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Eco/Invest/Demography

UN chief urges Japan, others to meet goals on climate change

Clean energy delivers more jobs, cleaner air, better health and stronger economic growth,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

It makes no sense economically to burn money on coal plants that will soon become stranded assets,” he added. There is simply no rational case for coal power in any investment plan.”

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India leads global rise in new weekly COVID-19 cases,while deaths down: WHO

Overall global new deaths in the past seven days fell by 3% compared to the previous week, the WHO reported, adding that overall new infections around the world rose by 1.8 million.

The respiratory disease is also spreading in the Americas, which continues to account for more than half of reported cases and deaths worldwide, although there have been slight decreases in some areas, WHO said in its latest update.

Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina have seen “increasing trends”, it said.

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Pandemic brings hard times for farmers, worsening hunger

The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization forecasts that the number of undernourished people will increase by up to 132 million in this year, while the number of acutely malnourished children will rise by 6.7 billion worldwide due to the pandemic.

“We are facing two pandemics. COVID-19, which beyond its health toll is crushing livelihoods, and hunger, a scourge the international community pledged to eradicate by the end of this decade,” Qu Dongyu, the FAO’s director-general said in a commentary ahead of the virtual meeting.

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78,357 new cases take India’s COVID-19 tally past 37 lakh, death toll rises to 66,333

The death toll climbed to 66,333 with 1,045 more fatalities reported in 24 hours. India has so far reported 37,69,523 cases of the viral disease, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The total number of COVID-19 recoveries in the country has surged to 29,01,908, while the fatality rate has further declined to 1.76 per cent. There are 8,01,282, active cases in the country which comprises 21.26 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

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COVID-19 antibodies present in patients four months after recovery – study

An editorial that accompanied the study cautioned that it is unclear if recovered patients’ antibodies will protect them from reinfection.

However, it suggested that antibody tests may be a cost-effective alternative to infection testing alone, and may work better in surveying populations as countries look to safely reopen their economies and schools.

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Global reinsurers maintain equilibrium through COVID-19 turbulence:AM Best

The global reinsurance composite has produced a five-year (2015-2019) average combined ratio of 99.6% and a return on equity of 5.7%. The report notes, however, that 3-4 percentage points of that combined ratio performance is attributable to favorable loss reserve development. This benefit continues to diminish, and without prompt, corrective action, will create a drag on earnings.

Companies’ individual abilities to take advantage of the hardening market conditions are likely to be influenced by a flight to quality. After three years of significant industry losses, those companies with a solid financial strength, robust reputation and market position, as well as stable, consistent and transparent results, should be best-positioned to optimize their underwriting risk portfolio and continue to attract and deploy capital. In the medium term,

Swiss Re Ltd. retained the top spot as the world’s largest reinsurer, as measured by reinsurance gross premium written, in AM Best’s highly regarded annual ranking of the Top 50 Global Reinsurance Groups. Munich Reinsurance Company again was No. 2 in this latest ranking as the top 10 remained largely stable from last year. 

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