The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 6 released its quarterly report on certain licensing activities for Iran, covering April-June. The reports provide licensing statistics for exports of agricultural goods, medicine and medical devices as required by the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three senior members and one associate of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste, which it called one of the "most violent drug trafficking organizations" in the country and which the U.S. labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February (see 2502190011).
Michael Kratsios, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, suggested this week that the U.S. is against imposing export controls on open-weight AI models.
Nvidia chips don’t have and shouldn’t be required to have so-called “kill switches” that would allow exported chips to be remotely disabled without the user’s consent, the semiconductor company said this week.
The Trump administration has failed to use sanctions and export controls to help end Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Democratic staffs of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees said in a report released this week.
The EU on Aug. 5 published a document to officially suspend the retaliatory tariffs it was set to impose on the U.S. on Aug. 7 (see 2507250007) if the two sides hadn’t come to a trade agreement. The U.S. and the EU announced a trade deal last last month (see 2507280027 and 2507280032), and suspending its retaliatory duties will help “ensure effective implementation of the political agreement,” the European Commission said in a document posted to the Official Journal of the EU. “The Commission should keep the suspension under review in light of further developments in the trade relations with the United States, and may take further actions.”
Citing increasing attacks on civilians in the West Bank, senators introduced two bills Aug. 1 that would sanction those who promote or engage in violence in the disputed Israeli-Palestinian territory.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the Trump administration July 30 to sanction those providing material support to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, which is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced a companion bill Aug. 1 to House legislation that would require the Treasury Department to designate foreign entities that run large-scale scams on Americans as Foreign Financial Threat Organizations (see 2506020044). The Strengthening Targeting of Organized Predatory Scammers Act, or the Stop Scammers Act, would authorize Treasury to freeze the assets of such organizations. Scott’s bill was referred to the Senate Banking Committee.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is asking banks and other financial institutions to be aware of cybercriminals, drug-trafficking groups and others using convertible virtual currency kiosks for illegal activity. They use the kiosks -- which act as ATM-like devices that allow customers to exchange real currency for virtual currency -- to send payments under “false pretenses,” launder drug money and execute other activities that may violate FinCEN’s rules to counter money laundering and financing of terrorism. The agency's alert includes a list of red flags that banks should monitor and asks financial institutions to submit suspicious activity reports to FinCEN with the key term “FIN-2025-CVCKIOSK” if they suspect a transaction may be tied to illegal use of the kiosks.