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Law without order: investors grapple with China’s regulatory risk

The Chinese Communist Party’s uneasy relationship with private business has always weighed on the minds of Western investors who seek legal and regulatory certainty to place their bets.

Yet Beijing’s recent moves are unsettling even seasoned investors who are otherwise used to navigating corporate China’s murky auditing and poor governance in order to chase growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

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Scientists update forecasts on extreme weather and climate change 

“It’s not so much that climate change itself is proceeding faster than expected — the warming is right in line with model predictions from decades ago,” said climate scientist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University. “Rather, it’s the fact that some of the impacts are greater than scientists predicted.”

That suggests that climate modeling may have been underestimating the “the potential for the dramatic rise in persistent weather extremes,” Mann said.

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Virus variant and disasters strike strain global supply chains

Events have conspired to drive global supply chains towards breaking point, threatening the fragile flow of raw materials, parts and consumer goods, according to companies, economists and shipping specialists.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus has devastated parts of Asia and prompted many nations to cut off land access for sailors. That’s left captains unable to rotate weary crews and about 100,000 seafarers stranded at sea beyond their stints in a flashback to 2020 and the height of lockdowns.

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Delta infecting even the fully vaccinated at a greater rate

Genomics expert Eric Topolnoted that Delta infections have a shorter incubation period and a far higher amount of viral particles. “That’s why the vaccines are going to be challenged. The people who are vaccinated have got to be especially careful. This is a tough one,” Topol said. reuters
“The biggest risk to the world at the moment is simply Delta,” said microbiologist Sharon Peacock. Until there is more data on its transmission, experts say masks, social distancing and other measures set aside in countries with broad vaccination campaigns may again be needed.

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61 pc of global drowning deaths in 2019 was in Asia Pacific region: WHO

“Despite many lives being lost each year, drowning remains a largely unrecognised threat to health and well-being,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia.

“We need to work across all sectors to develop national water safety plans and policies and implement tested and low-cost water safety interventions to prevent drowning and save lives. No child or adult should lose their life to drowning,” she said.

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37.8% 10-year-olds have FB accounts, 24.3% Instagram accounts in contravention of rules: NCPCR study

”Social media platforms contain and disperse such a variety of content, a lot of which is neither appropriate nor conducive for children. They can be anything from violent or vulgar content to instances of online abuse and bullying of children. Hence, in this regard, proper oversight and stricter enforcement is required,” it said.

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Delta variant forces Silicon Valley giants to rethink office-return plans

Recent court decisions have upheld employers’ rights to require vaccinations, including a ruling that said Houston Methodist Hospital could require health care workers to get shots. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that Indiana University could require students to be vaccinated as well.

“The legal authority continues to line up on the side of employers being allowed to mandate vaccines if they choose to,” said Douglas Brayley, an employment lawyer at the global law firm Ropes & Gray.

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