began in the capital, Tehran, in late December as shopkeepers went on strike and marched into the streets. Small business owners in Iran have long been seen as supportive of the regime, but anger over spiraling inflation and the devaluation of the nation’s currency, which lost more than 40% of its value last year, making everyday goods impossible for many people to afford, sparked the demonstrations.
The protests quickly spread, with people joining marches across the country to denounce not only the economic woes, but to air wider discontent with the country’s hardline regime.
Iranian protesters block a street in Kermanshah, Iran, on Jan. 8, 2026, as nationwide protests continue.
Kamran/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty
As of Friday, protests were reported in at least 180 cities in all 31 of the country’s provinces, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a U.S.-based monitoring group founded by anti-regime activists.
Demonstrations have also been reported on dozens of university campuses since late December, and strikes and shop closures were reported in markets in over a dozen cities, HRANA said.
More than 2,300 people have been reported detained since the wave of protests began, including at least 167 under the age of 18, according to HRANA. Some 65 people have been killed, the group said, including 50 protesters, at least seven people under the age of 18 and 14 members of the security services.
The Islamic Republic’s semiofficial Fars news agency claimed Monday that about 250 police officers and 45 members of the feared Basij security force had been injured amid the unrest.
Iranian authorities cut off phone service and web access Thursday night across the country, according to the internet monitoring organization NetBlocks, which said a “nationwide internet blackout” continued on Friday.
“Even Starlink, which has been the main line of communication for some activists in different parts of the country, has been jammed,” Maziar Bahari, editor of the independent IranWire news site, told CBS News on Friday, referring to the satellite communication system run by Elon Musk.
CBS News has sought comment from SpaceX, which runs Starlink, but did not get any immediate response.
Trump warns he’ll hit Iran “very hard” if it kills protesters
Mr. Trump has threatened on several occasions since the protests began that he could order a U.S. intervention if Iranian authorities kill demonstrators.
Speaking at the White House on Jan. 9, Mr. Trump reiterated that he was open to some kind of U.S. action, although he said that would not involve a U.S. incursion.
“I’ve made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts. So, we don’t want that to happen.”
In a Jan. 2 post on Truth Social, he said: “If Iran [shoots] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” the president said.
Speaking on Fox News on Jan. 8, Mr. Trump said the U.S. was “ready” to hit Iran hard if protesters were killed, but added, “for the most part, they haven’t” been.
U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an overnight military operation in Caracas on Jan. 3, and Mr. Trump has suggested he’s open to military action in Colombia to combat drug trafficking, and even to take control of Greenland.
Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who studies Iran, told CBS News last week that Mr. Trump’s gestures of support could embolden Iranian protesters, saying his comments may be the “one ingredient you need to keep … the street-level movement alive.”
Bahari, of IranWire, said Iranian officials had told him they were concerned about Mr. Trump potentially intervening in Iran even before the protests began.
The recent U.S. attack on Venezuela, “has really scared many Iranian officials and may have affected their actions in terms of how to confront the protesters. But at the same time, it has inspired many protesters to come out, because they know that the leader of the world’s main superpower is supporting their cause.”
Iranian leaders acknowledge problems, but blame U.S.
In an address on state television aired Friday, after an intense night of protests, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that his regime would “not back down,” called for unity and accused “a bunch of vandals” in Tehran of causing chaos in the capital “to please the U.S. president.”
In some cases, Iranian officials have attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, acknowledging people’s economic concerns and insisting that people have the right to protest peacefully. State media reported that President Masoud Pezeshkian had directed security forces not to crack down on peaceful protesters.
The government has also offered some relief in the form of $7-a-month stipends that can be used in grocery stores to buy basic necessities.
Iranian army commander Major General Amir Hatami threatened Wednesday to “cut off the hand of any aggressor.”
Iran’s history of mass protests
Protests — and severe crackdowns — are a recurring theme in Iran.
The last major round of protests came in 2022, spurred by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the theocratic government’s forces for allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly. Hundreds of people were killed across months of demonstrations.
“From what we saw on social media channels and also from conversations with different people in Iran, the number of protesters in different parts of the country is not as high as in 2022, but there are more protests — the protests are more widespread in different parts of the country,” Bahari told CBS News. “So, even some smaller cities where they never had a protest in those cities, they see protests these days, and I think people are more desperate than before.”
The current protests seem different compared to the previous rounds — and could be harder for the regime to quell by offering concessions — due to their roots in the country’s economic woes, according to Mona Yacoubian, Director and Senior Adviser of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
She noted that in 2022, the regime was able to appease protesters by “simply addressing their complaints about women’s veiling and so forth.”
But the protesters now are more focused on economic problems, and “there’s really nothing [the regime] can do” to get Iran’s moribund economy back on track, she said.
“These protests, they are about economic situation, but also about dignity,” Bahari told CBS News. “It’s about the national pride. And because of that, this protest will be very, very difficult to contain.”
Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi cheers on the protests
Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father the former shah, fled just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the current clerical regime to power, has cheered the protests from exile, urging demonstrators this week to keep the movement “disciplined” and “as large as possible.”
Iranian opposition figure and son of the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Pahlavi, holds a press conference in Paris on June 23, 2025.
JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images
The crown prince called for Iranians to chant together against the country’s leadership at 8 p.m. local time, or 12 p.m. Eastern, on Thursday and Friday, and many did seem to answer his call.
Pahlavi’s call to action “could be a turning point” in the protest movement, Yacoubian told CBS News on Thursday.
“This is a regime that is not afraid to use lethal force,” Yacoubian said. “But the question is, to what extent, if they become overwhelmed, if the protests become overwhelmingly large and if there are elements in security forces, police, and so forth, kind of at that local level, who themselves are suffering the effects of this economic crisis and who decide not to shoot at people: These are the kinds of questions I think that we need to watch.”
