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Cathay Pacific grounds many flights after engine component failure
Cathay Pacific has not specified which engine component failed, but...
HP to continue $4 billion damages case against Mike Lynch
HP had bought Autonomy for $11.1 billion in 2011 in one of the UK’s...
UK’s £800 million Reinsurance Scheme officially opens, to help providing covers to festivals, conferences and live events
The government has partnered with Lloyd’s Market Association to deliver the scheme as part of the Plan for Jobs. The scheme will see the government act as a ‘reinsurer’ – stepping in with a guarantee to make sure insurers can offer the products events companies need. Insurers Munich Re, Beazley, Arch, Dale, and Ark are carriers of the scheme with more firms coming on board in the weeks to come.
Scientists call for global targets to beat diabetes, strokes
Some 80 per cent of people with diabetes live in low and middle income countries (LMICs), such as India. Fewer than 6 per cent of these individuals can access the care they need to manage their diabetes and prevent long-term complications like heart attacks, strokes, kidney diseases or blindness.
Hitting targets also would reduce deaths over the coming 10 years in all world regions, but the benefits are larger in some than others. For example, Eastern sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the most deaths from cardiovascular diseases due to diabetes at baseline (46 deaths per 1,000 people with diabetes) – if targets were achieved, deaths would fall to 27 per 1,000, the researchers assess.
Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li’s FWD makes U.S. IPO filing public
Richard Li is the son of Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-Shing. FWD’s foundation was laid in 2012 with the acquisition of ING’s Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand units for $2.1 billion, and it has since continued this bolt-on approach.
Major acquisitions include the $3 billion purchase of Siam Commercial Bank PCL’s life insurance unit in Thailand in 2019, just days after agreeing to buy the Hong Kong operations of U.S. insurer MetLife Inc.
Centrica, Nestle, Swatch among companies exposed to physical climate risks – investors
The companies, which are involved in energy and mining, food, pharmaceuticals or technology manufacturing or transport and utilities, are more exposed to issues such as flooding than other companies in their sector and region, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) said.In a letter to the European, Asian and U.S. companies from more than 50 IIGCC members, the investors asked the firms to identify properly and respond to events such as flooding, droughts and extreme heat.
Slow Covid vaccination to cost global economy $2.3 trillion: Study
“Emerging countries will shoulder around two-thirds of these losses, further delaying their economic convergence with more developed countries,” the EIU said.
It warned the delayed rollout of vaccines could fuel resentment, increasing the risk of social unrest in developing economies.
The Asia-Pacific Region will be the worst hit in absolute terms, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the losses.
But as a percentage of GDP, sub-Saharan Africa will suffer the worst losses.
New WHO air-quality guidelines aim to cut deaths linked to fossil fuels
The guidelines could also send a message to the wider public about lifestyle and business choices –- whether it’s driving cars and trucks, disposing of garbage, working in industrial jobs or farming.
Air pollution has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and early death, and recent evidence has suggested negative effects on pregnancy, cognitive development in kids, and mental health, experts say.
“There is nothing more essential for life than air quality,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. “And yet, because of air pollution, the simple act of breathing contributes to 7 million deaths a year. Almost everyone around the world is exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution.Air pollution is now comparable to other global health risks like unhealthy diets and smoking tobacco, WHO said.
Boeing lifts China jet demand estimate over two decades to $1.47 trln
Chinese airlines will need 8,700 new airplanes through 2040, 1.2% higher than its previous prediction of 8,600 planes made last year. Those would be worth $1.47 trillion based on list prices, the U.S. planemaker said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Boeing revised up long-term forecasts for global airplane demand on the back of a strong recovery in commercial air travel in domestic markets like the United States.
COVID-fuelled child labour crisis spurs call for global social protection fund
The pandemic has pushed many countries – from the United States to Rwanda – to spend trillions of dollars on short-term measures, including payments to businesses and poor families, to cushion their populations from economic shocks. A fraction of this cash could be used to start a fund offering basic income like cash transfers to the poor, pensions for the elderly and disability, unemployment and child benefits, campaigners said at an online event.”Social protection is absolutely fundamental,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation. “If we have a fund to build those social protection systems for the 55% of the world’s people who have no social protection, and for the 72% who have little or no social protection, then it returns money and jobs to the economy,” she said.
EU plans 120 billion euro economic boost by easing insurance rules
Olav Jones, deputy director general for Insurance Europe, an industry body, said he welcomed EU acknowledgement of the need to reduce capital requirements, but only a “significant and permanent” cut in capital would allow insurers to increase support for the economy and regain global competitiveness.
Brussels proposed easing the impact of the so-called volatility adjustment, which mitigates the impact of short-term market moves on insurer solvency.
It also wants to make it easier for insurers to benefit from preferential capital treatment worth around 10.5 billion euros from investing in long-term assets to green the economy.
‘We can end the pandemic’, UN chief says in new call for global vaccine plan
Although more than 5.7 million doses have been administered globally, 73 per cent have been in just 10 countries, and just three per cent of people in Africa have had innoculations.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s plan calls for at least doubling vaccine production to ensure 2.3 billion doses are equitably distributed through the vaccine solidarity initiative, COVAX.
The goal is to reach 40 per cent of people worldwide by the end of this year, and 70 per cent in the first half of 2022, per targets set by WHO.