The U.S. ambassador to NATO suggested this week that the Trump administration won’t sign off on any new Russia sanctions until all EU and NATO members stop buying Russian energy.

Although the Bureau of Industry and Security in FAQs this week suggested its new 50% rule applies only to ownership and not the control that a parent company may have over an affiliate, that doesn’t mean U.S. exporters should ignore an Entity Listed company’s controlling influence over an unlisted company, said Mike Huneke, a trade lawyer with Morgan Lewis.

Matt Stiglitz has left his position as the associate director of the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network after accepting a voluntary early retirement offer, he announced on LinkedIn. Stiglitz had been with FinCEN since 2019 and previously worked at DOJ for 16 years.

President Donald Trump told lawmakers Sept. 29 that he has withdrawn his nomination of Chris Pratt to be assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, according to Congress.gov. It's unclear what prompted the move. The White House sent the nomination to Capitol Hill in February, and Pratt testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May (see 2505150053).

The Bureau of Industry and Security on Sept. 30 again renewed the temporary denial order for Russia's Ural Airlines, saying it has continued to illegally operate flights within Russia and to and from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The order, first issued in October 2022 (see 2210170009) and renewed multiple times, bars the airline from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The order was renewed for one year.

Senate Banking Committee member Mark Warner, D-Va., urged the Bureau of Industry and Security on Sept. 30 to consider placing export controls on open-source technologies that could benefit China.

President Donald Trump posted on social media that U.S. soybean growers are hurting "because China is, for 'negotiating' reasons only, not buying. We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers. I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN!"

The U.K. on Oct. 1 reimposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran covering 121 people and entities, which were paused after the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. The reimposition of the restrictions follows the reinstatement of the so-called "snapback" sanctions earlier this week at the U.N. (see 2508280033).

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned nearly 40 people and entities with ties to networks helping to buy sensitive goods and technology for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, along with its missile and military aircraft production efforts.

House Foreign Affairs Europe Subcommittee Chairman Keith Self, R-Texas, unveiled a bill Sept. 30 to codify a new interim final rule that will place subsidiaries on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List or Military End-User List if they are owned 50% or more by companies on those lists.