Iranian state media broke its silence Friday over the demonstrations that swept the country overnight, alleging “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel set fires and sparked violence.The brief report buried in state TV’s 8 a.m. broadcast represented the first official word about the demonstrations.Video above: President Donald Trump warns Iran against killing protestersIt claimed the protests saw violence that caused casualties but did not elaborate.It also said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.”Iran’s government has shut down the internet and international phone calls, making it difficult to contact those inside the Islamic Republic. However, a call by Iran’s exiled crown prince apparently sparked a mass demonstration from 8 p.m. local time Thursday.
DUBAI, Dubai —
Iranian state media broke its silence Friday over the demonstrations that swept the country overnight, alleging “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel set fires and sparked violence.
The brief report buried in state TV’s 8 a.m. broadcast represented the first official word about the demonstrations.
Video above: President Donald Trump warns Iran against killing protesters
It claimed the protests saw violence that caused casualties but did not elaborate.
It also said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.”
Iran’s government has shut down the internet and international phone calls, making it difficult to contact those inside the Islamic Republic. However, a call by Iran’s exiled crown prince apparently sparked a mass demonstration from 8 p.m. local time Thursday.
Iranian authorities cut off phone service and internet access Thursday in the capital and in several parts of the country as mass protests and chanting against the government continue, with dozens of people killed in the demonstrations and thousands arrested. Multiple sources in Tehran told CBS News the internet was down in the capital.
The NetBlocks monitoring organization said Thursday evening local time in Iran that its live data showed Iran was “now in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout; the incident follows a series of escalating digital censorship measures targeting protests across the country and hinders the public’s right to communicate at a critical moment.”
Attempts to dial landlines and mobile phones from Dubai to Iran could not be connected, the Associated Press reported.
Security forces confronted protesters in several cities and towns, firing tear gas. One CBS News source in the capital said there were “huge crowds out across Tehran. Unprecedented,” and confirmed that the internet was down for most people in the city. He said some people, with more robust, more reliable business accounts could still get online. Not long after, that source became unreachable, suggesting the blackout had widened even further.
There were reports on social media, largely by anti-regime activists, that web service was also down or severely restricted in the cities of Esfahan, Lodegan, Abdanan, and parts of Shiraz.
The web outages came as Iranians began chanting out of their windows against the regime, following a call by exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former U.S.-backed shah, to make their voices heard at 8 p.m. local time (noon Eastern). Analysts and insiders told CBS News the scale of the response to Pahalvi’s call could determine whether the deadly, 12-day-old protests fizzle out as previous rounds of unrest have, or grow into a major challenge to the government, and provoke a possible wider crackdown.
“All of the huge crowds in my neighborhood are pro-Pahlavi and from several areas my sources report the same — pro-Pahlavi crowds are prevailing, undeniably,” the source in Tehran told CBS News, calling it “monarchists responding to Reza.”
Protesters are seen tearing up a large Iranian flag after it was taken down in the city of Mashhad, in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province, in an image taken from video posted on social media amid nationwide protests. The location of the video was verified by Reuters but the date could not be, though it corresponded with reports of a protest in Mashhad on Jan. 7, 2026, a day before the video was posted online.
Reuters/Social media
So far, the unrest has left at least 42 people dead, including at least four members of the security services, and seen more than 2,260 others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
President Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Thursday that his administration is monitoring the protests in Iran. He threatened to take severe action if authorities kill protesters.
“I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots — they have lots of riots — if they do it, we are going to hit them very hard,” Mr. Trump said.
Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. stands by anybody in Iran engaged in peaceful protest. Asked if the U.S. would take part in any Israeli strikes on Iran, Vance called on Iran to have real negotiations with the U.S. over their nuclear program.
“I’ll let the president speak to what we’re going to do in the future,” Vance said.
NetBlocks said earlier that its “data show the loss of connectivity on #Iran internet backbone provider TCI in the restive city of Kermanshah as protests spread across the nation in their 12th day; the incident comes amid rising casualties with indications of disruptions in multiple regions.”
Iranian authorities regularly restrict or disable internet access when they expect significant protests or other potentially destabilizing events.
President Mahsoud Pezeshkian, seen as a reformer but subordinate to Iran’s longtime Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, intimated ahead of his election in 2024 that he would free up the internet and make more websites accessible. It remains tightly restricted, however. Social media sites such as TikTok, Facebook and X are officially banned, as is access to U.S. and European news sites, including CBS News.
Many young, tech-savvy Iranians have become adept at getting around the restrictions, but it’s a cumbersome process, and when the regime slows down internet speeds at politically sensitive times, the whole system can become unusable.
Donald Trump is once again serving up a quote that sounds less like a presidential soundbite and more like a rejected line from a supervillain origin movie. And yes, it’s as alarming as it is headline-ready.
In a new interview with the New York Times that has everyone clutching their pearls, Trump made it clear that pesky little things like international laws, rules, and norms are more of a suggestion than an actual obstacle. When discussing his ever-expanding vision for American dominance on Thursday, he casually dropped this gem:
“I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people.”
Oh, okay! If you say so! Nothing says reassuring like dismissing international law in the same breath as claiming you’ll only have benevolent intentions… Yeah, tell that to the multiple civilians who’ve been killed of late..
When the Times tried to gently nudge him back toward reality by pointing out that, yes, laws do apply, Trump doubled down with a rhetorical shrug that could be heard around the globe:
“It depends what your definition of international law is.”
WHAT?!
Because definitions are so subjective, right? Gravity, laws, facts: all vibes-based, apparently. Sheesh…
But wait, it gets better. According to Trump, there is exactly one thing holding him back from full-on global supremacy. And no, it’s not Congress, the courts, or literally the rest of the world. It’s this:
“My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
Take a moment, y’all. Breathe. Scream into a pillow if needed.
This interview lands just days after US forces under Trump’s direction seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores during strikes on the city of Caracas before shipping them off to face narco terrorism charges. Venezuela may have an interim leader now, but Trump has been boasting America is basically running the show.
