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International News

Willis Towers mulls sale of reinsurance unit after halting merger

Reports this week suggested Gallagher was close to clinching a deal for Willis Re, but Willis Towers Watson Chief Executive Officer John Haley said he is considering wider possibilities.

“We’re conducting a review of strategic alternatives for Willis Re,” Haley told a conference call on Tuesday reporting on second-quarter results. While the timing was “appropriate” given the failed merger, he warned that a sale was not assured.

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WHO calls for moratorium on booster COVID-19 vaccine shots until end of Sep

A small group of nations, including some in Europe, are planning additional shots for the fully inoculated even as the COVID-19 continues to infect and kill at alarming rates across the Global South, where vaccination levels remain “catastrophically low,” The Washington Post reported.

The report stated that the decision by wealthy countries to give booster shots to their own people rather than donating those doses to poorer countries is controversial. Health experts have called this move immoral.

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U.S. automakers to say they aspire to up to 50% of EV sales by 2030 -sources

Automakers are spending tens of billions of dollars to speed EV adoption, even though U.S. EV sales outside Tesla Inc’s remain small. Consulting firm AlixPartners in June said investments in electric vehicles by 2025 could total $330 billion, a 41% increase from the firm’s comparable five-year investment outlook a year ago. As of now, electric vehicles represent about 2% of total global vehicle sales, and will be about 24% of total sales by 2030, the firm forecast.

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Depression affects more than 260 million people globally:UN

Depression affects more than 260 million people in the world while around half of all mental health conditions start by the age of 14, according to the news release. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in young people aged 15-29.
Working from home, unemployment, school closures and social isolation have affected people around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic; the challenges for people with mental health conditions, for whom access to treatment has, in many cases, been disrupted, are even greater.

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‘1 in 3 Indian PC home users at high risk of cyber attack’

For this type of threat, Indian home users have a 5.78 per cent risk ratio, which is higher than the global average.Home users around the world have a 29.39 per cent chance of encountering any type of PC malware, which represents an increase of around 5 per cent compared to the previous year.

Geographies with more conflictive socio-political situations, such as the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, seem to be facing more risk in the online world as well.

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Descartes Underwriting opening 2 offices in Asia-Pacific

“We are proud to bring Descartes’ solutions closer to brokers and corporate clients. As a region, Asia-Pacific is more exposed to natural catastrophes and extreme weather events than others. From record breaking super typhoons Goni and Amphram in 2020, major hail events and bushfires in Australia, and tragic 1-in-1000 year flooding in China and India this summer – the rising incidence of severe weather throughout the region is compounded by climate change and is resulting in increased year-after-year losses”, said Robert Drysdale, Head of Southeast AsiaDescartes Underwriting,

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