National protests against immigration enforcement on Saturday include many cities in Northern California.At least 1,000 demonstrations are planned under the banner “ICE Out for Good” across the country. Protests planned for cities in KCRA 3’s coverage area include:RosevilleVacavilleStocktonWoodlandFair Oaks/CarmichaelFairfieldModestoSacramentoSonora(LiveCopter 3 will have a view over the demonstrations. Watch in the video above.) The protests are being organized by groups that include Indivisible, MoveOn Civic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen, Voto Latino, United We Dream and the 50501 movement.They come after the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, where immigration agents have surged as part of a new crackdown tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Good, a mother of three and a U.S. citizen, was shot when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot into her vehicle on Wednesday morning as she was driving forward in an area where agents were operating. Trump administration officials have alleged the shooting was done in self-defense, which state and local officials have disputed. At least four people have been killed and seven hurt in 16 shooting incidents by immigration officials during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to Hearst’s Get the Fact Data Team. In another 15 incidents, federal immigration agents held people at gunpoint but didn’t shoot. In the latest encounter, two people were shot and wounded by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in east Portland. This story is developing. Stay with KCRA 3 for updates. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel–The Associated Press contributed to this story. PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=
At least 1,000 demonstrations are planned under the banner “ICE Out for Good” across the country. Protests planned for cities in KCRA 3’s coverage area include:
Roseville
Vacaville
Stockton
Woodland
Fair Oaks/Carmichael
Fairfield
Modesto
Sacramento
Sonora
(LiveCopter 3 will have a view over the demonstrations. Watch in the video above.)
The protests are being organized by groups that include Indivisible, MoveOn Civic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen, Voto Latino, United We Dream and the 50501 movement.
They come after the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, where immigration agents have surged as part of a new crackdown tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
Good, a mother of three and a U.S. citizen, was shot when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot into her vehicle on Wednesday morning as she was driving forward in an area where agents were operating. Trump administration officials have alleged the shooting was done in self-defense, which state and local officials have disputed.
At least four people have been killed and seven hurt in 16 shooting incidents by immigration officials during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to Hearst’s Get the Fact Data Team. In another 15 incidents, federal immigration agents held people at gunpoint but didn’t shoot.
In the latest encounter, two people were shot and wounded by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in east Portland.
This story is developing. Stay with KCRA 3 for updates.
Protesters against immigration enforcement actions took to the streets in cities and towns across the country on Saturday after a federal officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis and another shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.Video above: Protesters and counterprotesters clash in Minneapolis day after ICE shootingThe demonstrations come as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pushes forward in the Twin Cities with what it calls its biggest-ever immigration enforcement operation. President Donald Trump’s administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers. Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to get out of his comfort zone and attend a Saturday protest in Durham, North Carolina, because of what he called the “horrifying” killing in Minneapolis.”We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”Video below: Protests intensify after ICE shooting of Renee GoodIndivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states. Many were dubbed “ICE Out for Good” using the acronym for the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Indivisible and its local chapters organized protests in all 50 states last year.In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups called for a demonstration at Powderhorn Park, a large green space about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot on Wednesday. They said the rally and march would celebrate Good’s life and call for an “end to deadly terror on our streets.”Protests held in the neighborhood have so far been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown. On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as people threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested.The Trump administration has been surging thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part. Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February. Associated Press writer Allen Breed contributed to this report from Durham, North Carolina.
MINNEAPOLIS —
Protesters against immigration enforcement actions took to the streets in cities and towns across the country on Saturday after a federal officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis and another shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.
Video above: Protesters and counterprotesters clash in Minneapolis day after ICE shooting
The demonstrations come as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pushes forward in the Twin Cities with what it calls its biggest-ever immigration enforcement operation. President Donald Trump’s administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers.
Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to get out of his comfort zone and attend a Saturday protest in Durham, North Carolina, because of what he called the “horrifying” killing in Minneapolis.
“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”
Video below: Protests intensify after ICE shooting of Renee Good
Indivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states. Many were dubbed “ICE Out for Good” using the acronym for the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Indivisible and its local chapters organized protests in all 50 states last year.