And why stop there? Greenland is still on his wishlist, too. To that end, Trump explained to the Times on Thursday that being allies with Denmark simply isn’t enough. He wants full ownership of the land mass. In his own words:
“Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do with, you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”
Add this to past musings about Colombia, Cuba, Iran, and Mexico, and suddenly this feels less like foreign policy and more like a Monopoly board where someone flipped the table.
Buckle up, y’all. Apparently the only thing between us and Trump’s global takeover is… Trump. Yikes.
Iran’s leaders faced another day of intense protests on Wednesday, with the death toll climbing close to 40 according to a U.S.-based monitoring group founded by anti-regime activists. As violent demonstrations popped up in more cities and towns across the Islamic Republic, the regime took a familiar stance, leaning into anti-Western rhetoric, ignoring the reports of dozens of civilians being killed, and offering economic aid to residents in a bid to quell the unrest that started as protests over inflation and the cost of living.
As they grapple for ways to end the street protests — under the threat of U.S. intervention by President Trump — Iranian authorities said a man was executed by hanging after being convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to the country’s state-run IRNA news agency.
Ali Ardestani was convicted of providing Israeli intelligence “with images and photos of specific locations and information on target subjects, and received amounts in the form of digital currency at the end of each mission,” IRNA said. Iranian authorities hold trials behind closed doors, and no evidence against Ardestani was made public. Iran executed more than 1,000 people last year— the highest number of executions in the country since 1989, according to Amnesty International.
The latest execution came as Iran‘s hardline Islamic rulers face the most significant domestic unrest seen in the country in several years. Nationwide protests against the autocratic regime entered their 12th day on Thursday.
An image taken from a social media video, the date of which could not be confirmed, shows a large crowd marching through the streets of Abdanan, a city in Iran’s southwest Ilam province, believed to be part of nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic’s government.
Reuters/Social media
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), set up by Iranian human rights activists and reliant on a network of contacts still in the country, said Wednesday that at least 38 people had been killed since the protests began, including four security forces.
The protests started as business owners in Tehran vented frustration over spiraling inflation and the cost of basic goods. Iran’s economy has been crippled by U.S. and international sanctions for years, but the demonstrations escalated quickly into the widest protests seen in the country since 2022, following the death of a young woman in police custody after she was detained for an alleged dress code violation.
Trump’s warning lingers as Iran tries to quell protests
On Sunday, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the U.S. could hit Iran “very hard” if protesters are not protected. “We’re watching it very closely,” Mr. Trump said. He’d said two days earlier that if Iran “violently kills protesters,” the U.S. would “come to their rescue.”
So far, there’s been no overt sign of the U.S. following through on these threats, even as the reported death toll from the protests climbs, and no further comment from the White House about what actions by the Iranian regime might actually trigger a response.
Protesters are seen tearing up a large Iranian flag after it was taken down in the city of Mashhad, in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province, in an image taken from video posted on social media amid nationwide protests. The location of the video was verified by Reuters but the date could not be, though it corresponded with reports of a protest in Mashhad on Jan. 7, 2026, a day before the video was posted online.
Reuters/Social media
In an effort to quell the internal pressure, Iran’s government announced economic measures over the weekend to help Iranian citizens make ends meet, and state media said Wednesday that President Mahsoud Pezeshkian had ordered security forces not to attack peaceful demonstrators.
Iran offers food aid in a bid to calm the streets
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said the new assistance measures, among other things, would triple national subsidies for regular households to buy basic goods, according to the state-controlled Mehr News Agency.
The primary benefit, expected to begin Wednesday, would effectively triple the amount Iranians are given by the government to buy basic food items, adding the equivalent of about $7 more per month on top of existing subsidies for food, based on current exchange rates.
Someone shops in a supermarket in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 7, 2026, as the Iranian people grapple with soaring prices, a rapidly devaluing currency, and mounting economic pressure ahead of a planned rollout by the government of a monthly food coupon system amid the Islamic Republic’s worst economic crisis since 1979.
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty
One Iranian told CBS News on Wednesday that the subsidy increase wouldn’t be enough.
“If two people in a family want to have eggs, bread, and cheese for their breakfast, the subsidy is spent on the first day,” said the Tehran resident, who declined to be named.
New Iran army chief hurls new threats at the West
As it often does during moments of domestic unrest, Tehran has continued to take a hard line, publicly, against its two biggest adversaries, Israel and the U.S.
In a statement Wednesday, addressing students at Iran’s Army Command and Staff University in Tehran, Iran’s new overall army commander Major General Amir Hatami threatened to “cut off the hand of any aggressor.”
Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, Amir Hatami speaks during a meeting with military academy students, in Tehran, Iran, in an image provided by the army on Jan. 7, 2026.
Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
“Islamic Iran considers the intensification of the enemies’ rhetoric against the Iranian nation as a threat and will not leave its continuation unanswered,” Hatami said, according to The Associated Press.
Who knew that by “America First,” President Trump meant all of the Americas?
In puzzling over that question at least, I’ve got company in Marjorie Taylor Greene, the now-former congresswoman from Georgia and onetime Trump devotee who remains stalwart in his America First movement. Greene tweeted on Saturday, just ahead of Trump’s triumphal news conference about the United States’ decapitation of Venezuela’s government by the military’s middle-of-the-night nabbing of Nicolás Maduro and his wife: “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong.”
Wrong indeed. Nearly a year into his second term, Trump has done nothing but exacerbate the domestic problems that Greene identified as America First priorities — bringing down the “increasing cost of living, housing, healthcare” within the 50 states — even as he’s pursued the “never ending military aggression” and foreign adventurism that America Firsters scorn, or at least used to. Another Trump con. Another lie.
Here’s a stunning stat, thanks to Military Times: In 2025, Trump ordered 626 missile strikes worldwide, 71 more than President Biden did in his entire four-year term. Targets, so far, have included Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Iran and the waters off Venezuela and Colombia. Lately he’s threatened to hit Iran again if it kills demonstrators who have been marching in Tehran’s streets to protest the country’s woeful economic conditions. (“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump posted Friday.)
