Many signs are pointing toward the incoming Trump administration embracing the new sweeping U.S. export controls on AI chips, an AI technology policy researcher said this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security released four new rules Jan. 15, including one that will make more changes to its semiconductor-related export controls -- including by creating a new list of trusted chip designers and service providers -- another rule that will place new controls on certain biotechnology equipment and technology, and two rules that will add companies to the Entity List.
Alejo Cabranes, former senior policy adviser with the Treasury Department, is joining DOJ as an attorney in its National Security Division, he announced on LinkedIn. Cabranes has worked at Treasury since 2023, where he helped implement sanctions and anti-money laundering policies.
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.
Japan is placing new trade restrictions on Russia, including export controls over certain audio equipment, engines and parts for “special vehicles,” such as cranes and small motorcycles, the country’s trade minister said during a Jan. 10 press conference, according to an unofficial translation. Japan will also take "measures to prevent indirect exports” to Russia being sent by companies in third countries. “We will continue to cooperate with the international community, including the G7, and take all possible measures to implement sanctions against Russia,” the minister said. “The details will be explained by the secretariat at a later date.”