In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups called for a demonstration at Powderhorn Park, a large green space about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot on Wednesday. They said the rally and march would celebrate Good’s life and call for an “end to deadly terror on our streets.”
Protests held in the neighborhood have so far been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.
NurPhoto
In St. Paul, Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz and First Lady Gwen Walz join a moment of silence with clergy and demonstrators at the Minnesota State Capitol during a vigil urging accountability and compassion after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman this week.
On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as people threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested.
The Trump administration has been surging thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.
Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February.
Associated Press writer Allen Breed contributed to this report from Durham, North Carolina.
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.
Federal officers fired pepper balls and surged into a crowd of protesters Thursday morning outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, as tensions boiled over following the fatal shooting of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer a day earlier.
CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman was reporting from the scene when officers pushed into the crowd behind a cloud of chemical irritants, triggering shoving, panic and screams among the protesters.
It was the city’s first protest of the day after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed in her car Wednesday during an ICE operation in a south Minneapolis neighborhood. The killing has sparked protests nationwide, including in New York, Miami and Detroit.
In Minneapolis, the anger was palpable.
Several hundred people gathered outside the federal building, including mothers and grandmothers. One woman, Trish, told CBS News the fear was already disrupting daily life amid an influx of 2,000 federal law enforcement members in the Twin Cities metro area.
“Everybody is staying home, because this is a big community with lots of different families and people can’t go to work, kids can’t go to school because they are terrorizing people,” Trish said.
Among the crowd were first-time protesters, including Patrick, who said he supports the military but felt compelled to speak out.
“Absolutely, I am ashamed of ICE,” Patrick told CBS News, adding, “I would say that it has been building — I think the rhetoric with the governor and the president and Kristi Noem — it has just been building, for sure. I would say it has tipped over.”
Trish and Patrick did not provide their last name.
Across the street, Border Patrol officers assembled as tensions mounted. Moments later, they fired pepper balls at close range at protesters and journalists.
The chaos intensified after someone threw a snowball. Officers surged forward to detain a person, deploying what appeared to be stun grenades. At one point, Border Patrol agents found themselves surrounded before breaking through the crowd and retreating to the building.
Protesters at times refused orders to disperse, sitting in the roadway. At least one woman was dragged along the pavement as officers appeared to prepare additional crowd-control devices.
Later in the day, Patrick reflected on the moment officers charged into demonstrators.
“I really hope that both sides of us can be peaceful and not resort to this intimidation stuff,” he said. “As an American, I have a right to protest.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
A day after a woman in Minneapolis was killed by an immigration federal agent, clergy leaders and advocates gathered on the steps of the downtown Los Angeles federal immigration building to honor her and denounce the killing.
Holding printed out photos of Nicole Renee Good, the woman shot in the head by a federal immigration agent, a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Thursday morning for a vigil organized by the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice and joined by immigrant rights groups. They held signs that read “Justice for Renee.”
“We stand holding the fear and the terror and the sorrow, the deep grief that has transpired needlessly,” said Rev. Francisco Garcia. “Murder at the hands of our tax dollars. State sanctioned. This cannot be, this cannot stand, and we offer our continued witness to stand against these atrocities, against this evil.”
A woman protests the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good, while joining dozens who protested her death Wednesday by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on January 8, 2026.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
One woman held a sign that read: “End ICE death squads.”
Good, a mother of three who had recently moved to Minneapolis, was driving her car Wednesday morning when she was stopped by federal immigration agents. Videos of the shooting have spread online and appear to show Good, 37, being told to get out of her car, with one agent walking and prying at the door handle. She is seen backing up when another agent stands in front of her car and, as she appears to drive forward, shoots her.
Good’s death has sparked protests that has put the city on edge as protesters have filled the streets, and similar protests have spread across the country.
In Sacramento, police said protesters vandalized a federal building during a march in response to the shooting. TV station KCRA reported that the protest was largely peaceful until a small group of protesters pushed open a security gate and threw rocks at parked cars and the building.
Ampara Rincon, holding a photo of Renee Nicole Good, watches as protesters leave flowers in Good’s memory a day after her shooting death by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on January 8, 2026.
The Trump administration has defended the agent’s action, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling it an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers and accused Good of trying to run the agent over.
