The Novo Nordisk Foundation, Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda...
Category:
International News
Latest
ICEYE launches Flood Insights and Flood Early Warning for Canada, providing near real-time situational awareness
ICEYE’s Flood Early Warning data is available 96 hours before each...
Oil majors offered faster Nigerian exit if they pay for cleanup
Exxon, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Eni have all sought to leave...
Underwriters puzzle over how to make pandemics insurable again
U.S. company SpottedRisk has devised a model built on years of data on the political and economic environment of film locations in 150 countries, as well as a year’s COVID-19 shutdown data, to come up with a pricing mechanism to cover the risk of production stopping due to the pandemic.
Britain, the European Union and the United States are all looking at arrangements in which cover from commercial insurers would be backed by government reinsurance schemes. Such schemes could be less costly than business bailouts but the process of developing them is slow, as governments grapple with the problems at hand.
Europe dares to reopen as 200 millionth vaccine dose delivered
With 200 million vaccine doses delivered, the European Union is on track to achieve its goal of inoculating 70% of its adult population by summer, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Sunday.
China’s population growth slows; nation becomes older and urbanised
The share of the working-age population — those between ages of 15 and 59 — slumped to 63.4% in 2020 from more than 70% a decade ago, according to the census. Residents aged 60 and above accounted for 18.7% of the population in 2020, up from 13.3% in 2010.
French banks told to speed up response to climate change
Other financial watchdogs around the world will also be conducting similar tests on the finance industry to help to reduce the impact of climate change on economies. Banks and other finance companies will have to disclose to investors the impact of climate change on their balance sheets under proposed European Union rules.
Insurers warn government Canada’s flood mapping must not take a decade
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged sweeping climate action during his re-election campaign last year, including C$150 million ($112.2 million) for flood mapping. The federal budget is expected at the end of March.
“Flooding is by far the single greatest peril facing Canadians as a result of climate change,” Craig Stewart, vice president of federal affairs for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, told Reuters.
WHO experts voice “very low confidence” in some Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine data
The document includes summaries of data from clinical trials in China, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
The “evidence assessment” document was prepared by the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) for its evaluation of the Sinopharm shot, authorised by 45 countries and jurisdictions for use in adults, with 65 million doses administered. The experts review evidence and give recommendations on policy and dosages associated with a vaccine.
Egyptian court rejects appeal against detention of ship in Suez Canal
The Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, got jammed across the canal on March 23 and remained stuck for six days, stopping traffic in both directions.
It has been held in a lake between two stretches of the canal since being dislodged on March 29, amid a dispute over a $916 million claim by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) against Japanese owner Shoei Kisen for compensation over the incident.
China’s Waterdrop raises $360 mln in New York IPO -sources
The pricing of the IPO at the top end showed investors overlooked regulatory scrutiny of the fintech sector currently underway in China and some concerns on whether the IPO will even go ahead, said one of the sources.
UK court to reconsider $6.9 bln Brazil dam lawsuit against BHP
The collapse of the Fundao dam, owned by the Samarco venture between BHP and Brazilian iron ore mining giant Vale , killed 19 and sent a flood of mining waste into communities, the Doce river and the Atlantic Ocean, 650 km (400 miles) away.
Samarco has since filed for bankruptcy protection.
Vaccine deserts: Some countries have no COVID-19 jabs at all
“Delays and shortages of vaccine supplies are driving African countries to slip further behind the rest of the world in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and the continent now accounts for only 1% of the vaccines administered worldwide,” WHO warned Thursday.