The House Financial Services Committee approved legislation July 22 to increase sanctions on Russia and Burma and revise sanctions on Syria.

The U.S. should consider designating specific financial institutions, sets of transactions or types of accounts in Hong Kong as primary money laundering concerns to address the Chinese territory's recent crackdown on freedom and its role in aiding sanctions evasion by rogue regimes, a researcher told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Human Rights July 22.

The U.K. on July 24 amended the sanctions listing for energy company Litasco Middle East DMCC under its Russia sanctions list. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the listing to note that the company is also known as LME Trading DMCC.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated North Korea-based Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company and three people working closely with the company for helping North Korea evade sanctions. OFAC said Kim Se Un, Jo Kyong Hun and Myong Chol Min are either employed by the company or work with it to help generate revenue for the North Korean government, including by deploying information technology workers overseas to earn money.

At least $1 billion worth of Nvidia advanced AI chips were smuggled into China about a month after the Trump administration placed new export controls on the company's less advanced chips, the Financial Times reported July 24. Multiple Chinese distributors in May began selling Nvidia's B200 chips to suppliers of data centers that serve Chinese AI groups, the report said, adding that those chips are more advanced than Nvidia's H20s, which the Trump administration restricted in April (see 2504160026). Contracts reviewed by the Financial Times for sales during that time period showed shipments "estimated to be more than" $1 billion.

The Trump administration should carefully study any new export controls on the subsystems of semiconductor manufacturing equipment so it doesn’t unintentionally undercut U.S. chip tooling firms, wrote Ruby Scanlon, a research assistant with the Center for a New American Security.

The Trump administration is launching a new program to increase U.S. exports of AI technologies and services as part of an effort to spread the adoption of American AI systems around the world.

The Council of the European Union on July 23 appointed a new judge to the EU Court of Justice. The council named Bulgaria's Alexander Kornezov to a five-year term that runs until Oct. 6, 2030.

The European Commission on July 23 activated its customs surveillance system to monitor the import and export of ferrous waste and scrap, aluminum and copper. The surveillance system was created as part of the EU's steel and metal action plan and is meant to ensure "sufficient access to scrap for the EU's metals industries." The system can provide the commission with information to "take targeted trade measures for ensuring a sufficient supply of scrap and preventing scarcity, thereby strengthening the resilience and sustainability of EU's metals industries," the commission said.

The Senate voted 51-47 along party lines July 23 to confirm John Hurley to be undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial crimes. Two Republican senators didn’t vote.