On August 20, 2026, the White House released the National Security Science and Technology Strategy (“NSSTS”), which establishes the Trump administration’s framework for maintaining US technological leadership and protecting critical and emerging technologies. The NSSTS is organized around four pillars: (1) focusing techno-strategic competition, (2) building technological resilience, (3) accelerating innovation, and (4) protecting national security science and technology. For sanctions, export controls, investment screening, and data security practitioners, Pillar 4(Protect National Security S&T) is…
On August 26, 2026, President Trump issued Executive Order 14420, “Declaring a National Emergency to Secure the United States Bulk-Power System” (“EO 14420”), which aims to prevent certain foreign actors from creating or exploiting vulnerabilities in foreign-produced equipment used in the US bulk-power system. EO 14420 builds on and significantly expands Executive Order 13920, “Securing the United States Bulk-Power System” (“EO 13920”), which the Trump administration issued in 2020 and formed the basis of an…
On July 10, 2026, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced a series of Iran-related sanctions designations targeting Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari and his financial network, as well as several Iranian exchange houses accused of facilitating transactions for sanctioned Iranian banks. Concurrently, OFAC issued General License Y (“GL Y”), authorizing the temporary wind down of transactions involving Smart Global Limited, a newly designated holding company allegedly controlled by Ansari.…
On June 8, 2026, the US Department of Defense (“DoD”) published an update to its list of “Chinese military companies” (“CMCs”) operating directly or indirectly in the United States (the “1260H List”), pursuant to Section 1260H of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (the “NDAA 2021”). The updated list is available here. The DoD press release states that this update is part of the US government’s continuing effort to highlight and counter…