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The Covid-19 pandemic is set to drive a near threefold surge in the antiviral coatings market as researchers and developers say they now realise how little they know about effective materials combatting such threats.

The search for more universal antiviral materials “should be continued with even higher intensity”, said Professors Ken Ostrikov and Ziqi Sun from Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, in their September (2020) report, ‘Future antiviral surfaces: Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic’, featured in the publication ‘Sustainable Materials and Technologies’.…

THE WORLD has become used to large leaks of confidential data from intelligence services and banks, but the latest dump, from the files of the USA’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) may have impacts beyond the unveiling of wrongdoing. Keith Nuthall explains.…

The China National Coatings Industry Association (NCIA) on July 31 informed members that it has been told by the ministry of ecology and environment to investigate the production, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the coating industry and compile a management guide based on the investigation’s findings.…

UNPRECEDENTED demand for aluminium cans caused by consumers drinking at home during lockdowns and associated restaurant and café closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not cause long term disruption to this key canning market, say industry experts. Instead, manufacturers will work closely with customers to maintain supplies, European and United States (US) industry organisations have told CanTech International.…

With the fall out from the Covid-19 pandemic set to prompt an increase in already staggeringly high levels of digital identity fraud, financial institutions and businesses should develop more sophisticated tools to tackle the issue, researchers have warned. The fact the disease has hit when open banking applications are proliferating means fraudsters have more portals to target “particularly through identity fraud” attacks, suggests a July (2020) report from financial platform Finextra in collaboration with software providers Feedzai, headquartered in Portugal (https://www.finextra.com/finextra-downloads/research/documents/148/how-to-prevent-payments-fraud-amid-global-disruption.pdf).…

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) July 30 charged Airbus subsidiary, GPT Special Project Management Ltd, former managing director Jeffrey Cook, an alleged accomplice Terence Dorothy and GPT ex-financial officer John Mason, over corruption linked to Saudi defence contracts. The charges come some eight years after the SFO opened its investigation into Riyadh-based GPT in August 2012 for paying GBP14 million (USD18.37 million) in bribes to secure a GBP2 billion (USD2.62 billion) contract for high-level intranet and communications work for the Saudi National Guard.…

As Syria enters its 10th year of civil conflict, the economy is in tatters, foreign currency is in short supply, and sanctions have not only been renewed, the USA has introduced new secondary sanctions. Illicit crime and sanctions busting abounds.

In May (2020), the USA issued further guidance on Syria, while the European Union (EU) extended its sanctions on Syria for a further year, to 1 June 2021.…

AS governments worldwide loosen lockdowns imposed to impede the spread of Covid-19, energy companies are assessing their health and safety policies to ensure workplaces are not new infection hotspots, protecting workers and hence production.

These changes come as energy industries downscale workloads to reflect a collapse in demand for their output.…

With Nigeria continuing its lockdown closure of education institutions into late June, the country’s private universities are continuing to develop online learning, while many public universities are waiting for their physical facilities to reopen before restarting services. Access to such buildings by essential staff have eased from June 2, with Nigerian government loosening a nationwide curfew from 8pm and 6am, which will now be in force from 10pm to 4am until June 29.…

THE UK’s overseas territories are struggling with something of an existential crisis, as they face an effective 2023 deadline for introducing publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers that could undermine their ability to offer confidential financial services to companies and wealthy individuals.…