For months, the administration has contended that federal immigration actions are necessary in carrying out Trump’s mandate to secure the borders. On Thursday, the DHS released statistics that officials say demonstrate that ICE agents have faced an increase in vehicular assaults.
Local leaders have disputed the administration’s narrative that agents were defending themselves as Good attempted to run them down, with Mayor Jacob Frey calling the claim a “garbage narrative.” He called on the agency to withdraw its agents from the city.
For months, clergy leaders have organized vigils and marches in the downtown area after immigration raids began in Los Angeles last year. This time, they felt compelled to speak out because even though Minneapolis is some 1,900 miles away, Good’s death has been felt across the country, Rev. Carlos Rincon said.
“It’s a life that was taken in a horrible way,” Rincon said. “I felt that it was very important to be present, to lament, to pray, but also to denounce. You know what this administration is doing because it comes from the President.”
As an immigrant himself, Rincon said he has attended protests to bear witness. When a large protest broke out in Paramount last year, Rincon was there with a Bible and dressed in clergy wear to help de-escalate the conflict. Instead, he said, he was shot with rubber bullets and tear gassed by agents. Violent confrontations between federal immigration agents and bystanders have continued, and Rincon feared a moment like this was bound to happen.
“She made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our community, and I wanted to honor her,” he said.
For many, the shooting was a sign of escalation by an administration that they said has turned against its own citizens. In California, ICE agents have opened fire while conducting immigration stops. On Aug. 16, masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers surrounded a man driving his truck and smashed his driver’s side window. When he tried to drive away, one agent shot at the truck three times, leaving bullet holes in the side of the car.
Dozens attend a protest over the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good who was shot dead Wednesday by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on January 8, 2026.
In Chicago, Border Patrol agents shot a woman several times after they accused her of ramming her vehicle into an agent’s car. She was charged with felony assault, but the charges were ultimately dropped.
“We are experiencing fascism by an administration who is at war with its own citizens,” Martha Arevalo, executive director of CARECEN LA, said. “What we are seeing all over the country is unprecedented, and it’s an attack against all of us, undocumented or citizen, it doesn’t matter. We’re all at risk. We should all be worried. We should all be outraged.”
L.A. resident Kelsey Harper said she felt angry and shocked when she learned of Good’s death. She felt compelled to attend the event and support an end to immigration raids and violent confrontations.
“This only ends if enough people are active about it,” Harper said. “The most we can do is show up for each other.”
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.
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.
Over one hundred protesters marched outside of the MDC jail where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is currently being detained, denouncing the measures the United States took to capture him.
According to the demonstrators who strode up and down the sidewalk in the shadow of the same jail that holds Luigi Mangione and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, New Yorkers have no love for Maduro. However, they say they are furious over his apprehension since they feel President Donald Trump acted illegally to enter Venezuela.
“The United States, once again, decided to act against international laws, kidnapping a sitting leader of a foreign government with no rhyme or reason that could be justified, and is looking to further destabilize countries whose governments they don’t agree with. We need to be out here in the streets making that known that we don’t agree with it,” protester William Novello said, adding that he wants the world to know that not every American agrees with the military strike. “People around the world can act in solidarity, knowing that the people in the United States are trying to fight back against what their government does. They need to see us out here.”
Crowds gathered at MDC Brooklyn to protest Maduro’s U.S. detention.Photo by Dean Moses
Police barricaded off the entrance to the jail facility, forcing the demonstrators to occupy the sidewalk just outside the area, where they clung to picket signs reading “No U.S war on Venezuela” and “U.S out of the Caribbean” while the crowd chanted “Hands off Venezuela’s oil” and “No blood for oil.”
Lindsay Katt said she watched the news in horror when the explosions in Caracas were first reported and felt the need to join the protest.
“I think it’s unconscionable. I understand that this leader is disliked greatly and has his own problems. I think those things aren’t mutually exclusive. I don’t believe that one justifies the other. And I think the moment we start to negotiate whose humanity is worth protecting, all of our humanity becomes negotiable,” Katt said. “If we don’t step up together, anyone who has the power over us has the conditioning and ability to repress us.”
they say they are furious over his apprehension because President Donald Trump invaded Venezuela to do so.Photo by Dean Moses
Those stomping the street also say they are fuming over the U.S taking control of Venezuela itself, while also announcing its intention to take control of the country’s oil supply.
