The consulting company Henley & Partners has been publishing the World Passport Index for more than 15 years, together with the International Air Transport Association. But for the first time, the ranking itself is of little importance. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in most visa-free agreements not working. According to the new version of the passport index, Japan is still the world...

The United States will receive $653,000 from the Saudis for violating sanctions on Sudan and Syria, the US Treasury said on 28 December. The money will be paid to the Americans by the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. An agreement has been reached between the US and the bank. A statement from the US Treasury said the bank "agreed to pay $653,300 as a settlement of liability for 13...

The hacker group Lazarus has launched two attacks on organizations involved in coronavirus research, Kaspersky Lab reported. The targets of the hackers, whose activities were discovered by the company, were the Ministry of Health in one of the Asian countries and a pharmaceutical company. According to Kaspersky Lab, the attack took place on September 25th. The hackers used the Bookcode virus,...

China will overtake the US to become the world's biggest economy by 2028, five years earlier than expected, CEBR analysts forecasted. They also expect India to push Japan out of the top three economies in the early 2030s. China will overtake the United States to become the world's biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than it was expected, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research...

The European Union and the UK have managed to work out an agreement on the relationship after Brexit. This was announced by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a press conference in Brussels. The agreement establishes the format of relations between Europe and the UK in trade, transport communication, fisheries and other spheres. The parties were to agree on its terms by...

A hacker attack through SolarWinds software affected the internal networks of the US federal, state and local governments, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said. The authority urged organisations to prioritise action to identify and resolve the threat. In addition to government agencies, the attack through SolarWinds affected "critical infrastructure and other private...

Britain's largest retailer Tesco has limited sale of five of its most popular items, The Guardian reports. One customer will be able to buy not more than one roll of toilet paper, not more than three packs of eggs, rice, bars of soap and containers of handwashing detergent (the restrictions do not apply to hand sanitizers).  Meanwhile, in Tesco shops, a number of restrictions on the sale...

According to the Financial Times (FT), over the past few weeks, "more than a dozen" Chinese cities have imposed restrictions on electricity consumption due to a shortage of thermal coal. The shortage of coal was largely due to a trade conflict with Australia, which is one of China's biggest coal suppliers. As a reminder, in the spring the Australian government called for an investigation into the...

Saudi Arabia has closed its borders for a week, the country's interior ministry said. A statement from the ministry was published by SPA. It indicates that the decision to close the borders was made on the basis of the Ministry of Health’s data on the spread of a new strain of coronavirus. The authorities have halted international air links and closed land borders and seaports for a week. Flights...