Storms near the African coastline are playing havoc with the key...
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Insurers hike rates as extreme storms like Beryl proliferate
Global insurance giant Swiss RE expects the broader sector’s return...
Rush to prevent oil spill from grounded ship off South African coast
The Panama-flagged "Ultra Galaxy" ran aground close to Doring Bay,...
Prevalence of COVID-19’s Delta variant among specimens sequenced over past 4 weeks exceeded 75 per cent: WHO
“According to GISAID data, as of 20 July, the prevalence of Delta among the specimens sequenced over the past 4 weeks exceeded 75 percent in many countries worldwide including Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Israel, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore South Africa, and the United Kingdom,” the update said.
From China to Germany, floods expose climate vulnerability
“Governments should first realize that the infrastructure they have built in the past or even recent ones are vulnerable to these extreme weather events,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor and co-director, Institute of Water Policy, at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
. In Europe, climate change is likely to increase the number of large, slow-moving storms that can linger longer in one area and deliver deluges of the kind seen in Germany and Belgium, according to a study published https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020GL092361 June 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Over $157 billion deployed in last 15 months to fight Covid pandemic: World Bank
”Since the start of the pandemic, the World Bank Group has committed or mobilised a record USD 157 billion in new financing, an unprecedented level of support for an unprecedented crisis,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said.
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”But we must still do more,” he said, adding that he remains deeply concerned about the limited availability of vaccines, which are critical to saving lives and livelihoods, for developing countries.
World Bank provides $185million to Jamaica in storm protection
Dr The Hon. Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Government of Jamaica, said, “The Government of Jamaica has strategically prioritized Disaster Risk Financing to mitigate the adverse fiscal impact of tropical cyclones and natural disasters, thereby strengthening Jamaica’s economic resilience. We are pleased with the successful placement of this catastrophe bond, which adds an indispensable layer of disaster risk financing that complements our multi-layered approach. In this transaction, Jamaica benefited from the vast technical resources of the World Bank, and from the strength of its balance sheet. We are also grateful to our bilateral partners, the Governments of the United Kingdom and Germany, through the Global Risk Financing Facility, and to the United States through the United States Agency of International Development who provided financial support for the transaction.”
Final settlement for Brazil’s Samarco dam disaster could reach $19 bln, governor says
That estimate is nearly four times higher than an initial deal struck with mining companies in 2016, which created a foundation to implement reparations and temporarily froze lawsuits relating to the incident. “The expectation is that the agreement is around 100 billion reais,” Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told Reuters in an interview late on Friday.
Pandemic recovery to push emissions to all-time high – IEA
Spending plans for clean energy allocated by governments around the world in the second quarter of this year add up to $380 billion, making up just 2% of their total stimulus funds in response to the pandemic, the IEA said. The energy watchdog said the figure represented around a third of what it envisioned was needed to put the world on course to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.
China puts controlling stake of revamped Anbang on the block for $5.2 bln
China Insurance Security Fund Co Ltd., the state rescue fund for the insurance sector which is controlled by the Ministry of Finance, aims to auction all of its 98.23% stake in Dajia for 33.38 billion yuan.
South Africa’s riots insurer in spotlight after days of Carnage
While some claims will be assessed by heavyweight insurers such as Old Mutual Group Ltd. and Santam Ltd., the bulk of the burden will fall to one company little known outside the country: Sasria Insurance Ltd.
Sasria, a state-owned firm with 8.5 billion rand ($591 million) in assets under management, was founded shortly after the Soweto uprising of 1976, when at least 176 people died in demonstrations led by school children against the apartheid government. The frequency and scale of political protests that followed prompted private insurers to stop offering cover to vulnerable businesses, and Sasria was crated to fill the void.
US to expose China’s ‘malicious cyber activities’ after threat to economic, national security
In the announcement which will be made tomorrow morning at 7 am (local time), there will be three things including — an unprecedented group of allies and partners (the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and NATO) will be joining the US in exposing and criticising the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s malicious cyber activities. This is the first time NATO has condemned PRC cyber activities, the officials said via Teleconference.
“We will show how the PRC’s MSS — Ministry of State Security — uses criminal contract hackers to conduct unsanctioned cyber operations globally, including for their own personal profit. Their operations include criminal activities, such as cyber-enabled extortion, crypto-jacking, and theft from victims around the world for financial gain,” the officials said.
FACTBOX:Automakers cutting back on rare earth magnets
Permanent magnet motors – using rare piles of the earth such as neodymium and dysprosium – naturally have a magnetic force. These are at the heart of many electric motors, powering the rotor of the drivetrain.
Motors without permanent magnets, such as induction motors, use electric current, often with copper wiring, to create a magnetic field and power the motor. These are cheaper, but less efficient and require a larger battery, reducing the driving range.