“I think what the US government has done is a violation of the sovereignty of Venezuela. They have no right to go into another country and tell them what they should do, and they openly say they’re there to get the oil, the gold, the lithium, the natural resources of the whole region. That’s not good for working people in Venezuela. It’s not good for working people here,” Seth Galinski said. “They’re trying to steal the wealth of Venezuela and other countries, and they’re dragging us towards the Third World War.”
Maduro is expected to appear in Federal court in Lower Manhattan on Monday to face drug charges.
Hundreds gathered outside the White House after the U.S. military removed President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela.
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Hundreds protest military action in Venezuela at White House
Nine hours after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military launched a military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture and removal of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, hundreds gathered outside the White House.
The protest, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, attracted a diverse group of people from the D.C. region, including Modesto King.
“I thought I was gonna get a heart attack this morning when I watched the news,” said King. “It’s not for the United States government to tell them who is legitimate or not.”
King, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, said he wondered how many Latin American presidents the U.S. would remove from power.
Solyana Bekele shares that concern. The 24-year-old from Alexandria said whoever the U.S. doesn’t like becomes a dictator.
“All of a sudden, now we’re talking about narcoterrorism, and how that’s somehow attacking the U.S. sovereignty, and that’s being used as an excuse,” said Bekele.
Not everyone at Lafayette Square was as supportive of Maduro as many of the protesters.
Bryan, who lives in Maryland, pointed to the protesters and gave his thoughts.
“He’s a criminal, and he murdered people. He imprisoned people, political people who stood up against him,” said Bryan. “If these people want to criticize the Trump administration, why not move to a communist country like North Korea, China or Venezuela?”
On the other side of that argument was Kathy Boylan, 82, who said she believes those claims are a lie.
“First of all, it hasn’t been proven in court,” said Boylan. “Why don’t they go to court, honestly?”
As speakers addressed the crowd, watching close by was Malcolm, a former member of the Air Force who was holding a sign that read “Veterans Against War.”
“I saw the escalation we’ve been doing over the past couple weeks and months, but kidnapping another country’s leader is a new step for me,” said Malcolm.
Many protesters held signs that read “No Blood For Oil,” which was a major concern for D.C. resident Mary Pat Rowan.
“Venezuela does have enormous oil resources, and Trump would like to get at them. That’s what we did in Iraq, and that was wrong there, and I think we know it now,” said Rowan.
Standing near the White House gates was Jennifer Stancil, who was also holding a sign that read: “No War!!! Impeach, Convict, Remove. Congress do something!”
“They’ve been attacking these boats, and they’ve been doing this stuff and they’ve been trying to justify it. You think about if somebody did that to us, how upset we would be?,” said Stancil.
When Ana Gil García heard about the United States’ capture of Venezuela’s president, she felt a sense of cautious optimism.
But the cofounder of the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance said she knows the future of the country and her son who lives in Caracas hang in the balance. She’s also wary of a foreign government intervening in the South American country. Venezuelans should decide their own destiny, she said.
“We don’t know what could be the immediate consequences to the country,” Gil said. “What we know is that we cannot accept civilians being killed … we are against any intervention in which civilians will suffer more than what they have already suffered.”
The Trump administration’s capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife early Saturday morning brought up complicated emotions for some Venezuelan community leaders. Some groups and elected officials categorically opposed the stunning operation, calling it government overreach. Others, like Gil, said there’s some hope in being rid of a leader most human rights organizations describe as a dictator.
The U.S. flew Maduro out of Venezuela in an extraordinary military operation that plucked a sitting leader from office. Maduro and his wife arrived in New York to face prosecution by the Justice Department after a grand jury indicted them on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges.
President Donald Trump insisted the U.S. government would run the country at least temporarily and would tap Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to sell “large amounts” to other countries. The legal authority for the operation was not immediately clear, though the Trump administration described it — and earlier deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea — as necessary to stem the flow of dangerous drugs.
