Off Leash Update: West Bank Violence, Technology Controls and Afghan Data Exposure

Off Leash update 16 July WEST BANK •Senior Christian Palestinian leaders blamed Israeli authorities for allowing and encouraging radical settlers responsible for recent violent attacks against Muslims and Christians in the West Bank, including fires that damaged a Christian church and cemetery in Taybeh last week. •The priests said Israeli police ignored their emergency calls during the attacks, and have done nothing to address "an intensifying trend of systemic and targeted attacks" against local Christians. •Instead, Israeli authorities continue to approve new Jewish settlements. At least 22 new settlements - including some that were completely new and others that already existed as outposts - were built without authorization in recent months, and subsequently legalized by government approval under what the BBC called "the largest expansion in decades." Most experts consider new settlements illegal under international law.

CHINA •Chipmaker Nvidia - which recently became the first company to reach a $4 trillion market cap - said the U.S. government had reversed course and approved sales of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese companies following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's meeting with Pres. Trump last week. •Huang probably communicated the steps Nvidia has taken to prevent China from acquiring its most advanced chips, as well as Nvidia's significant investment in the substantially-restricted H20, which was developed specifically to comply with congressional concerns about selling more advanced chips than the H20 to China. •Some China hawks will still worry about Chinese tech companies buying the weaker H20, which is still a great chip for AI - even if it's not the best Nvidia makes. •Meanwhile, China steered in the opposite direction and announced new restrictions on exporting eight electric vehicle (EV) battery technologies that give its cheap EVs a price edge over foreign rivals. That will protect Chinese EV makers' technical edge, but make it harder for them to set up manufacturing plants in the EU or U.S.

AFGHANISTAN •The UK belatedly admitted that it accidentally exposed personally identifiable information for 18-19,000 Afghans who worked with its military during the war and then applied for resettlement in the UK in a 2022 data leak. •To prevent the Taliban from carrying out targeted reprisals against countrymen who worked for the other side, the then-Conservative government successfully obtained a High Court "super injunction" as soon as it found out about the leak - which was 18 months after it happened - and then spirited around 4,500 Afghans (~900 applicants and ~3,600 of their family members) away to the UK. •The secret-until-now Afghan Relocation Route program aims to relocate another ~6,900 Afghans - including 600 Afghan soldiers whose data was disclosed in the leak - before it closes, at a total cost of about £850 million ($1.1 billion).

IRAN •U.S. SecState Rubio said that he and his British, French, and German counterparts agreed in a phone call yesterday to set a deadline of Aug. 31 for reaching a new nuclear deal with Iran. •If a deal isn't finalized by then, a "snapback" mechanism would automatically reimpose the UN Security Council sanctions that were in place before the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) lifted them in exchange for Iran's agreement to new restrictions on its nuclear programs. •Separately, the U.S. FBI added three Iranian officials - including Iran's current Ambassador to Pakistan - to its "Most Wanted List" for their involvement in the 2007 disappearance and subsequent murder of FBI agent Robert Levinson in Iranian custody.

VENEZUELA •Amnesty International published a new report (https://t.co/VgaYavuD3q) accusing Venezuela's leadership of crimes against humanity for using "enforced disappearances as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, particularly those they consider dissidents." 1/2