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The legal recreational use of cannabis for smoking, eating and drinking has skyrocketed in the United States in the more than 10 years since the state of Colorado became the first US jurisdiction to legalise the plant for adult recreational consumers in January 2014 (1).…

Birla Cellulose, the manufactured cellulosic fibre (MMCF) giant from India’s global conglomerate the Aditya Birla Group, is taking its mission for sustainability in textile a notch higher by developing lyocell fibres containing algae. Birla has long specialised in developing lyocell, a subcategory of rayon, made from organic solutions in which no substitution of the hydroxyl groups takes place, and no chemical intermediates are formed.…

The Netherlands’ universities should be able to set measures to control the numbers of international students and ensure optimal access of Dutch students to local higher education as soon as possible, university representatives have told UWN.

Their comments come during debates over outgoing Dutch education, culture and science minister Robbert Dijkgraaf’s bill ‘for a balanced approach to internationalisation in Dutch higher education’ (‘Internationalisering in Balans’) (https://wetgevingskalender.overheid.nl/Regeling/WGK015111…

The need for digital monitoring and value chain management is perhaps nowhere clearer than in the end-of-life segment of the clothing and textile industry. More than 92 million tonnes of textile waste are landfilled annually, out of some 100 billion garments produced, according to environmental campaigner Earth.Org…

The British Virgin Islands (BVI), an autonomous UK overseas territory with a major company formation and offshore banking sector, has abandoned past commitments to create a public beneficial ownership (BO) register. Its government has said it will instead seek to ensure any new publicly accessible register of beneficial ownership (PARBO) will operate in line with the November 2022 European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that said: “The general public’s access to information on beneficial ownership constitutes a serious interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data” (1).…

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) spending push on mega construction projects is generating strong demand for paints and coatings in this key Gulf region economy.

This includes developments such as ‘Dubai South’, which will house the world’s largest airport, Al Maktoum International Airport.…

As construction ramps up, paint and coatings companies are eyeing lucrative opportunities in Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara, with several recent project launches promising a significant boost to the industry.

Outgoing President Joko Widodo recently inaugurated several key projects in Nusantara, including the emerging city’s international airport, hospitals, schools and housing.…

As wars and civil wars intensify worldwide, international and national sanctions are being issued thick and fast and are expanding in scope and complexity. Financial institutions are scrambling to keep up, while regulators are clamping down hard on sanctions violators. The outlook is for a broadening of sanctions ahead.…

The doomsayers who in 2022 predicted the collapse of cryptocurrency as a major payment instrument have been proved wrong, meaning that AML regulators and obliged entities will need to focus hard to fight the abuse of these digital payment systems by criminals.…

The increasingly sophisticated ML tactics of criminal organisations and the resulting expansion AML/CFT policy and legislation has boosted demand for external consultants.

Indeed, regulators can encourage the hiring of third-party expertise. England and Wales’ legal association The Law Society released guidance last December (2024) on how small law firms can meet their AML compliance obligations, stressing external consultants could provide training on UK AML regulations, that smaller outfits might struggle to deliver in house (1).…