The International Foundation for Better Governance (IFBG) has published an extensive investigation by award winning journalists Philip Braund and Colin Stevens on the issue of granting asylum in the UK to fugitive bankers from the former Soviet Union, who are accused of fraud and other illegal activities in their homeland. The multi-page document for the…
The Communist Party (CCP) of China is quietly but steadily modernising its naval power for the political goal of expanding its influence in the far seas in Asia and Africa through penetrative power projection operations, according to a report compiled to help the American Defence establishment to better understand the balance of strategic competition between…
Customs controls are still insufficiently harmonised across Member States to properly safeguard the EU’s financial interests, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Despite recent steps in the right direction, the EU rules are not designed well enough to ensure that Member States select imports for control in a uniform…
China has been revealed as the strongest military in the world, scoring 82/100 points in a new study from Military Direct. Russia are 2nd with 69 and UK is 9th with 43 – higher than Germany (39) but below France (58) USA scores highly for its budget of $723bn In a conflict China would win by…
NATO collects defence expenditure data from Allies on a regular basis and presents aggregates and subsets of this information. Each Ally’s Ministry of Defence reports current and estimated future defence expenditure according to an agreed definition of defence expenditure. The amounts represent payments by a national government actually made, or to be made, during the…
“European countries are failing to protect refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. Backsliding in the protection of the lives and rights of refugees and migrants is worsening and causing thousands of avoidable deaths each year”, said Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, while releasing a report. The…
Global CO2 emissions declined sharply in 2020, but with a rebound expected in 2021 efforts must be intensified if the world is to reach the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement and keep global warming well below 2°C, a new study shows. The study, which has been conducted as part of the Global Carbon Project, was published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change today, on 3 March 2021. It…
A new report, Digitalisation: An opportunity for Europe, shows how increased digitalisation of Europe’s services and value chains over the next six years could boost the European Union’s GDP per capita by 7.2% – equivalent to a €1 trillion increase in overall GDP. The report, commissioned by Vodafone and conducted by Deloitte, looks at the five…
Transparency International (TI) has published their annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). This index ranks countries based on their exposure to corruption in the public sector. Scores range from 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt). The CPI 2020 found that Hungary scored 44 in 2020 and ranked 69th overall – placing the country alongside Bulgaria…
This year’s National Sickie Day falls on the 3rd of February, with researchers predicting it will cost employers £34million in total. There was an estimated 350,000 absences* from work on the first Monday of February last year, indicating this is when employees are most likely to call in sick, leaving employers unsure whether they are telling…