The president doesn’t like “forever wars,” he’s said many times, but he sure loves quick booms and cinematic secret ops. Leave aside, for now, the attacks in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. It’s Trump’s new claim to “run” Venezuela that has signaled the beginning of his mind-boggling bid for U.S. hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. Any such ambition raises the potential for quick actions to become quagmires.
As Stephen Miller, perhaps Trump’s closest and most like-minded (read: unhinged) advisor, described the administration’s worldview on Monday to CNN’s Jake Tapper: “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”
You know, that old, amoral iron law: “Might makes right.” Music to Vladimir Putin’s and Xi Jinping’s ears as they seek hegemonic expansion of their own, confident that the United States has given up the moral high ground from which to object.
But it was Trump, the branding maven, who gave the White House worldview its name — his own, of course: the Donroe Doctrine. And it was Trump who spelled out what that might mean in practice for the Americas, in a chest-thumping, war-mongering performance on Sunday returning to Washington aboard Air Force One. The wannabe U.S. king turns out to be a wannabe emperor of an entire hemisphere.
“We’re in charge,” Trump said of Venezuela to reporters. “We’re gonna run it. Fix it. We’ll have elections at the right time.” He added, “If they don’t behave, we’ll do a second strike.” He went on, suggestively, ominously: “Colombia is very sick too,” and “Cuba is ready to fall.” Looking northward, he coveted more: “We need Greenland from a national security situation.”
Separately, Trump recently has said that Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro “does have to watch his ass,” and that, given Trump’s unhappiness with the ungenuflecting Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, “Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.” In their cases as well as Maduro’s, Trump’s ostensible complaints have been that each has been complacent or complicit with drug cartels.
And yet, just last month Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court and given a 45-year sentence for his central role in “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.” Hernández helped traffickers ship 400 tons of cocaine into the United States — to “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.” And Trump pardoned him after less than two years in prison.
So it’s implausible that a few weeks later, the U.S. president truly believes in taking a hard line against leaders he suspects of abetting the drug trade. Maybe Trump’s real motivation is something other than drug-running?
In his appearance after the Maduro arrest, Trump used the word “oil” 21 times. On Tuesday, he announced, in a social media post, of course, that he was taking control of the proceeds from up to 50 barrels of Venezuelan oil. (Not that he cares, but that would violate the Constitution, which gives Congress power to appropriate money that comes into the U.S. Treasury.)
Or perhaps, in line with the Monroe Doctrine, our current president has a retro urge to dominate half the world.
Lately his focus has been on Venezuela and South America, but North America is also in his sights. Trump has long said he might target Mexico to hit cartels and that the United States’ other North American neighbor, Canada, should become the 51st state. But it’s a third part of North America — Greenland — that he’s most intent on.
The icy island has fewer than 60,000 people but mineral wealth that’s increasingly accessible given the climate warming that Trump calls a hoax. For him to lay claim isn’t just a problem for the Americas. It’s an existential threat to NATO given that Greenland is an autonomous part of NATO ally Denmark — as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned.
Not in 80 years did anyone imagine that NATO — bound by its tenet that an attack on one member is an attack on all — would be attacked from within, least of all from the United States. In a remarkable statement on Tuesday, U.S. allies rallied around Denmark: “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Trump’s insistence that controlling Greenland is essential to U.S. national security is nuts. The United States has had military bases there since World War II, and all of NATO sees Greenland as critical to defend against Russian and Chinese encroachment in the Arctic. Still, Trump hasn’t ruled out the use of force to take the island.
He imagines himself to be the emperor of the Americas — all of it. Americas First.
The head of Iran’s military threatened preemptive action over “rhetoric” targeting the country as the regime faces massive protests. Iran’s Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami was likely responding to President Donald Trump’s warning that America would act if violence was used against protesters.
Trump recently made it clear that the U.S. would step in if it saw that Iran was mistreating or killing protesters.
The president wrote on Truth Social, “If Iran shoots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Trump’s warning took on a new meaning for Iran following the historic U.S. mission in Venezuela that led to the capture and extradition of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Iranian military chief Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami seemed to respond to President Donald Trump’s remarks in his latest statement on the ongoing protests.(Masoud Nazari Mehrabi/Iranian Army via AP; Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
Hatami, who was speaking to military academy students, said, “The Islamic Republic considers the intensification of such rhetoric against the Iranian nation as a threat and will not leave its continuation without a response,” according to The Associated Press, which cited the state-run IRNA news agency.
He added, “I can say with confidence that today the readiness of Iran’s armed forces is far greater than before the war. If the enemy commits an error, it will face a more decisive response, and we will cut off the hand of any aggressor.”
Economic woes have led to an uprising among the Iranian people, and international backlash over the treatment of demonstrators has left regime officials feeling threatened, particularly by the U.S. and Israel.
Protesters hold signs during a demonstration in Iran amid ongoing unrest, according to images released by the Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran.(NCRI )
In an effort to quell the unrest, Iran’s government began paying the equivalent of $7 a month to subsidize rising food costs for dinner-table staples, such as rice, meat and pasta. Iranian state TV reported that the subsidy will go to more than 71 million people across the country, according to the AP. The outlet noted that the new subsidy is more than double the 4.5 million rial the people had previously received.
Iranian shopkeepers have warned that prices for items like basic cooking oil could triple under pressure from the collapse of the country’s currency, the AP reported. Iranian media has also reportedly covered the rise in prices of basic goods, including cooking oil, poultry and cheese.
Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP)
Iran’s vice president in charge of executive affairs, Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah, told reporters that the country was in a “full-fledged economic war,” the AP reported. He called for “economic surgery” to get rid of rentier policies and corruption within Iran, the AP added.
Protests began late last month and have showed no signs of stopping. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed the cities of Abdanan (Ilam province) and Malekshahi were effectively “taken over” by protesters.
The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this report.
Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.
Questions remain over how Venezuela will be run in the aftermath of the U.S. capture of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro. One outstanding issue is how the U.S. will handle the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, which has had a drug operation stronghold in the country for decades. CBS News’ Anna Schecter has more.
