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International News

Why snow, hail and wildfire are expensive for insurance industry

Martin Bertogg, head of catastrophic perils at Swiss Re, said that the industry had been challenged by what is known as “secondary perils.” That is, while the insurance industry has historically done a good job of modeling relatively rare but potentially devastating events such as earthquakes and hurricanes, it’s battling to keep up with risks posed by snow storms, hail, tornadoes and wildfires. Those used to cause relatively minor damage but are increasingly morphing into something more costly. And that is a problem for companies, since many Americans have coverage for such events.

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U.S. opens formal safety probe into some 765,000 Tesla vehicles

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that since January 2018, it had identified 11 crashes in which Tesla models “have encountered first responder scenes and subsequently struck one or more vehicles involved with those scenes.”In a statement, the NHTSA reminded drivers “no commercially available motor vehicles today are capable of driving themselves … Certain advanced driving assistance features can promote safety by helping drivers avoid crashes and mitigate the severity of crashes that occur, but as with all technologies and equipment on motor vehicles, drivers must use them correctly and responsibly.”

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New York’s pension fund to review oil holdings, axes more coal investments

The move by the New York state pension fund comes days after the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported global warming was nearly out of control, and calling its findings “a death knell for coal and fossil fuels.”

Major investors, including BlackRock have re-evaluated holdings in fossil fuel producers and prodded energy executives to reduce emissions and prepare for a lower carbon world. After completing its shale review, the New York fund plans to turn next to oil and gas pipeline and processing investments, it said.

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7.2 magnitude earthquake hits Haiti; at least 304 killed

The epicenter of the quake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey said, and widespread damage was reported in the hemisphere’s poorest nations as a tropical storm also bore down.

Haiti’s civil protection agency said on Twitter that the death toll stood at 304, most in the country’s south. Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble. The agency said injured people were still being delivered to hospitals

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Retail sector top target for ransomware attack in 2020: Report

“The retail sector has always been an attractive target for cyberattacks, with its complex, distributed IT environments, including a multitude of connected point-of-sale devices, a relatively transient and non-technical workforce, and access to a wide range of personal and financial customer data,” said Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos, in a statement.

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Worst Algeria wildfires in decades kill 65

While wildfires are a relatively regular occurrence in Algeria, this week’s were the country’s biggest and deadliest in several decades. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced three days of national mourning on Wednesday.French-language TSA Algerie, which visited Kabylie on Wednesday, said the wildfires left a trail of desolation all along the usually lush road linking Tizi Ouzou to Bouira. Several villages were abandoned.

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Severe weather events drive global insured cat losses of $ 42 billion in first half of 2021, Swiss Re 

Jérôme Jean Haegeli, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Economist, said: “Climate change is one of the biggest risks facing society and the global economy. The recent analysis from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms expectations of more extreme weather in the future and urgency to act to limit global warming. Working with the public sector, the re/insurance industry plays a key role in helping to strengthen communities’ resilience by steering development away from high-risk areas, making adaptation investments, maintaining insurability of assets and narrowing protection gaps.“

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