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Your World Tonight
Protests in Iran, Minneapolis ICE fallout, Canadians peeved over ‘pitch’ of airline seats, and more
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<p>Protests across Iran continue for the 12th straight day. Demonstrators are angry over the state of the country’s crumbling economy. Clashes have been reported with Iranian security forces and President Trump has issued a warning.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus: CBC News is on the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota as protests erupt in the wake of the deadly shooting of a 37-year-old woman following her interaction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.</p><p><br></p><p>And: We look at the increasing squeeze on airline passengers caused by decreasing seat space, and why there are calls for Ottawa to step in.</p><p><br></p><p>Also: The state of Venezuela’s political prisoners, ICE recruitment and training tactics, the plan to wean teens off screens, and more.</p>
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New year, same extra value meals at McDonald's now. Get a savory sausage McMuffin with egg plus hash browns and a small coffee for just $5 for limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for delivery, this is a CBC podcast. She was trying to ram this guy with her car. He shot back. He defended himself. People in positions of power, from the president to the vice president, have stood and told you things that are verifiably false. Crossfire in America. Anger and accusations from politicians and the public. With Minneapolis on edge after a fatal shooting involving immigration agents, protesters are demanding justice for the victim. But the White House is blaming her while promising immunity for the agent who pulled the trigger. Welcome to youo World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Thursday, January 8, just before 6pm Eastern. Also on the podcast, anti government protests grip Iran. The streets of Tehran and other cities clogged with demonstrators fed up with an economic crisis and fighting through a government crackdown and an Internet blackout. It is rare in the tightly controlled regime, but Iran is the scene of sweeping public protests. For 12 nights in a row, protestors have poured into the streets angry over a crippling economic crisis. Now the government has cut Internet access. With Canada among the foreign nations expressing concern about about violent repression. The US Is warning it will step in if more protesters are killed. Senior international correspondent Margaret Evans has more. Pain and frustration over Iran's failing economy have been spilling out onto the streets for nearly two weeks now and spreading. This is the sound of a demonstration in Tehran. Images published on social media tonight show showing large crowds walking through darkened streets. The protests began in Tehran at the Grand Bazaar. Shop owners crippled by a currency in free fall. Security forces inevitably trying to shut the protests down. Dozens have been killed so far, but the numbers demonstrating right across the country will rattle Iran's ruling clerics, especially in the wake of Washington's moves of on Venezuela regional expert Fawaz Gerges. Iran now is in the eye of the storm. The big lesson out of the fall of the Venezuelan regime is not Colombia, is not Greenland. It's Iran. Iran. Iran. Iran. The Iranians know that Iran is the next target. US President Donald Trump has delivered warnings to Tehran about the protests. This one aboard Air Force One several days ago. 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. That could embolden protesters who've long hoped for an end to Iran's brutal theocracy Even if many don't believe Donald Trump has their best interests at heart. Iran has endured decades of U. S led sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program. And more saber rattling from Israel, which last year launched 12 days of what it called preemptive strikes. Iran, culminating with a US strike on the country's nuclear facilities, has piled extra pressure on the regime. The Islamic Republic has few cards to play. It's cornered by both the Trump administration and Israel. Sanam Zakil heads the Middle east program at Chatham House here in London. There are no easy off ramps for the leadership in Iran. They're under distinct political pressure from within. The economic policy changes that they need to make are not really possible without coming to an ACCommodation with the US administration today, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi chose his words carefully. We do not seek war, he's saying, but we're prepared for it. We are also prepared for negotiations if they're based on mutual respect. But Iran's negotiating position is clearly even weaker than it was a year ago. Less clear is how that will impact an increasingly cornered regime, one that has withstood calls for its demise in the past through brutal repression. Margaret Evans, CBC News, London. Protesters also took to the streets of Minneapolis again today after a 37 year old woman was fatally shot in her car by an ICE agent on Wednesday. Ice go home. I show home. I show. There were tense scenes, arrests and tear gas fired as hundreds of demonstrators clashed with federal officers. Show your faces. Show your face. Let me see. The CBC's Katie Nicholson is in Minneapolis. Katie, describe what you've been seeing and hearing on the streets. It's a lot calmer than it was this morning. Those scenes coming out of the Whipple Building, that area where ICE works out of where there, there were clashes early this morning. Where I am right now is near sort of 34th east. 34th in Portland. That's that intersection where Renee Nicole Goode was shot by that ICE agent yesterday. It's just a growing vigil. There've been hundreds of people passing through here from the community. Some just getting down on their knees and praying, others holding one another. And a lot of people here holding stuff. I ran into a guy, Mark McKevy, he's holding a sign that simply said she is good. I asked him why he chose that sign. The reason why he chose it was because our president and