Today on AirTalk, we break down the escalating U.S.-Iran conflict as tensions rise after a U.S. drone strike kills top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
The Soleimani Killing And The Implications For US And The Middle East
Iran vowed “harsh retaliation” for a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad's airport that killed a top Iranian general who had been the architect of its interventions across the Middle East, as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.
The killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.The United States urged American citizens to leave Iraq “immediately" following the Friday airstrike at Baghdad's international airport that Iran's state TV said killed Soleimani and nine others. The State Department said the embassy in Baghdad, which was attacked by Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters earlier this week, is closed and all consular services have been suspended.
U.S. cities have raised concerns that the events in Iran may elicit a domestic response. The LAPD and NYPD tweeted last night that they are monitoring the situation in Iran and are communicating with federal and international law enforcement partners.
Today on AirTalk, Larry talks with several different experts on the current situation and its significance and what comes next.
With files from the Associated Press
We reached out the the LAPD, who referred us to the statement they sent out on Jan 2.
“While there is no credible threat to Los Angeles, the LAPD is monitoring the events developing in Iraq. We will continue to communicate with state, local, federal and international law enforcement partners regarding any significant intel that may develop. This Department is committed to ensuring the safety of our vibrant and diverse community, and we ask every Angeleno to say something if you see something.”
Guests:
Farnaz Fassihi, New York Times reporter covering Iran, she tweets
Kenneth Pollack, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on Middle Eastern political-military affairs
Mara Karlin, senior fellow focusing on defense and international security at the Brookings Institution; she has served in national security roles for five U.S. secretaries of defense
Colin P. Clarke, senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a global security think tank, and Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University; he tweets
Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the DC-based think tank, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations; he tweets
KPCC’s FilmWeek Critics Share Their Top Films Of The 2010s And Review The Decade In Comedies
With the end of the decade came the predictable onslaught of “best of” articles, listicles and reviews of the 2010s in everything from news to music to pop culture and more. So, we here at FilmWeek feel we’d be remiss if we didn’t ask our critics to share their favorite films of the last decade with our listeners and to hear suggestions from FilmWeek listeners as well. Los Angeles Times film critics Justin Chang and Kenneth Turan released their top films of the decade this week along with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Plus, we’ll explore the decade in comedies. Were the 2010s an overall good decade for the comedy genre? Or did you find it lacking when compared to another decade? What were some of your favorite movies of the 2010s?
Here are our critics' favorites of the decade, in no particular order:
Amy Nicholson
Social Network (2010)
Compliance (2012)
Django Unchained (2012)
The Master (2012)
Her (2013)
Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Nightcrawler (2014)
Tangerine (2015)
Anomalisa (2015)
The Lobster (2015)
Moonlight (2016)
The Handmaiden (2016)
First Reformed (2017)
Florida Project (2017)
Young Adult (2011)
MacGruber (2010)
Sausage Party (2016)
Sorry To Bother You (2018)
Wade Major
Incendies (2010)
The Artist (2011)
Tree of Life (2011)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Coming Home (2014)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
La La Land (2016)
Hostiles (2017)
Charles Solomon (Animation)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
The Wind Rises (2013)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
Song of the Sea (2014)
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Inside Out (2015)
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Your Name (2016)
Guests:
Amy Nicholson, film critic for KPCC, film writer for The Guardian and host of the podcasts ‘Unspooled’ and the podcast miniseries “Zoom”; she tweets
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and CineGods.com
Charles Solomon, film critic for KPCC, Animation Scoop and Animation Magazine
In The First Biography On Director Sidney Lumet, A Storied Career Is Revisited
With a career that spanned fourteen Best Picture nominations, director Sidney Lumet produced an incredible body of work that included American classics like “12 Angry Men” and “Network.”
In Sidney Lumet: A Life, the first biography of the director, author Maura Spiegel maps his career from his early days off-Broadway to a successful run in television directing and, finally, to Hollywood, where Lumet directed names like Katherine Hepburn, Al Pacino, Philip Seymour-Hoffman and Paul Newman. Many of the films he became known for-- including “Serpico,” “The Verdict” and “Dog Day Afternoon” -- are deeply rooted in themes of disillusionment and morality. Often set in New York, Lumet’s films are marked by his quick directing style and his actors’ fevered, propulsively emotional deliveries. When Lumet died in 2011, he left us with some of the most significant psychological American films ever produced.
Today on AirTalk, author Maura Spiegel discusses Lumet’s life and legacy.
Guest:
Maura Spiegel, author of the new book “Sidney Lumet: A Life” (MacMillan, 2019); professor of fiction and film and co-director of the Division of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University