President Trump isn’t denying the possibility of further American expansion, intervention or annexation efforts in the Western Hemisphere after the military’s success in plucking former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas over the weekend to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S.
In the past, he’s threatened to annex Greenland and Canada and predicted the governments in Cuba and Colombia would fall. Now, Mr. Trump is making similar comments again and raising new questions about what he plans to do next.
Mr. Trump said Saturday that under his administration, “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again” — dubbing his approach the “Don-roe Doctrine,” a spin on the 19th century foreign policy concept.
It’s not clear whether the president will act on his threats against other countries.
Here’s the latest on countries and territories that have been the subject of interventionist comments by the president:
Greenland
Mr. Trump has long coveted Greenland and has said it’s necessary for U.S. national security, a point he made again Sunday.
“We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” he said. “We need Greenland, from the standpoint of national security.”
“Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you,” Mr. Trump continued. “To boost up security in Greenland, they added one more dogsled.”
Administration officials are discussing a “range of options” to acquire Greenland, including using military force, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
The president also named Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to serve as special envoy to Greenland last month to represent U.S. interests on the island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Landry said in a social media post addressed to Mr. Trump, “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
In March, Vice President JD Vance visited Greenland and told a reporter while he was there that “what we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose through self-determination to become independent of Denmark, and then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there.”
Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly stated that the huge Arctic island isn’t for sale and that it will decide its future itself.
A post on Saturday by Katie Miller, the wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller, showed Greenland covered in an American flag accompanied by the comment “Soon,” which prompted some to wonder if its annexation is on the horizon.
Asked by CNN on Monday if he could rule out that the U.S. is going to try to take Greenland by force, Stephen Miller said, “There’s no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you’re asking — of a military operation. Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One over the weekend that while nothing is imminent, “we’ll worry about Greenland in about two months. Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen chided Mr. Trump in a social media post, calling suggestions of annexation “fantasies” and writing: “That’s enough now.”
On Tuesday, the leaders of Europe issued a statement saying “security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.”
Iran
Escalating protests over the desperate economic conditions in Iran have been taking place for over a week, and there have been reports that dozens of people have been killed. In response, hours before the Venezuela operation began, Mr. Trump posted on social media that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.” He said the U.S. is “locked and loaded.”
The president said Sunday of the demonstrations in Iran, “We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.”
In June, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Iran’s major nuclear facilities, Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, in an effort to destroy its nuclear enrichment capacity.
Cuba
On the way back to Washington Sunday, Mr. Trump told reporters, “Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall,” adding that he didn’t know “if they’re going to hold out.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks Saturday indicated Cuba’s leaders should be worried: “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.” A day later, on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” he said of Cuba, “they’re in a lot of trouble.”
Though he didn’t detail any plans for Cuba or its leaders, Rubio said, “I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.”
Rubio highlighted the close ties between Venezuela and Cuba, noting that Maduro had relied on Cuban bodyguards for protection and said they were in charge of the Venezuelan government’s “internal intelligence.” The Cuban government said 32 Cubans were killed during the military operation to capture Maduro.
For now, Mr. Trump seems content to see how things play out on the island.
“I don’t think we need any action” in Cuba, he said, pointing out that Cuba “now has no income — they got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. And Cuba literally is ready to fall.”
In the past year, Cuba’s oil imports from Venezuela fell by 15%, to 27,400 barrels per day, according to Reuters, which also said that Cuba’s supply from Mexico over the same period, from January to October, had dropped by 73%, to just 5,000 bpd.
Colombia
The president appears to have less patience for Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whom he has accused of illegal drug production and trafficking.
“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you,” Mr. Trump told reporters Saturday. Asked whether he was threatening to undertake a military operation in Colombia, the president replied, “It sounds good to me. You know what … they kill a lot of people.”
The Trump administration has claimed that cocaine production has spiked during Petro’s presidency, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions on Petro in October because he “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”
Petro has accused the U.S. of violating international law with its attacks on alleged drug boats, which have now killed at least 115 people, and he suggested that some innocent civilians may have been killed in the strikes. The U.S. denies that any innocent civilians have been killed in any of the boat strikes.
Petro — who once belonged to a guerilla group — warned Mr. Trump against taking action in his country, writing on X that he “swore never to touch a weapon again,” but “for the homeland I would take up arms that I don’t want.”
Canada
While Mr. Trump has in the past talked about making Canada the “51st state,” he has not brought it up again since the Venezuela operation.
But Mr. Trump has imposed punishing tariffs against Canada, raising the tariffs to 35% in August, though a large share of goods are exempt because they’re covered by the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement.
In October, Mr. Trump threatened to end trade negotiations with Canada after an anti-tariff ad using Ronald Reagan’s voice ran in Ontario. Ontario Premier Doug Ford pulled the ad, saying “our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses.”
Panama Canal
Mr. Trump argued earlier in his term that the U.S. should regain control over the strategic Panama Canal — drawing flak from Panama’s government. The U.S. oversaw the canal’s construction in the early 20th century and controlled it for decades, but began handing the canal and surrounding land back over to Panama in 1979.
He claimed in March that he was “reclaiming the Panama Canal,” referring to a deal by a U.S.-led consortium to buy a controlling stake in the company that operates ports near the canal. Panama’s president accused Mr. Trump of “lying again.”
What is the Monroe Doctrine?
In 1823, America’s fifth president, James Monroe, outlined before Congress the U.S.’ policy toward its neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. It was initially intended to ward off European colonialism, but the Monroe administration also wanted to increase the U.S.’ influence and trading alliances.
During the Cold War, the U.S. cited the Monroe Doctrine to be used as a defense against the expansion of communism in Latin America.
The phrase “Don-roe Doctrine” first appeared on the cover of the New York Post last year.
At least 29 protesters have been killed as major anti-government demonstrations spread across Iran for a 10th day, a U.S.-based rights group says. The Iranian government is trying to quell the unrest, and reacted angrily to President Trump’s veiled threat of a U.S. armed intervention.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which gave the death toll based on its network of contacts in the country, said in its daily report on Monday that more than 1,200 people had been detained by Iranian security forces since the protests started more than a week ago. HRANA shared video on Tuesday that it said showed clashes between protesters and security forces at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar — a center of commerce in the capital where shop owners have long backed the regime.
