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International News

Chubb explores acquisition of $22 billion rival Hartford

Greenberg, 66, built the business into a mammoth insurer by combining Ace Ltd., the company he ran, with Chubb Corp. in a nearly $30 billion deal in 2016. The son of former American International Group Inc. CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, he has transformed Chubb into a firm with huge footholds in both personal and commercial lines. The company calls itself the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer, with operations in 54 countries and more than 30,000 employees, according to its website.

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Amazon starts offering healthcare service to other employers

The move shows how the No. 2 U.S. private employer is diving further into healthcare, the latest industry it has aimed to disrupt after retail, enterprise technology and Hollywood.
Piloted in September 2019 for staff near its Seattle headquarters, “Amazon Care” lets employees video-chat with doctors for diagnoses and referrals. It also facilitates housecalls and drug delivery in greater Seattle, a non-virtual benefit that Amazon said would be available in greater Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in the coming months.

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Natural disasters occurring three times more often than 50 years ago: new FAO report

The least developed and low to middle income countries have fared worst of all. From 2008 to 2018, natural disasters have cost the agricultural sectors of developing economies more than $108 billion in damaged crop and livestock production.

Over the same period, Asia was the most hard-hit region, with overall economic losses of $49 billion, followed by Africa at $30 billion, and Latin America and the Caribbean at $29 billion.

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63 nations to see ratings downgrades by 2030 for ignoring climate change

The U.S. is projected to lose 20 per cent of its per-capita gross domestic product by 2050 in a worst-case scenario, with nations closer to the equator or with high-carbon economies even more vulnerable, according to the FTSE Russell report.

Malaysia could see the worst economic hit at 31 per cent. The projections, based on trends of greenhouse-gas emissions and countries’ mitigation efforts, show the risk for investors of long-term bets on sovereign bonds.

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Vaccine nationalism may hit WHO’s 2021 goal of 2 bn doses: Adar Poonawalla

Poonawalla’s comments highlight the continuing challenge of vaccine inequality that threatens to prolong the pandemic after richer nations raced to stockpile supplies. Few African nations received a single shipment of shots before March, while more than 20% of the population in countries including Israel, the U.K., Bahrain and the U.S have received at least one shot.

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