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US Extends Protection for Ex-Trump Aides from Iran Threats

FILE - Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses an audience at a periodic "Politics and Eggs" gathering at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H., Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)STEVEN SENNE
FILE - Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses an audience at a periodic "Politics and Eggs" gathering at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H., Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)STEVEN SENNE
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US Extends Protection for Ex-Trump Aides from Iran Threats

FILE - Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses an audience at a periodic "Politics and Eggs" gathering at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H., Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)STEVEN SENNE
FILE - Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses an audience at a periodic "Politics and Eggs" gathering at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H., Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)STEVEN SENNE

The Biden administration has again extended government protection to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and one of his top Iran aides due to persistent threats against them from Iran.

In separate notices sent to Congress late last week, the State Department said the threats to Pompeo and Brian Hook remained “serious and credible.” Hook served as the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran, The Associated Press reported.

Along with Pompeo, Hook was the public face of the US “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran following President Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Iran also blamed both men for the US assassination of Iran Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020 and vowed revenge.

The Jan. 5 notifications to Congress marked the 10th time the State Department has extended protection to Hook since he left office in January 2021 and the seventh time it has been extended to Pompeo. The discrepancy arises because Pompeo, as a former Cabinet secretary, automatically had government security for several months after leaving office.

The notifications, obtained by The Associated Press, were signed by Acting Deputy Secretary of State John Bass.

“I hereby determine that the specific threat with respect to former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo persists,” Bass wrote. He used identical language to refer to the threat against Hook.

The AP reported in March 2022 that the State Department was paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to Pompeo and Hook. The latest determinations did not give a dollar amount for the protection.

Even as the Biden administration has made those determinations and spent money for Pompeo and Hook’s protection, it has continued to press ahead with indirect talks with Iran aimed at salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018.

Those talks have been stalled for many months now and the administration is pessimistic they will resume anytime soon. The administration has blamed Iran for the breakdown in talks, saying it has raised demands outside the scope of the deal, which gave Tehran billions in sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

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US Imposes Fresh Sanctions on Tehran

US Treasury Department (Reuters)
US Treasury Department (Reuters)
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US Imposes Fresh Sanctions on Tehran

US Treasury Department (Reuters)
US Treasury Department (Reuters)

The United States has accused Russia's VTB bank of supporting Iran's efforts to evade sanctions, taking aim at an institution it already blocked over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In a symbolic move, the US Treasury Department said it has now imposed additional sanctions against VTB Bank for actions “including establishing correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks.”

The agency warned foreign financial institutions against dealing with VTB, urging them to cut ties immediately.Washington has sought to step up economic pressure on Tehran as the war in the Middle East enters its seventh month since the United States and Israel launched strikes at Iran in late February.

The conflict saw Tehran retaliate by choking off the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy transit, sending oil prices soaring.

Prices at US gasoline pumps have in turn surged, keeping American households under growing financial pressure weeks ahead of US midterm elections.

Since US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed an “economic D-Day” on Iran, Washington has imposed sanctions on other institutions including Turkish bank Golden Global.

VTB, however, already faced US sanctions in 2022, with the Treasury Department imposing “full blocking sanctions” on the bank, meaning that its US-held assets would be frozen and inaccessible to the Kremlin.

At the time, the department added that VTB was “one of the largest financial institutions Treasury has ever blocked.”

On Tuesday, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands issued a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing spyware they say is used by Iranian state-linked actors to target dissidents, activists and journalists, according to Reuters.

Britain's National Cyber Security Centre said Iranian state-linked cyber actors had used a spyware family known as “CHOSEN BRICK” to steal emails, messages and other sensitive information through "spear-phishing" campaigns on messaging platforms including WhatsApp and Telegram.

Meanwhile, Iranian media announced on Monday the launch of a new online portal allowing users to report critics living abroad, a move that has sparked concerns over growing surveillance within the Iranian diaspora.

The surveillance system, named “Alaj” (Healing), aims to identify “traitors,” according to the reports. It was officially established to “protect national security.”

“Betraying Iran has a price and carries legal consequences,” the Fars news agency wrote on Monday.According to the reports, Iranians can use the web portal as well as social media channels to report on the alleged traitors. The identity of informants would be kept confidential, the reports said.