Gov. JB Pritzker, however, called it an “unconstitutional military action” in a statement, and said Trump is putting troops in danger with “no long-term strategy.”
“The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds gathered downtown Saturday evening to protest the operation. Carrying signs that said, “No War on Venezuela,” and chanting, “No war, no coup, Donald Trump shame on you,” protesters criticized American “forever wars.” They also said it’s immoral for the government to profit from Venezuelan oil.
“Every single time the United States attacks another country, regardless of what the political color of that regime in power, the people of those countries suffer immeasurably,” activist Andy Thayer said.
“However impoverished they were before, they were greatly more impoverished afterwards,” he added.
Demonstrators gather for a protest against the U.S. military strike in Venezuela, at Chicago’s Federal Plaza, Jan. 3, 2026. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
In addition to Pritzker, several local elected officials condemned the action. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth called it “reckless and unconstitutional,” while Mayor Brandon Johnson said it “violates international law” and “dangerously escalates the possibility of full-scale war.”
“As we have said for the past two years, the dehumanization of migrants from Venezuela, and of immigrants generally, by the Far Right has laid the groundwork for military action in Central and South America,” Johnson said in a statement.
About 50,000 Venezuelan migrants have arrived in Chicago over the last several years as they fled political turmoil and extreme poverty in their home country. The Supreme Court last year allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections for thousands of these migrants, some of whom were arrested in recent immigration enforcement operations.
Gil said, if anything, she hopes the military action helps people understand why swaths of immigrants fled Venezuela for better opportunities in the United States.
“When we left the country, we didn’t leave because we wanted to,” Gil said. “The people were forced to.”
Several Republicans had a more favorable reaction to the operation. Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman from Illinois, for example, said Maduro was never a “legitimate president” and that removing him without a massive military occupation is “how it should be done.”
“This was the right call,” he said on social media. “May Maduro face justice and the people of Venezuela be free.”
Luciana Díaz, the CEO of Panas en Chicago, a nonprofit that supports Venezuelan migrants, also said in a statement that they’re “deeply hopeful and encouraged for our community and for our country, after 28 years of dictatorship that forced thousands of Venezuelans many of whom are now asylum-seekers to rebuild their lives in cities like Chicago.”
“We have witnessed firsthand the human impact of this prolonged crisis. We trust that this moment will mark the beginning of a transition toward democracy, justice and the reunification of Venezuelan families,” Díaz said.
“God is with us. We continue to wait for a peaceful and genuine transition,” she added.
President Trump warned Friday in a social media post that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”
Mr. Trump offer no further comment on Iran or how the U.S. might intervene to protect protesters in the country in the post on his Truth Social network, which was published just before 3 a.m. Eastern, but he said: “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
It came hours after reports that at least six people have been killed amid nearly a week of escalating protests in Iran. The unrest began last weekend as business owners voiced frustration at the dire economic conditions in the Islamic Republic.
Videos and photos from Tehran and other cities posted on social media have shown protesters marching through streets from early this week, often chanting anti-government, pro-monarchy slogans and sometimes clashing violently with security forces.
In an apparent bid to quell the unrest, Iranian authorities have acknowledged the economic concerns and said peaceful protests are legitimate, but suggested that foreign powers — usually a reference to Israel and the U.S. — are behind subversive elements fueling violence on the streets.
Both the U.S. and Israeli governments had issued statements in support of the protests prior to Mr. Trump’s warning of a possible, undefined U.S. intervention on Friday morning.
“The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the Ayatollahs for too long,” Mike Waltz, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a post on X earlier this week. “We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war.”
Tension between the U.S. and Iran escalated this week on the heels of a visit to the U.S. by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has campaigned his country’s close allies in Washington for decades to take a tougher stance on Iran.
After meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday, Mr. Trump said he had heard that Iran could be attempting to rebuild its nuclear program following the unprecedented U.S. strikes on its enrichment facilities in June. Mr. Trump warned that if Iran did try to rebuild, “we’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
Iran is no stranger to nationwide protests, and the latest demonstrations have not come close to the last major outbreak in 2022, which was triggered by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman.
