Australia is still feeling the impact of the pandemic, even as other regions recover, with a new publishing house in the Middle East and a scholarship in the US while the UK experiments with delivering post by drone.

Starting in South Africa, The Gapp Magazine writes that Ricoh South Africa has introduced a cloud-based initiative called Spaces that offers various tools for managing visitors, services, physical and virtual workplaces in the aftermath of the pandemic to help companies reassure their employees and feel safe about returning to their offices.

From Australia, Print21 reports that the Victoria state government is insisting that everyone working in a manufacturing site, including print, must have at least one covid vaccination by 15 October and the second by 26 November as part of a ‘no jab, no work’ policy to combat the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile Sprinter has a story from wide format manufacturer, Roland DG Australia, which has moved its warehouse to a self-managed site in Sydney close to the company’s main office, in order to give it greater control over the management of stock and supplies and realise more efficiencies.

According to ME Printer, the Saudi Research and Media Group has launched Raff Publishing to offer print on-demand, e-books and audio books in Arabic, including local titles, translations of international best-sellers and revivals of Arabic literary classics, for audiences in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Labels and Labelling reports that the Label Manufacturers Association of India has appointed Rajesh Nema, director of Pragati Graphics and Packaging, as its new president, along with a new team of honorary treasurers and secretaries, for the next two years. He takes over from Kuldip Goel managing director of Any Graphics, Noida.

The Italian title Converter, carries an obituary on Emilio Gerboni, a stalwart of the flexo industry and co-founder of the TAGA Italian technical association, who has passed away at the age of 88. Swansea University in Wales recognised him with the Honoris Causa and Professor Award degrees in 2015 for his work in the graphic arts.

Graphic Arts Media of Canada writes that Zoe Statiris is the only Canadian student to have won one of six $5,000 Pack Expo Scholarships from the PMMI Foundation in Las Vegas, USA. Statiris is a graphic designer, just starting her third year studying Graphic Communications Management at Toronto’s Ryerson University.

Print Action reports that SinaLite, which has branches in both the USA and Canada, has installed a Kornit Avalanche HD6 direct-to-garment printer alongside its existing Storm HD6 to cope with a massive 330 percent jump in demand for t-shirts, driven by the growth of ecommerce during the pandemic.

In the UK, Digital Printer has a story from the Stationers’ Company, a 600 year old livery guild - essentially a medieval trade union - representing those in the communication and content industries, which is inviting applications for its warrant scheme recognising excellence in these fields, judged on criteria such as design, manufacturing and sustainability.

Printweek reports that the Royal Mail postal service has started a two-week trial using drones to transport the post between islands in some of the more remote areas in the north of Scotland. The drones are less affected by bad weather and the trial will also assess the environmental impact.