his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have said this was a domestic terrorist. This was a mother of a six year old child. She was driving SUV away from the Danger. She was not a domestic terrorist. She was good. This is an eclectic neighborhood. There are artists, there are immigrants all coming together here. There are fires burning. People are handing out food, trying to really offer one another solace in the face of this. And part of that reason is there are fears about tensions sort of boiling over as well. We heard the governor say a couple of times to really urge people not to give the federal government any sort of invitation to bring boots on the ground here. So that's also an element at play here in this, in the neighborhood. And there's been some tension in the city, as you have reported on for weeks, with this surge of ICE agents sent into Minneapolis. How is that affecting what's happening now? Well, right now, I mean, there's more sorrow here than there was before, but that tension still very much sort of foreign center. People were worried, they were scared back in December that something like this would happen. And they said, you know, this is going to maybe go into a bit of a lull over Christmas. And they were worried of a big surge happening in January. Sure enough, that's what's happened. And there were fears that they were going to see something like this, a tragedy happen because they had been observing the ICE agents. And our own cameras actually captured some of those ICE agents and what appeared to be poor training, dropping weapons in the middle of conflicts, that sort of thing, these types of things that observers have been worried about, showing that perhaps these officers may not be trained in de escalation tactics. Katie, thank you. You're welcome. The CBC's Katie Nicholson reporting from Minneapolis. The finger pointing goes all the way from Minnesota to Washington, D.C. renee Goode's death is sparking more political division in a country that seems to be pulling further and further. AP Katie Simpson has more. The president stands with ice. I stand with ice. US Vice President JD Vance aggressively defended the actions of the ICE agent who fired the fatal shots in Minnesota. And even though an investigation is barely underway, he made it explicitly clear the Trump administration already views the officer's actions as justified. She was trying to ram this guy with her car. He shot back. He defended himself. This narrative has been widely disputed by state and local officials and by many in the public. Based on videos capturing the moments, Renee Good was shot. But in a remarkable news conference, Vance appeared defiant, blaming Good for her own killing. I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it's a tragedy of her own making. He also claimed Good was part of some vast conspiracy made up of his political opponents, presenting no credible evidence to back up his statements. That woman is part of a broader left wing network to attack, to dox, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job. And he attacked journalists who questioned the Trump administration's perspective. You should be ashamed of yourselves, every single one of you. The White House has a history of using this kind of rhetoric as a way to assign blame and also seek a political advantage in difficult moments. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared emotional and frustrated with the messaging from the White House. Told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate. They have determined the character of a 37 year old mom that they didn't even know, don't know. Good's ex husband told a reporter that she had just dropped off her six year old son at school and was driving home at the time of the shooting and that he'd never known her to attend a protest. Walls remains concerned about the investigation, fearing federal authorities have already reached a conclusion with the FBI leading the case and pushing state authorities aside. Now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation, it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome. But the head of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, says local authorities were never supposed to lead this case. They have not been cut out. They don't have any jurisdiction in this investigation. She too appeared defiant at a combative news conference. She denounced politicians who have criticized the Trump administration over its immigration enforcement operations. That kind of language and that kind of provocative talk inciting people to take action and perpetuate violence in some cases is unacceptable. And especially of elected leaders. In this volatile moment, there are no signs the rhetoric will ease with concerns it could lead to more violence. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Coming right up, a new high profile campaign aimed at getting kids off screenshots from a company that depends on people staying online and hope for Venezuela's political prisoners under pressure to release them. The country's leaders say some are being set free. Later, we'll have this story. This viral video taking flight. Dad, can you just straighten out your legs there? Impossible. A WestJet passenger in a tight squeeze can't recline. You can't move. You're jammed in there like a sardine. The video viewed more than a million times, raising questions about the state of air travel. The next thing you're going to know, there's going to be a coin machine at the washroom. I'm Aaron Collins in Calgary. I'll cram all the details into my story later on youn World Tonight, Rogers Communications has launched a national program to curb screen time among teens and tweens, calling on famous athletes to help spread the word. Many welcome the effort, but others say the issue requires sweeping legislation to make a real difference. Deanna Sumanak Johnson reports. I mean, I would say you need to challenge yourself, go home and hand your phone over to mom and dad. That's Toronto Blue Jays star George Springer talking to kids about limiting screen time, part of a $50 million investment over five years by Rogers Telecommunications, which includes grants for organizations that encourage youth to get active, commissioning