Iran has expanded restrictions on distribution of news content from the country, directing international news outlets to restrict use of their content by Israeli media.
A directive issued Tuesday to a group of international news outlets based in Tehran specified mandatory language to be included on “all submitted content, including photos, videos, reports, and other media productions.”
The instructions, which were sent to a number of news organizations including The Associated Press, came from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which oversees media activity. “Responsibility for failing to comply with this directive rests with the submitting media outlet,” the instructions, translated from Farsi, noted.
The new restrictions come three months after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran that grew into a continuing, occasionally flaring war in the region. President Donald Trump insisted a peace deal is close on the 88th day of the war, even as Iran on Tuesday denounced the most recent U.S. strikes as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability."
The required text for news organizations would say that the content in question cannot be used by Israeli media and Farsi-language TV stations based outside Iran. For years, Iran has banned international media from sharing some material with BBC Persian, VOA Persian, Manoto TV and Iran International at the risk of having their operations shut down in the country.
Despite the restrictions, many Farsi-language media outlets abroad still access images and videos released by Iranian state media through a variety of websites and messaging apps.
The Washington-based group Freedom House ranks Iran as not having a free and independent media, noting that all television channels are controlled by hard-liners within its theocracy and those working in other outlets face harassment and arrest. Satellite dishes are banned though many have them to watch Farsi-language channels abroad, while access to the internet outside of the country has been shut off for weeks.
FILE - A woman holds up pictures of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, left, and his father, the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a state-organized rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who was hired to oversee reforms in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, chose to resign rather than face disciplinary action for interfering with an investigation into his conduct, Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday.
O'Hara, who led local police during the recent federal immigration crackdown in the city, was under investigation on accusations that he was engaging in intimate relationships with city employees.
While those allegations were never substantiated, Frey said investigators found that O'Hara had interfered with the probe. He is accused of deleting a contact card from his city-issued cell phone in an attempt to shield evidence and telling another city employee about the investigation after he was instructed to keep it quiet, according to a written reprimand obtained by The Associated Press.
The mayor told O'Hara he would be disciplined, which could include his termination. He chose to resign instead, Frey said.
“It was an extremely painful decision, obviously, but I concluded that that was necessary to maintain public trust, and this was the right way to move forward as a city,” Frey said.
“Trust is not secondary to the job. It is the job,” he added.
The city still has 17 open complaints against O'Hara — separate from the investigation that resulted in disciplinary action — and will continue investigating, mayor's office spokesperson Jennifer Lor said. Lor could not comment on the nature of those complaints.
O'Hara did not immediately respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.
O'Hara became the chief in 2022 as the department was at the center of a nationwide reckoning over racism and brutality in policing. Two years prior, Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white officer in Minneapolis, igniting global Black Lives Matter protests and calls to defund the police.
Last year, Minneapolis entered an agreement with the federal government to overhaul its police training and use-of-force policies in the wake Floyd's murder. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump canceled the agreement months later.
O'Hara oversaw the law enforcement response to the deadly Annunciation Catholic School shooting last August.
He criticized immigration enforcement tactics in December after a federal agent kneeled on a woman's back during an arrest and then tried to drag her to a car. Minneapolis police faced scrutiny from all sides during Trump's immigration crackdown by people who thought the officers were helping or hindering federal agents and protests.
Assistant Police Chief Katie Blackwell has stepped in to lead the department during the search for a new chief, Frey said.
FILE - Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara speaks during a news conference, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck, File)