An image from video posted on social media, which CBS News has not independently verified, appears to show a fire burning on a street in Tehran, Iran, amid clashes between protesters and government security forces in late December 2025 or early January 2026.
Her death in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the nation’s strict dress code for women sparked a wave of anger across the nation. Several hundred people were killed, including dozens of members of the security forces, who waged a dramatic crackdown in response, arresting hundreds of people.
There were also widespread protests in 2019, sparked by a sharp increase in the price of petrol.
The standoff between Iran and the U.S. over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program reached a crescendo in June, when Mr. Trump ordered the deadly military strikes against Iran’s enrichment facilities, as Israel also carried out strikes on the country.
While Mr. Trump indicated earlier this week that the U.S. could take new action if Iran were to rebuild its nuclear program, Friday’s brief post on social media was the first suggestion of a possible American intervention on behalf of Iranian protesters.
Widening demonstrations sparked by Iran’s ailing economy spread Thursday into the Islamic Republic’s rural provinces, with at least six people being killed in the first fatalities reported among security forces and protesters, authorities said.
The deaths may mark the start of a heavier-handed response by Iran’s theocracy over the demonstrations, which have slowed in the capital, Tehran, but expanded elsewhere. The fatalities, one on Wednesday and five on Thursday, occurred in three cities predominantly home to Iran’s Lur ethnic group.
The protests have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the demonstrations have yet to be countrywide and have not been as intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.
The latest protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran’s theocracy as well. The country’s leaders are still reeling after Israel launched a 12-day war against the country in June. The U.S. also bombed Iranian nuclear sites during the war.
“The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the Ayatollahs for too long,” Mike Waltz, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said in a post on X earlier this week.
“We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war,” he said.
Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Dec. 29, 2025.
Fars News Agency via AP
The most intense violence appeared to strike Azna, a city in Iran’s Lorestan province, some 185 miles southwest of Tehran. There, online videos purported to show objects in the street ablaze and gunfire echoing as people shouted: “Shameless! Shameless!”
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported three people had been killed. Other media, including pro-reform outlets, cited Fars for the report while state-run media did not fully acknowledge the violence there or elsewhere. It wasn’t clear why there wasn’t more reporting over the unrest, but journalists had faced arrest over their reporting in 2022.
In Lordegan, a city in Iran’s Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, online videos showed demonstrators gathered on a street, with the sound of gunfire in the background. The footage matched known features of Lordegan, some 290 miles south of Tehran.
Fars, citing an anonymous official, said two people were killed during the protests Thursday.
The Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran said two people had been killed there, identifying the dead as demonstrators. It also shared a still image of what appeared to be an Iranian police officer, wearing body armor and wielding a shotgun.
In 2019, the area around Lordegan saw widespread protests and demonstrators reportedly damaged government buildings after a report said people there had been infected with HIV by contaminated needles used at a local health care clinic.
A separate demonstration Wednesday night reportedly led to the death of a 21-year-old volunteer in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force.
The state-run IRNA news agency reported on the Guard member’s death but did not elaborate. An Iranian news agency called the Student News Network, which is believed to be close to the Basij, directly blamed demonstrators for the Guard member’s death, citing comments from Saeed Pourali, a deputy governor in Lorestan province.
The Guard member “was martyred … at the hands of rioters during protests in this city in defense of public order,” he reportedly said. Another 13 Basij members and police officers suffered injuries, he added.
“The protests that have occurred are due to economic pressures, inflation and currency fluctuations, and are an expression of livelihood concerns,” Pourali said. “The voices of citizens must be heard carefully and tactfully, but people must not allow their demands to be strained by profit-seeking individuals.”
The protests took place in the city of Kouhdasht, over 250 miles southwest of Tehran. Local prosecutor Kazem Nazari said 20 people had been arrested after the protests and that calm had returned to the city, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial currency has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials.
Meanwhile, state television separately reported on the arrests of seven people, including five it described as monarchists and two others it said had links to European-based groups. State TV also said another operation saw security forces confiscate 100 smuggled pistols, without elaborating.
Iran’s theocracy had declared Wednesday a public holiday across much of the country, citing cold weather, likely as a bid to get people out of the capital for a long weekend. The Iranian weekend is Thursday and Friday, while Saturday marks Imam Ali’s birthday, another holiday for many.
