The State Department approved a possible $100 million military sale to Zambia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Jan. 13. The sale includes "Bell 412 Enhanced Performance Exportable Medium-Lift Transport Helicopters" and related elements of logistics and program support. The principal contractor will be Bell Textron.

The Federal Maritime Commission is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation, the agency said in a notice released this week. The changes, effective Jan. 15, increase maximum penalties for various violations of U.S. shipping regulations, including “knowing and willful” violations of the Shipping Act.

An indictment was unsealed on Jan. 7 charging three Russian nationals for their role in a scheme to operate the "cryptocurrency mixing services" Blender.io and Sinbad.io, both of which have been sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ announced.

The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged the Biden administration late Jan. 10 to reimpose all sanctions lifted on Venezuela since November 2022.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted more than 20 entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List this week, including people and entities tied to Switzerland, Venezuela, Malta, Panama, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and elsewhere.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published a memorandum of understanding with the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation that the two agencies are using to share information about national security threats and collaborate on sanctions enforcement and compliance. The memorandum, dated October 2024, builds on a partnership the two sides started in 2022, which has included swapping officials as part of an employee embed program, working together on sanctions guidance and better harmonizing their designations (see 2411190025 and 2311170038).

The U.S. this week sanctioned The Terrorgram Collective, a transnational terrorist group that promotes violent white supremacism and solicits attacks on critical infrastructure and government officials through social media and the digital messaging platform Telegram, the State Department said. The U.S. also sanctioned three of the group’s leaders: Brazil-based Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira, Croatia-based Noah Licul and South Africa-based Hendrik-Wahl Muller.

A new Bureau of Industry and Security rule that will place new, worldwide export controls on advanced computing chips and certain closed artificial intelligence model weights was widely panned by the American semiconductor and technology industry this week, even as U.S. officials said the restrictions are necessary to keep American companies ahead of their Chinese competitors.

The European Commission on Jan. 10 imposed antidumping duties on polyvinyl chloride from Egypt and the U.S., the Directorate-General for Trade announced. The duties range from 74.2% to 100.1% for imports from Egypt and 58% to 77% for imports from the U.S. Polyvinyl chloride is a "thermoplastic polymer used in the manufacturing of various products including pipes and fittings, films and foils, injection moulding and blow moulding, for example in the construction industry," the commission said.

The European Commission imposed antidumping duties on titanium dioxide and mobile access equipment from China on Jan. 9.