US imposes sanctions on 12 Iranian officials for human rights abuses
CNN
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 12 Iranian officials for human rights abuses, including violent crackdowns on protesters, torture of prisoners and targeting Iranian dissidents abroad.
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 12 Iranian officials for human rights abuses, including violent crackdowns on protesters, torture of prisoners and targeting Iranian dissidents abroad. The sanctions were unveiled around the second anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s “morality police.” Her death sparked massive protests throughout the country. Ahead of the anniversary, the Iranian government once again increased its crackdowns on peaceful protesters. “In the two years since Mahsa Zhina Amini’s senseless killing in the custody of Iran’s so-called Morality Police, the Iranian regime has continued to systematically violate the human rights of the Iranian people,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “The United States remains committed to exposing and sanctioning Iranian officials responsible for human rights abuses.” A top State Department official told CNN ahead of the anniversary “it’s important to remember that while we have a new Iranian president, a new Iranian leadership, we’re seeing continuity in this kind of human rights abuse. “It’s important for the international community to judge this government by its actions and not by its words,” said Victoria Taylor, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran. The new sanctions target four members of the Iran’s security forces who were involved in the violent crackdowns in 2022. One of those sanctioned, Hamid Khorramdel, is the commander of an IRGC unit “responsible for arresting and coercing confessions from activists,” according to the Treasury Department. Another, Mustafa Bazvand, led forces responsible for “killing at least one individual and arresting several journalists covering the violence.”
FBI says it has disrupted major Chinese hacking operation that threatened US critical infrastructure
The FBI has used a court order to seize control of a network of hundreds of thousands of hacked internet routers and other devices that Chinese government-linked hackers were using to threaten critical infrastructure in the US and overseas, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve is preparing to cut interest rates for the first time in the Biden era after the White House spent the last three years grappling with Americans’ dissatisfaction with the cost of living, raising new questions about the health of the economy and the impact on voters at the ballot box.
Israeli officials notified the US that the country was going to carry out an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday but did not give any details about what they were planning, according to three sources familiar with the matter, including in a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant early Tuesday morning.