Tehran — Iran’s prosecutor general said Wednesday that economic protests that have gripped the country were legitimate, but he warned that any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response,” as the Islamic Republic’s rulers tried to clamp down on a fourth day of unrest.
“Peaceful livelihood protests are part of social and understandable realities,” Mohammad Movahedi-Azad told state media after protests started by shopkeepers in the capital city Tehran, which were joined by students and others in several cities across the country.
“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response,” warned Movahedi-Azad.
His comments came days after the Mossad intelligence agency of Iran‘s arch-foe Israel posted on social media that it was “with you on the ground,” in a message to Iranian protesters. Posting on its Persian-language X account, the spy agency encouraged Iranians to “go out into the streets together.”
Dozens of people walk down a street in Tehran, Iran, chanting pro-monarchy slogans to denounce the current Islamic Republic’s leadership and call for a return to earlier times amid rising living costs. Reuters confirmed the location of the video as Tehran from the buildings and road layout, which matched satellite and file imagery of the area. The date of the video could not be verified independently, but Iranian state media said protests occurred in Tehran on Dec. 28 and 29.
Reuters
In a post shared via its own Farsi language account on X, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday that it was “deeply concerned by reports and videos that peaceful protesters in Iran are facing intimidation, violence, and arrests.”
“Demanding basic rights is not a crime. The Islamic Republic must respect the rights of the Iranian people and end the repression,” the U.S. government said in the post.
“First the bazaars. Then the students. Now the whole country. Iranians are united. Different lives, one demand: respect our voices and our rights,” the State Department said in a subsequent post.
The protests come amid mounting tension between the U.S. and Iran after President Trump said he had heard, after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that Iran could be attempting to rebuild its nuclear program following the unprecedented U.S. strikes on its enrichment facilities in June. Mr. Trump warned that if Iran did try to rebuild, “we’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
On Tuesday, Iran’s president said Tehran would respond “to any cruel aggression” with unspecified “harsh and discouraging” measures.
The protests, driven by dissatisfaction at Iran’s economic stagnation and galloping hyperinflation, began Sunday in Tehran’s largest mobile phone market, where shopkeepers shuttered their businesses. They gained momentum through Tuesday, with students at 10 universities in the capital and in other cities, including Iran’s most prestigious institutions, joining in.
Nevertheless, the protests remain limited in number and concentrated in central Tehran, with shops elsewhere in the sprawling metropolis of 10 million people unaffected. And the government appeared to be cracking down on the unrest, both on the streets with a heavy security presence, and by declaring a last-minute holiday to prompt the closure of schools and businesses.
Iran’s economy has been in the doldrums for years, with heavy U.S. and international sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program weighing heavily on it. The currency, the rial, has also plunged in recent months, losing more than a third of its value against the U.S. dollar since last year.
Videos posted on social media have shown crowds chanting anti-government slogans as they marched through the streets, while others show security forces using tear gas and purportedly live ammunition. CBS News has not been able to independently verify the video clips posted online, some of which show heavily armed security forces appearing to detain multiple people, including students, and others in which apparent gunfire can be heard.
The Guild Council of the University of Tehran said six students were detained but later released. There were unconfirmed reports that at least one student was severely injured during a confrontation with security services in Tehran.
A last-minute holiday
The streets of Tehran were calm early Wednesday, a change from the usual chaotic and choking traffic, after authorities announced a national holiday with just a day’s notice. Many schools, banks and public institutions were closed, with officials saying the directive was due to the cold weather and the need to save energy.
People walk past closed shops following protests over a plunge in the currency’s value, in the Tehran Grand Bazaar, Tehran, Iran, December 30, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY
Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters
The capital’s prestigious Beheshti and Allameh Tabataba’i universities announced that classes would be held online throughout next week for the same reason, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The authorities did not link the bank holiday to the protests. Tehran is experiencing daytime temperatures near the freezing mark, which is not unusual for this time of year.
Weekends in Iran begin on Thursdays, while this Saturday marks a long-standing national holiday.
Iran is no stranger to nationwide protests, but the latest demonstrations have not come close to the last major outbreak in 2022, which was triggered by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman.
