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X-Press Pearl loss will add to insurers’ container ship headaches

Insurers will face hull and machinery, cargo and liability claims, although there is still much uncertainty about the size of the loss. The vessel itself was only three months old; it is unclear how much the hull was insured for and which company insured it.

Rob Hawes, head of marine at loss adjuster Crawford & Co. estimated that the cargo loss could be between $30 million and $50 million, based on the X-Press Pearl’s 2,700 container capacity and an assumption that a container houses an average of $15,000 to $20,000 of goods.

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B1617 variant spreading worldwide at ‘frightening speed’: Experts

“What is frightening is the speed at which this variant is able to spread and circulate widely within the community, often surpassing the capability of contact-tracing units to track and isolate exposed contacts to break the transmission chains, a Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, was quoted as saying.

“It has the potential to unleash a bigger pandemic storm than the world has previously seen,” Ying added.

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UK in early stages of 3rd wave of coronavirus, warns Indian-origin scientist

Professor Ravi Gupta of the University of Cambridge, who is a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said although new cases were “relatively low” the B.1.617 variant of the COVID-19 had fuelled “exponential growth”, the BBC reported.

On Sunday, the UK reported more than 3,000 new COVID infections for a fifth day in a row. Prior to this, the UK had not surpassed that number since April 12.

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Biden budget sets aside $750 mln for SolarWinds response

The money comes on top of a $500 million fund for federal cybersecurity as the U.S. government recovers from the cyber attack that hit nine agencies including the State Department and Treasury.
The hack of information technology company SolarWinds, which was identified in December, gave access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”.

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World needs $8.1 trillion of investment of by 2050 to combat climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises:UN

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said biodiversity loss is already costing the global economy 10 percent of its output each year.

Although investing in nature supports the health of all beings, improves the quality of life, and creates jobs, it accounts for just 2.5 per cent of projected economic stimulus spending in the wake of the pandemic. Therefore, private capital will have to be increased to close the investment gap.

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After Colonial attack, energy companies rush to secure cyber insurance

Insurers are preparing to increase cyber insurance premiums by 25% to 40% across many industries because of the number of claims, insurance companies and brokers have said. But energy companies should expect rate increases at the higher end of the spectrum as the Colonial attack exposed their vulnerabilities and exposed insurers to losses.

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