How widely the portal will be used in future remains entirely unclear, although there are fears it will lead to increased mistrust within the Iranian diaspora community.

An estimated 4 million people with Iranian citizenship or an Iranian family background live abroad, according to various estimates. Many of them left the country for political reasons.

The reach of the Iranian security apparatus into Europe and the United States has long meant that Iranians abroad can find it difficult to trust one another.

World

US Plans to Send Powerful Bombs to Israel in $2.8 Billion Weapons Sale

US arms shipment upon arrival at a military airport near Kyiv (File - Reuters)
US arms shipment upon arrival at a military airport near Kyiv (File - Reuters)
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US Plans to Send Powerful Bombs to Israel in $2.8 Billion Weapons Sale

US arms shipment upon arrival at a military airport near Kyiv (File - Reuters)
US arms shipment upon arrival at a military airport near Kyiv (File - Reuters)

The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.

The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000 Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing — in which US taxpayer dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons from the United States.

The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration steps to improve Israeli’s military capacity. The conflict in Gaza has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the enclave. The US brokered a fragile ceasefire, but violence has continued.

The sale signals that some strains in the relationship between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since the two countries launched the war against Iran in February, are not impeding the closeness of the US-Israeli alliance.

Trump has had a hot-and-cold history with Netanyahu over the years and expressed some frustration with Netanyahu tied to the Iran conflict before their latest meeting in July at the White House.

In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs, but Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.

Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review process and approved a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel that included more than 35,500 of the bombs. The administration then approved a new series of arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.

The 2,000-pound bombs have multiple variants, with some designed to penetrate deep, underground targets while others detonate above ground and cause widespread damage, The Associated Press reported.

Though the Israeli military has offered few details about what bombs and artillery it has used in Gaza, experts analyzing strike footage and blast fragments found on-site believe the US-made bombs have been used there, targeting a tunnel network used by Hamas but also killing of people in densely populated areas.

While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since the fragile ceasefire took hold in October, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in the territory, including some overnight and into Tuesday that killed several people.

World

News Chopper Crash in LA Kills Three

A Los Angeles Police officer stands guard near the scene after a news helicopter crashed in Chatsworth, a suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on September 15, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)
A Los Angeles Police officer stands guard near the scene after a news helicopter crashed in Chatsworth, a suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on September 15, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)
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News Chopper Crash in LA Kills Three

A Los Angeles Police officer stands guard near the scene after a news helicopter crashed in Chatsworth, a suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on September 15, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)
A Los Angeles Police officer stands guard near the scene after a news helicopter crashed in Chatsworth, a suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on September 15, 2026. (Photo by Blake Fagan / AFP)

Three people were killed Tuesday in a fiery crash when a US news media helicopter covering a deadly bus crash came down in a Los Angeles neighborhood.

Media in the city had scrambled to cover a deadly accident, after an SUV ploughed into a bus in the Chatsworth area, northwest of downtown, killing another three people and injuring many others in a city where news outlets routinely fly over large incidents.

Reporters who were at the scene of the bus crash said there was a loud bang, with some saying they saw a helicopter come down around a block away, sending plumes of smoke into the air.

Aerial footage showed a large fire that appeared to involve shipping containers and cars, and the wreckage of a helicopter, whose mangled tail and rotors could be seen in the flames.

There was no immediate confirmation of the identity of those aboard the helicopter, but police confirmed early on it was a media chopper and the local NBC4 affiliate reported live that it was unable to make contact with its crew.

Then, during sometimes emotional live coverage on NBC4, veteran news anchor Colleen Williams confirmed it was the local news station's helicopter that crashed.

"We knew it was a news chopper. We knew we'd lost contact with our people out there, and we've just received confirmation," AFP quoted Williams as saying.

Dozens of firefighters were sent to the scene, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

"Four patients have been assessed. Three patients have been determined deceased on scene.

One patient has been transported to a local hospital in unknown condition," a statement said.

One of the dead appeared to be a person who was a pedestrian on the ground when the crash happened.

Los Angeles, America's second biggest city, is a competitive and crowded media market, where TV stations compete aggressively for stories.

Many of them routinely make use of aerial coverage, sending helicopters into the city's already busy skies to cover everything from fires to dramatic car chases.

There are usually two people on board a news media helicopter -- the pilot and the reporter-camera operator who frequently reports live from the sky.