The protests began more than a week ago in Tehran as business owners took to the streets to vent their frustration over soaring inflation in the nation, whose economy has been crippled by U.S. and international sanctions for years. But the anger spread quickly to more than 250 locations in at least 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to the Washington-based HRANA, with social media videos showing violent clashes between protesters chanting anti-government slogans and security forces every night since.
Video posted online on Jan. 6, 2026 and location verified by the Reuters news agency shows Iranian security forces operating amid tear gas as they confront protesters in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar market.
Reuters
People who spoke with CBS News from inside the country on Tuesday said the latest demonstrations in the capital were relatively small, corroborating other reports that efforts by the Iranian authorities to placate the protesters have likely had some effect in reducing numbers in recent days.
President Trump said Friday — a day before American forces attacked Venezuela and captured the country’s longtime leader Nicolas Maduro — that the U.S. was “locked and loaded and ready,” warning that if Iran “violently kills protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”
Mr. Trump hasn’t offered any further detail on his threat, but he’s been ratcheting up pressure on Tehran since taking office for his second term, including with unprecedented U.S. strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities in June as Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war.
“I think many Iranian people will be inspired by that,” Maziar Bahari, editor of the independent Iranian news website IranWire, told CBS News on Saturday, referring to Mr. Trump’s remarks. “The message has made the Iranian regime more careful about its actions and using violence against people.”
Iranian officials have not confirmed the deaths of any protesters, and while acknowledging the demonstrations and economic pain felt in the country, they make little mention of the violence seen on the streets and accuse the U.S. and Israel of fomenting the unrest. The Islamic Republic’s semiofficial Fars news agency claimed Monday that about 250 police officers and 45 members of the feared Basij security force had been injured amid the unrest.
Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Dec. 29, 2025.
Fars News Agency via AP
The U.S. State Department has issued statements condemning specific incidents in Iran since Mr. Trump leveled his ambiguous threat, but the chances of an American intervention remained unclear on Tuesday.
As has long been the case with Iran, the uncertainty left space for rumors to swirl. There were unconfirmed reports that the country’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was considering escaping into exile in Russia if the protests escalated out of control.
Other reports have speculated that the government could even launch a new attack on Israel — something the regime has said it is ready for since the 12-day war in June — in a bid to divert attention away from domestic problems and refocus the population’s anger at Iran’s biggest foreign adversary, which would likely respond quickly and harshly.
But Iran’s intelligence services have a history of leaking false information to the media, especially foreign outlets, to create an exaggerated narrative that the country’s leaders can then deny and portray as deliberate Western disinformation.
In the meantime, the government has tried to quash the unrest on the streets not only with security forces, but with a series of measures aimed at showing sympathy with the protesters, including freezing some commodity prices and taxes on businesses, and even a dramatic move Monday to announce cash subsidies for essential goods for all households.
The government does appear to have been bracing for unrest in the wake of the summer war with Israel, which constrained its sanctions-squeezed budgets even further and forced slashes to subsidies and social services.
So far, however, even if the protests haven’t continued escalating — which is difficult to gauge as Iran’s government tightly controls the flow of information inside the country — the efforts to quell the unrest haven’t fully succeeded.
In the meantime, the demonstrations continue, as people wait for any further signals from Mr. Trump that he might be willing to try to take advantage of a vulnerable moment for the Islamic Republic’s rulers.
Rights groups in Iran say dozens have been killed and more than a thousand others have been detained in protests there over the past week. President Trump had warned the U.S. was “locked and loaded” if Tehran violently killed peaceful demonstrators. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian women’s rights activist and journalist, joins CBS News to discuss.
WASHINGTON — Venezuela risks “a second strike” if its interim government doesn’t acquiesce to U.S. demands. Cuba is “ready to fall,” and Colombia is “very sick, too.”
Iran may get “hit very hard” if its government cracks down on protesters. And Denmark risks U.S. intervention, as well, because “we need Greenland,” President Trump said.
In just 37 minutes while speaking with reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump threatened to attack five countries, both allies and adversaries, with the might of the U.S. military — an extraordinary turn for a president who built his political career rejecting traditional conservative views on the exercise of American power and vowing to put America first.
The president’s threats come as a third of the U.S. naval fleet remains stationed in the Caribbean, after Trump launched a daring attack on Venezuela that seized its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife over the weekend.
The goal, U.S. officials said, was to show the Venezuelan government and the wider world what the American military is capable of — and to compel partners and foes alike to adhere to Trump’s demands through intimidation, rather than commit the U.S. military to more complex, conventional, long-term engagements.
It is the deployment of overwhelming and spectacular force in surgical military operations — Maduro’s capture, last year’s strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, assassinations of Islamic State leadership and Iran’s top general in Iraq — that demonstrate Trump as a brazen leader willing to risk war, thereby effectively avoiding it, one Trump administration official said, explaining the president’s strategic thinking.
Yet experts and former Trump aides warn the president’s approach risks miscalculation, alienating vital allies and emboldening U.S. competitors.
At a Security Council meeting Monday at the United Nations in New York — called by Colombia, a long-standing and major non-North Atlantic Treaty Oranization ally to the United States — Trump’s moves were widely condemned. “Violations of the U.N. Charter,” a French diplomat told the council, “chips away at the very foundation of international order.”
Even the envoy from Russia, which has cultivated historically strong ties with the Trump administration, said the White House operation was an act of “banditry,” marking “a return to the era of illegality and American dominance through force, chaos and lawlessness.”
Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with vast natural resources, drew particular concern across Europe on Monday, with leaders across the continent warning the United States against an attack that would violate the sovereignty of a NATO ally and European Union member state.
“That’s enough now,” Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said after Trump told reporters that his attention would turn to the world’s largest island in a matter of weeks.
