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Students from sub-Saharan African countries are warning they are ready to abandon degree courses in Tunisian universities and colleges, fleeing this north African country in the wake of mass arrests of compatriots and racial violence this month.

Christian Kwongang, president of the Tunisian Association of Sub-Saharan Students (Association des Étudiants et Stagiaires Africains en Tunisie – AESAT) said that as of March 7, at least 400 sub-Saharan African students had been arrested in immigration sweeps by police, and there had been more than 30 racially motivated physical attacks by the against black African students over the past year.…

The European Union (EU) has taken fresh action to reverse the decline of honeybees in Europe, with the European Commission revamping the EU Pollinators Initiative. The revised strategy involves spending on conservation, species reintroduction, research, monitoring and restricting dangerous pesticides. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-5692-2023-INIT/en/pdf;…

Money launderers continue to develop layering techniques to insert criminal proceeds into legitimate financial transactions, and these typologies are becoming increasingly varied.

‘Cuckoo smurfing’ is one new technique attracting attention, for instance, said a briefing note from Australian FIU Austrac (1).…

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has warned in its latest 2022 annual report that last year, cross-border VAT fraud accounted for 47% of the estimated EUR14.1 billion lost to frauds affecting European Union (EU) revenue and expenditure. That covers the 1,117 active EPPO investigations by the end of 2022, a year in which the office received and processed 3318 crime reports and opened 865 inquiries.…

When Saif al-Ashqar was tasked with rebuilding the library of the University of Mosul in Iraq, he was given a free rein – but no cash. Islamic State, which occupied the city between 2014 and 2017, had burned the prestigious library to the ground, destroying what remained of its vast collection of books, historic maps and ancient manuscripts.…

Growing online sales of tobacco products within the European Union (EU) are boosting industry revenues, despite increasing sales restrictions, including some outright bans on internet purchases of tobacco products. The German market and consumer data platform Statista foresees 2.5% of the total USD170 billion [EUR160 million] sales generated by the tobacco sector – all products – within 2023 will come from online sales, meaning USD4.25 billion [EUR4 billion].…

Isabel dos Santos, once known as the richest women in Africa, and daughter of Angola’s former President. is facing a tightening noose of legal action alleging corruption and embezzlement. Keith Nuthall and Andreia Nogueira report.

The Angola government has ramped up its efforts to arrest Isabel dos Santos, and confiscate many of her assets, following the death of her father, the former President of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, last July (2022).…

The USD865 million investment announced by BMW into boosting its electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing capacity in Mexico is, say industry experts, a signal of how Mexican automotive capacity may be oriented increasingly intensely on the American market.

Germany’s BMW will spend this money over the next four years to enable production of the ‘Neue Klasse’ electric vehicle range in Mexico starting 2027.…

The European Union (EU) may this year complete a long-negotiated trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc, including major knitwear manufacturer Brazil and wool exporter Argentina. EU trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has said the ratification of a deal that was agreed in principle in 2019 should move a step closer “relatively soon”.…

At the end of 2022, the Chinese garment industry found itself in a conflicting situation: on one hand, the abrupt abandonment of strict Covid-control measures in December fuelled hopes that Chinese consumer demand will grow steadily. But on the other hand, many factories preponed and extended the Chinese New Year holiday to shield their owners’ financial standing from the risk that manufacturing capacity would remain underutilised.…