What happened
Protests that began last week over the collapse of Iran’s currency have spread to more than 220 locations across 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces, and the death toll has reached at least 19, the Human Rights Activists News Agency said today. The protests have “convulsed Iran for a week,” The New York Times said, and while not yet as large as the “last two major uprisings — one in 2022 led by women and another in 2019 set off by gasoline prices — they have rattled senior officials and drawn a prompt reaction from the United States and Israel.”

Who said what
The protests “began first with merchants in Tehran before spreading” to other areas and expanding from economic concerns to anti-government demonstrations, The Associated Press said. And “the protests do not appear to be stopping, even after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said ’rioters must be put in their place.’” President Masoud Pezeshkian took a more conciliatory tone, saying in a speech last Thursday that “we must listen to the people” and “any policy in the society that is unjust is doomed to fail.”

But Iran’s theocratic government is facing “growing domestic unrest combined with an external military threat,” the Times said, and it “appears at a dead end in addressing both.” President Donald Trump weighed in Friday, saying on social media that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters” the U.S. is ”locked and loaded and ready“ to ”come to their rescue.“ Trump reiterated that threat last night, telling reporters on Air Force One that ”if they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.” After Trump attacked Venezuela, “one of Iran’s closest allies,” Tehran’s “leaders and political figures have sounded rattled and shocked.”

What next?
Iran’s protests “could still spread and turn more violent,” the Times said, as officials “appear to have few tools at their disposal to deal with either the pressing challenges of a tanking economy fueling unrest or the threat of further conflict with Israel and the United States.”

What happened
“One Battle After Another” won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards yesterday, becoming only the fourth film to win the “Big Four” critics’ awards, after earning top honors from the New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Director Paul Thomas Anderson (pictured above) also won best director and best adapted screenplay awards for the film. Timothée Chalamet won best actor for “Marty Supreme” and Jessie Buckley was awarded best actress for “Hamnet.” 

Who said what
The Critics Choice Awards, “presented by a group of more than 500 broadcast critics and journalists in Santa Monica, Calif., usually follow the Golden Globes and often rubber-stamp the same set of winners,” The New York Times says. But with the Golden Globes going second this year, “pundits were curious to see which direction the Critics Choice voters would take”. 

Each of the early pre-Oscars awards “has its own identity, influence and taste profile,” Variety said, but the Critics Choice Awards “tend to reflect broader industry consensus,” and they boosted “Anora” to its triumph at last year’s Academy Awards. “This is the best time I ever had making a movie, and I feel like it shows,” Anderson said at last night’s ceremony. 

What next?
Of the three other movies to sweep all four early critics’ awards — “Schindler’s List” (1993), “L.A. Confidential” (1997) and “The Social Network” (2010) — only “Schindler’s List” went on to win the Oscar for best picture. The Golden Globes are on Sunday