“If the United States decides to militarily attack another NATO country, then everything would stop,” Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told local press. “That includes NATO, and therefore, post-World War II security.”
Trump also threatened to strike Iran, where anti-government protests have spread throughout the country in recent days. Trump had previously said the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” if Iranian security forces begin firing on protesters, “which is their custom.”
“The United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump wrote on social media on Jan. 2, hours before launching the Venezuela mission. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In Colombia, there was widespread outrage after Trump threatened military action against leftist President Gustavo Petro, whom Trump accused, without evidence, of running “cocaine mills and cocaine factories.”
Petro is a frequent critic of the American president and has slammed as illegal a series of lethal U.S. airstrikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.
“Stop slandering me,” Petro wrote on X, warning that any U.S. attempts against his presidency “will unleash the people’s fury.”
Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, said he would go to war to defend Colombia.
“I swore not to touch a weapon again,” he said. “But for the homeland, I will take up arms.”
Trump’s threats have strained relations with Colombia, a devoted U.S. ally. For decades, the countries have shared military intelligence, a robust trade relationship and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.
Even some of Petro’s domestic critics have comes to his defense. Presidential candidate Juan Manuel Galán, who opposes Petro’s rule, said Colombia’s sovereignty “must be defended.”
“Colombia is not Venezuela,” Galán wrote on X. “It is not a failed state, and we will not allow it to be treated as such. Here we have institutions, democracy and sovereignty that must be defended.”
The president of Mexico, another longtime U.S. ally and its largest trading partner, has also spoken out forcefully against the American operation in Caracas, and said the Trump administration’s aggressive foreign policy in Latin America threatens the stability of the region.
“We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said in her daily news conference Monday. “The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: Intervention has never brought democracy, has never generated well-being or lasting stability.”
She addressed Trump’s comments over the weekend that drugs were “pouring” through Mexico, and that the United States was “going to have to do something.”
Trump has been threatening action against cartels for months, with some members of his administration suggesting that the United States may soon carry out drone strikes on drug laboratories and other targets inside Mexican territory. Sheinbaum has repeatedly said such strikes would be a clear violation of Mexican sovereignty.
“Sovereignty and the self-determination of peoples are non-negotiable,” she said. “They are fundamental principles of international law and must always be respected without exception.”
Cuba also rejected Trump’s threat of a military intervention there, after Trump’s secretary of State, Marco Rubio, himself the descendant of Cuban immigrants, suggested that Havana may be next in Washington’s crosshairs.
“We call on the international community to stop this dangerous, aggressive escalation and to preserve peace,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on social media.
The U.S. attacks on Venezuela, and Trump’s threats of additional military ventures, have caused deep unease in a relatively peaceful region that has seen fewer interstate wars in recent decades than Europe, Asia or Africa.
It also caused unease among some Trump supporters, who remembered his pledge to get the United States out of “endless” military conflicts for good.
“I was the first president in modern times,” Trump said, accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, “to start no new wars.”
Wilner reported from Washington and Linthicum from Mexico City.
President Donald Trump was photographed with a signed “Make Iran Great Again” hat alongside Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as nationwide demonstrations in Iran continued against the regime’s political and economic corruption.
In a photo posted Monday morning on Graham’s X account, the senator could be seen flashing a thumbs up next to Trump as the president holds the black hat emblazoned with his signature.
“Another great day with @POTUS who has brought America back, stronger than ever, at home and abroad,” Graham wrote. “God bless our Commander in Chief and all of the brave men and women who serve under him.”
“I’m proud to be an American,” the post continued. “God bless and protect the brave people of Iran who are standing up to tyranny.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posted a photo of himself posing with President Donald Trump, who is holding a signed “Make Iran Great Again” hat.(Lindsey Graham / X)
Demonstrations have spread to more than 220 locations across 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early Monday. At least 20 people have been killed, the group said, and more than 990 have been arrested.
Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP)
Iran’s collapsing currency has fueled a deepening economic crisis. Prices for staples such as meat and rice have surged, while the country grapples with inflation of around 40%.
In December, the government introduced a new pricing tier for its heavily subsidized gasoline, raising the cost of some of the world’s cheapest fuel and adding to public anger. Tehran has signaled that further increases may follow, with officials now set to review fuel prices every three months.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with officials, Islamic countries’ ambassador to Iran and a group of people in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Why is there no statement about supporting regime change in Iran? And why are there no comments about the international law violations by the Iranian regime as it cracks down on protesters?
“Starmer’s silence on Iran is shocking,” the UK’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel opined on Saturday, referring to a dramatic absence of commentary from British politicians and British media regarding the weeklong anti-regime protests in Iran.
“With Iran’s cruel authoritarian regime emboldened by its brutal crackdown of freedom and democracy advocates within the country, Britain stands in silence as we see the chilling images of protesters being silenced and young activists being detained,” she added.
“All this is not happening in secret but in plain sight, which is why the lack of robust action and condemnation by Starmer’s feeble government is shocking. Senior figures in the Labour Government seem unwilling and incapable of stepping up.”
Mass demonstrations broke out across Iran on December 28, with citizens protesting over the collapse of the rial and soaring inflation, as well as dissatisfaction with the Islamic regime. These are the largest anti-regime protests since 2022’s Mahsa Amini protests. And yet there have been no tweets from Prime Minister Keir Starmer nor Yvette Cooper showing solidarity with the Iranian people or condemning the brutal Islamic regime’s crackdown on protests.
The BBC – the country’s state broadcaster – has only published four articles. If one were relying on the BBC for coverage, one could be forgiven for not knowing anything was happening in Iran at all. A large group of Iranian and Jewish protesters actually gathered outside the BBC HQ on Sunday, chanting, “Ayatollah BBC, shame on you.” Yet when there is any development in Israel or Palestine, Cooper, David Lammy, and Starmer – and of course the BBC – scramble to chime in.
