Tensions are rising in Iran as thousands of people are taking to the streets in protests against the government. Center for Human Rights in Iran's Deputy Director Omid Memarian explains the economic factors driving the unrest, and implications of social platforms being blocked inside the nation.
"The protests have been spontaneous," says Memarian. "Economy is one of the major problems in Iran. Embezzlement by Iranian officials--corruption is deeply rooted in ranking officials."
The Iranian government has blocked social media platforms including Facebook, Telegram, and Instagram. Memarian says this move is dangerous. "It shows how the government is very insecure," said Memarian.
President Erdogan of Turkey demanded action from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the "premeditated" and "savage" murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as SoftBank's CEO became the latest top executive to pull back from Saudi Arabia's investor summit.
Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is not apologizing for his campaign to impeach Donald Trump. In an interview with Cheddar Monday, he dismissed criticism from certain Democrats that focusing on impeachment will energize the Republican base. "Standing up for the Constitution and the American people" should be more important than campaign tactics, he said.
Political spectators are readying themselves for a midterm fight to the finish, but Gov. John Carney of Delaware thinks they would do well to focus on the issues ー not just winning the race. "It seems like we get bogged down in the politics of our own teams," Carney said of the divisive state of politics during an interview with Cheddar Monday. "It gets in the way of improving things that are important."
Amazon, Alphabet, Twiter, and other big tech companies are set to report quarterly earnings this week. Elon Musk says The Boring Company's high-speed transit tunnel will be open to the public on December 10. And Zane Holtz, star of the upcoming film 'Hunter Killer,' joins Cheddar to discuss what it's like working with big-name talent such as Gary Oldman and Gerard Butler in this new movie.
Valerie Plame Wilson says a movie about the George W. Bush White House's exposure of her covert role as a CIA agent is more relevant than ever in the Trump era of "lies and deception." Plame spoke to Cheddar Monday alongside director Doug Liman on the occasion of the re-release of Liman's 2010 film "Fair Game."
The Massachusetts Senator has urged the Fed once again to put pressure on Wells Fargo for its fake bank account scandal. Pete Schroeder, a financial correspondent at Reuters, said this rhetoric is in line with Warren's politics and does not necessarily signal a 2020 presidential run.
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Arianna Huffington, the CEO of Thrive, is one of many business execs to pull out of the "Davos in the Desert" business summit in Saudi Arabia after the controversy surrounding a missing and presumed-dead Washington Post journalist. Huffington said she was "surprised" by the Trump administration's handling of the situation.
Deepa Seetharaman, tech reporter for the Wall Street Journal, said the company is still unsure of who's responsible for the most recent hack, in which 30 million user accounts were compromised. And perhaps more importantly, it still doesn't know where all the data went.
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