annual studies on youth screen time and bringing professional athletes into schools to talk about healthy screen use. We'll take any resources we can get as a society that's still grappling with this problem. Technology expert and journalist Carmi Levy says Rogers plan is a good thing, but adds skepticism about the company's motivations is warranted. It's almost like would you trust the fox guarding the henhouse? And certainly this is a company that has spent the better part of the last 20 years of the smartphone and social media and wireless era pushing technologies, products and services. Still, he says, Rogers is entering the conversation about online harms to teens and twins at a crucial time. Just weeks ago, Australia became the first country to ban social media for kids under 16 in Canada, parent groups have been calling on the federal government to introduce similar legislation, with provincial government in Quebec floating that idea too. The train has left the station. This technology exists. People are using it. Children's psychologist Dr. Nicole Racine works as a researcher at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and says it doesn't matter that the money is coming from a telecommunications company. There's an emphasis on collaborating with schools, like going into schools and providing information directly to youth. I think that's actually, that's excellent because so often parents are struggling to help their kids manage screen time. Andrea Crizantou also welcomes the Rogers Initiative. She's an advocate for Children First Canada and mom of 12 year old Nathaniel. And she says families can't do it on their own. This is not on them. They can't do it by themselves. And so it's a lot on parents to have to on top of everything else to monitor this new thing. Our parents didn't have to deal with this. Analysts add that $50 million spread out over five years is actually not very much money. They hope Rogers Initiative inspires other tech giants to also open up their wallets and help tackle the crisis they in part contributed to. Deanna Sumanak Johnson, CBC News, Toronto, Venezuela's government says it has begun to release political prisoners, calling the move a gesture of peace. The country has been under pressure to free hundreds of people imprisoned by then President Nicolas Maduro's administration. But after his capture by US forces, there is now hope for families watching and waiting to see if their loved ones are released. Evan Dyer has that story. The three of us were all in the same torture center, says Sorbai Paria with her son Oswaldo and daughter Diana. Eight years ago, the family's father, a colonel in Venezuela's National Guard, was accused of conspiring against the Maduro regime. Fifty men came into our house, all black, heavily armed. It was the beginning of days of beatings, electric shocks and threats of rape against Diana and the other women. We're going to go one by one. Yeah, we're gonna do the same to your mother, to your two cousins. Locked in a tiny closet in the torture house, Oswaldo heard his girlfriend Diana, now his wife, being tortured with a bag held over her head. I could hear how she was like, trying to catch the air because she couldn't breathe. Today, most of the Garcia Paloma family is safe in Montreal, but Father Oswaldo Sr. Remains in Venezuela with a 30 year sentence. There's been no contact for two years. Letters go unanswered. We still feel we're being tortured, says his wife, Sorbai. As long as he's not here and we don't know what's happening to him. And this is handsome Juan Pablo in high school, maybe in Calgary. Luz Urdaneta is thinking of her childhood friend Juan Pablo Juanipa, a prominent opposition leader. Juanipa was seized last year. He has high blood pressure. He has diabetes. We haven't seen him. We have not contact with him. We don't know where he is. Like many Venezuelans, Luzo de Neta assumed that following the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the first order of business would be to liberate prisoners like Juanipa. The Trump administration has repeatedly said it calls the shots in Caracas. Their decisions are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America, but prisoners don't seem to be a U.S. priority. Are you going to demand that Delsey Rodriguez free any political prisoners? We haven't gotten to that yet. Right now what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country. On Thursday, the regime said it would release some prisoners as a goodwill gesture, but didn't say when, who or how many. What are we waiting for? Why do we keep those people suffering for no reason? You can do this without waiting for others to happen. This is just opening the door. Meanwhile, Venezuela's socialist regime continues to make new arrests. We don't have Maduro, but we have the same things happening, same people that have torture and murder in power. So what is the change? Just a different name? President no. We need things to happen so we can see the Venezuelans and believe that we'll end up with a democratic and free country. That's what we all Venezuelans want. Evan Dyer, CBC News, Ottawa. We return now to the situation in Minneapolis and the fallout of that fatal shooting involving ICE agents. For months, many Americans have been questioning the tactics immigration officers are using and the amount of training they get. Jamie Strashen looks at how the controversial law enforcement team is being built. Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst. The recruitment has been intense, the rapid expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ice, unprecedented. President Trump came into office with his keystone issue being a massive interior enforcement operation, and congressional Republicans responded to that by funding it. They gave the Department of Homeland security a historic amount 170 billion. Sarah Pierce, director of the Third Way think tank in Washington, says in the course of a few short months, the agency has grown from 10,000 agents to more than 22,000. We don't have a lot of transparency around who they're hiring. In the wake of Wednesday's fatal shooting in Minneapolis, there is increased scrutiny around the level of training these new agents have received, says author Garrett Graf, who has written about ice. Even before last year's hiring surge began, ICE officers were among the least trained and least educated in federal law enforcement. And in fact, DHS has substantially cut the training and education standards to help better align the agency with hiring this vast number of new officers. At its main Georgia training facility, new recruits now receive about eight weeks of training, down from 13. Spanish language training is also no longer provided. Scott Shucart was an assistant director at ICE during the Biden administration. Things that used to get more emphasis are bound to be getting less. Whether what they're putting less emphasis on are technical legal issues in immigration law or whether they're putting less emphasis on safety and use of force and things like that, I don't know. The reduced training, Shucart says, is being exacerbated by the way ICE agents are currently being deployed, he says. Previously, most encounters involved people already detained or focused on high value targets. Now ICE agents are simply flooding cities. They are getting people who are not dangerous, have no criminal history, who they were not attempting to find as fugitives before and they are just doing these sort of stops on the streets, these interactions carried out in many cases by new recruits, a recipe for violence, says Juliette Kayem, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. This is a agency that has basically been given the energy to do these kinds of enforcement efforts in civilian society where there is no, there's no law enforcement purpose for this. The result, she says, unnecessary violence and death. Jamie Strashen, CBC News, Toronto. This is yous World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, just find the follow button and lock us in. Travelers know it's usually a tight squeeze when you're flying commercial airlines. Now, a viral video recorded over the holidays has people worried the space crunch may be getting even worse. It shows a man struggling to fit into a seat on a WestJet flight. Erin Collins reports. Dad, can you just straighten out your legs there? This video flying around the Internet. A family struggling to squeeze into their seats on a WestJet flight. Yeah, you have to pay for the other leg. Manfred Schmidt and his family on their way to the Dominican Republic when his daughter shot the video. Can't recline. You can't move. You're jammed in there like a sardine. The 6 foot 3 Schmidt bought an ultra basic ticket but was caught off guard by the cramped accommodations. I was surprised at the seat. I mean I fly WestJet a lot. I could not get into the seat. I mean I tried to get my knees in front of me. The video of Schmidt's flight viewed more than a million times online, resonating on the ground at Edmonton's Airport 2. I was just like, oh, that's like, that's not very good. Like obviously they were completely under, like the guy couldn't even put his leg up. It's terrible, really. It's reached a situation. If you want any sort of reasonable travel, you have to pay extra. WestJet announced it would be cutting back on legroom for some seats in the fall. The recent backlash, no surprise to industry watchers, this was inevitable, that there would have to be some that would of a day of reckoning, as I call it. John Gradic is an aviation expert at McGill University. I think this is the lowest pitch that we have for economy seats across any North American carrier, but it matches the pitch of European low cost carriers such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Wiz. Gradic says there are no regulations for passenger legroom in Canada, provided the seat is safe. And for its part, WestJet says it made the changes to keep prices down. The airline later posted on social media that it's monitoring its customers concerns, admitting that less legroom isn't ideal for all. But Gradic says it could be time for regulators to weigh in. How far do you let the airline industry do these wild and crazy things? And when does the government step in to kind of say enough is enough? As for Manfred Schmidt, he says he'd welcome more rules to protect. I mean, the next thing you're going to know there's going to be a coin machine at the washroom for you to try to go and use the, you know, the washroom on a flight. For its part, Transport Canada says issues related to passenger comfort, customer experience or the airline business's decisions don't fall within its mandate. Aaron Collins, CBC News, Calgary. And we close tonight, marking the loss of a legendary goaltender and one of hockey's great ironmen. He had up over the Chicago line trying to break through. He did. He took a shot and that was stopped by Glenn Hall. Glenn hall was a Stanley cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks. He also played for Detroit and St. Louis, a pioneer of modern goaltending techniques and a Hall of Famer. But hall is best known for what's considered one of the most untouchable records in professional sports. You played 502 consecutive games in the NHL. Isn't that ridiculous? Like you worry about your job. I certainly wasn't gonna let those kids come in and take my job, eh? I stayed in there. That's Glenn hall Speaking with the CBC's Peter Zoske. In 1977. Hall started in 502 straight NHL games between 1955 and 1962. The next longest streak is 257. It's unimaginable consistency by today's standards when goalies rarely play in back to back games because it's too physically demanding. And he did it all while taking pucks to the face years before goalie masks became widespread. Speaking in 2018, hall said he preferred a heavy workload. I knew after a few years that that I played a lot of games in a row and I was proud of it. This deal of switching you play today and so and so plays tomorrow. I hated that play me if I'm playing well. Hall was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. He died Wednesday in Stony Plain, Alberta, where he lived for decades and where the local hockey arena bears his name. Glenn hall was 94. Thank you for joining us. This has been youn World Tonight for Thursday, January 8th, I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more cbc podcasts, go to cbc ca podcasts.