And it’s not just the BBC. The Guardian, which has dedicated itself to the noble task of Israel-bashing, focused its coverage on an op-ed by Iran’s foreign ministerAbbas Araghchi about how “Israel’s recklessness is a threat to all.” The Jerusalem Post has seen countless images on Iranian citizen Telegram channels and X/Twitter accounts showing horrific injuries, including an X-ray of a woman with hundreds of metal bearings in her skull. Yet, according to The Guardian, Israel is the greatest threat.
People stand outside the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) headquarters in London, (credit: REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS)
So why the silence? One reason could be that British politicians and British media view Iran’s internal issues abstractly, whereas the Israel-Palestine conflict is seen as somewhat symbiotic with British history and policy and therefore of domestic importance. The last two years have shown that Israel-Palestine developments have a strong impact on British domestic policy and are treated as a Westminster issue.
Iranian internal struggles, on the other hand, are regarded at a distance. The UK sometimes takes the side of quiet diplomacy, fearing that any public condemnation of internal Iranian affairs may jeopardize any future negotiations. Some have said that British politicians are playing a waiting game, fearful to chip in before more is clear. Others argued that they do not want to comment on foreign regime changes. However, this argument does not stand up to scrutiny.
After the US’s capture and indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Starmer and Cooper both immediately came out with statements about endorsing “transition of power” in Venezuela, so long as it is with respect to international law. Why is there no statement about supporting regime change in Iran? And why are there no comments about the international law violations by the Iranian regime as it cracks down on protesters?
The BBC has given some dubious reasons for its lack of coverage. BBC World Affairs reporter John Simpson responded to queries by saying it is “very difficult for news organizations to get correspondents in [Iran]. The BBC is banned, and so are most others. It’s a bit like Gaza.”
Not being able to enter Gaza has not stopped the BBC from writing incessantly about it over the last two years, so why this would be a barrier to covering Iran is unclear.
“Understood, but BBC can report on the tide of social media posts, many of which are obviously authentic – but the total blackout on the story is absolutely astounding and irresponsible,” retorted historian Simon Schama, highlighting the double standards.
The National Union for Democracy in Iran – which delivered a groundbreaking report on Iran’s web of influence in the UK last year – magnanimously offered to help the BBC with its coverage. “We are analyzing, monitoring, verifying, and translating protest videos and slogans on a daily basis. We are happy to help.”If the Islamic Republic falls, it will change the future of not just the Iranian people but the entire world. Regardless of the outcome, the UK will be directly affected. Surely the BBC wants to be leading the tide of reporting on this? Surely Britain’s government wants to preemptively assure the Iranian people of its support, should the regime fall. The Iranian people are asking to be heard. The question remains of why key British establishments are choosing not to give them a voice.
PALM BEACH, Florida, Jan 3 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump capped the holidays with an unprecedented strike on Venezuela, overseeing a surprise snatch-and-grab operation early on Saturday targeted at Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The dramatic mission punctuated a winter sojourn to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, filled with an unusual mix of activities that have become oddly typical for the unconventional president.
Trump spent Thursday night, for instance, blasting out messages on Truth Social about an eclectic array of topics, none of them related to the South American country.
He wrote that the U.S. was “locked and loaded” and poised to help protesters in Iran if they were attacked by the government in Tehran. The 79-year-old president also presented his 11.2 million Truth Social followers with an image of a bald eagle that had been apparently slain by a windmill, while assuring them in a separate post that he is in “PERFECT HEALTH.”
On Friday, less than 24 hours before the Venezuela mission, Trump spent almost an hour perusing marble and onyx at an Italian stone importer in a gritty section of Lake Worth Beach for his planned White House ballroom. Onlookers were left agape as “The Beast” presidential limousine snaked its way down narrow roads flanked by strip malls and trailer parks for the shopping excursion.
Since arriving at Mar-a-Lago in mid-December for a trip that wraps up on Sunday, Trump’s days have been a blend of heady geopolitical affairs with visits from foreign leaders and glitzy social occasions, like a black-tie gala on New Year’s Eve replete with Palm Beach socialites. No stretch has underlined that juxtaposition more than the last few days.
Supporters see a vigorous executive, capable of juggling several tasks and interests simultaneously. Opponents say he is easily distracted and sometimes focused on trivial matters, even when his administration is engaged in immensely consequential matters, like preparing to attack a sovereign nation.
A PASSION FOR MARBLE, A DISDAIN FOR CLOONEY
On New Year’s Eve, with hundreds of military assets already in place and awaiting the order to capture Maduro, Trump took to Truth Social with mock celebration of the news that George and Amal Clooney – both critics of the U.S. president – had obtained French citizenship.
During the gala at Mar-a-Lago hours later, Trump invited painter Vanessa Horabuena up to the stage to paint an image of Jesus Christ. He then auctioned off the painting for $2.75 million to a woman in a top hat and a svelte man in modified black-tie attire. The proceeds, the president said, would go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
In the lead-up to the Venezuela mission, Trump also had his most high-profile architectural passion project – the $400 million new White House ballroom – on his mind. The endeavor has faced sharp criticism from Democrats and conservationists, in part because it involved the demolition of a significant chunk of the executive mansion.
A White House official told reporters on Friday that Trump was purchasing marble and onyx for the ballroom at his own expense, without providing further details.
“I’m doing a magnificent, big, beautiful ballroom that the country’s wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years,” Trump said last week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had traveled to Florida to meet with the U.S. president.
That Trump would venture out days later to view marble options – even as one of the most significant U.S. military operations ever in Latin America was imminent – was not a total surprise for a president who has long had something of an obsession with the white stone.
During his first term in office, Trump appointees on an architectural board demanded that a renovation of the Federal Reserve in Washington include more marble. That demand, revealed by the media last year, has garnered renewed relevance as Trump frequently criticizes Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for the cost of that renovation.
Following Trump’s Friday stop at the marble importer, he headed to his golf course, as he did on a near-daily basis while in Florida. In the evening, he met with his ambassador to China, former Senator David Perdue.
Within hours, the plan to capture Maduro was a go.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Alistair Bell and Diane Craft)