Her death in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the nation’s strict dress code for women sparked a wave of anger across the country. Several hundred people were killed, including dozens of members of the security forces, who waged a dramatic crackdown in response, arresting hundreds of people.
There were also widespread protests in 2019, sparked by a sharp increase in the price of petrol.
Protests erupt across Iran as currency sinks to record low – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Protesters have taken to the streets of Iran’s capital city as the country faces some of its worst economic pressures in years. Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad joins to discuss.
On Saturday, protesters took the streets outside of Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Their concern was regarding deportation flights administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The group was organized by local nonprofit 50501.
“We’re here to protest Signature Aviation as their aiding ICE deportation flights,” said one of the protesters while chanting.
Roughly 40 protesters were on-site and marched between Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 on 70th Street.
70th Street is also where Signature Aviation, who provides private services across the world, can be found. WCCO has not been able to confirm if Signature Aviation is involved with deportation flights.
Community members said they’re attending the protest to support immigrant neighbors.
“They have as many violations as somebody who didn’t renew their car registration. To see someone getting treated so inhumane sickens me,” said Kristin of Saint Paul.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed during her October visit to the Twin Cities that “our local authorities have boots-on-the-ground.”
“Just since January, they have removed 4,300 individuals off of our streets,” said Noem during her October visit.
“They’re using the private terminal here at Signature and straight-up using flights from Denver Air Connection,” said Drew Harmon, the Chair for Minnesota 5051.
Key Lime Air, who’s the parent company of Denver Air Connection said:
Key Lime Air respects the right of all individuals to peacefully protest and share their opinions. As a matter of policy, we are unable to discuss our charter operations. Our focus remains on conducting ALL Key Lime Air flights in accordance with the highest federally mandated safety standards
The Minneapolis Republican Party told WCCO in a statement:
Without evidence of the brutality spoken of, if federal immigration law is being enforced, that is what is important. We fully welcome immigrants who follow our legal process.
“It’s good to be a part of a crowd who feel that same ‘shock-to-your-core passion’ like we need to go out and do something.” Kristin added.
WCCO reached out to Signature Aviation and ICE for confirmation and comment but haven’t heard back. The Metropolitan Airports Commission says they don’t coordinate or get notice of general aviation or non-commercial flights at MSP. This includes government owned or operated aircraft.
An oak leaf in the afternoon sunshine, takes on an autumnal glow, on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 along Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. in Durham, N.C.
Robert Willett
rwillett@newsobserver.com
Here’s a curated selection of moments across North Carolina as captured through the lens of The News and Observer visual journalists. This feature can be seen in Sunday’s newspaper, as well as in our online Edition. See it at eedition.newsobserver.com.
A Border Patrol agent gives a man a thumbs up after checking his identification on Fox Ridge Drive in Southeast Raleigh, N.C. Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. The man was not taken into custody. Scott Sharpe ssharpe@newsobserver.com
More than 100 Durham School of the Arts students stage a walkout Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, to protest recent immigration enforcement arrests carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Durham. The walkout lasted less than an hour. Travis Long tlong@newsobserver.com
A security guard operates an automatic sliding door while watching the parking lot outside the International Foods grocery on New Hope Church Road in Raleigh on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, after federal immigration enforcement agents were seen circulating the area in unmarked SUVs. Immigrant rights groups said federal agents detained at least 12 Triangle residents on Tuesday, including in Raleigh, Durham and Cary. Travis Long tlong@newsobserver.com
Visitors tour the North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival during a preview event at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary on Friday evening, Nov. 14, 2025. The festival opens to the public Nov. 15 and runs nightly through Jan. 11, featuring more than 40 new handcrafted lantern displays created by visiting Chinese artisans. Highlights include a 164-foot floating installation on Symphony Lake and interactive designs celebrating the festival’s 10th year. Travis Long tlong@newsobserver.com
N.C. Central head coach LeVelle Moton calls a time-out as he steps away from North Carolina guard Jonathan Powell (11), who reacts after sinking a three-point basket in the first half on Friday, November 14, 2025 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
N.C. State’s Tre Holloman defends VCU’s Nyk Lewis during the first half of the Wolfpack’s game on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
