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New record of 142 global Nat Cat events globally, USD108 billion insured losses in 2023: Swiss Re
Moses Ojeisekhoba, Swiss Re's CEO Global Clients & Solutions,...
Mumbai overtakes Beijing to become Asia’s new billionaire capital
Leading the Indian billionaire list is Mukesh Ambani, the chairman...
Programmes tackling extreme poverty reach nearly 92 mln people
Currently an estimated 700 million people live in extreme poverty, meaning surviving on less than US$1.90 a day. “One of the most stubborn challenges we face in development is positively transforming the lives of the extreme poor and vulnerable – a problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mari Pangestu, the World Bank’s managing director for Development Policy and Partnerships, said in a statement.
IMF lifts global growth forecast for 2021, still sees ‘exceptional uncertainty’
But it warned that the world economy continued to face “exceptional uncertainty” and new waves of COVID-19 infections and variants posed risks, and global activity would remain well below pre-COVID-19 projections made one year ago. IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said U.S. President Joe Biden’s pledge to fund the World Health Organization’s COVAX vaccine initiative marked “a very big step” to containing the pandemic and ensuring more equitable distribution of vaccines.
“Much more will be needed, because as we can see, given the mutating virus, that this is not a problem that’s going away anytime soon,” Gopinath told a news conference. “There is still a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” she told Reuters in a separate interview. “We know that the health crisis is not over until it’s over everywhere.”
Brazil’s Bolsonaro gives nod to private sector buying COVID-19 shots, AstraZeneca balks
AstraZeneca, however, said in a statement on Tuesday that all of its vaccine supply “at this moment” is only available to governments and multilateral organizations around the world. “It is not possible to make vaccines available to the private sector,” it said. Several companies denied reports that they had joined the initiative, including hospital group DASA SA, which said in a statement it is seeking to understand the commercial availability of vaccines through its suppliers.
Climate change drives $268 bn global damage from 2020 natural disasters with 64% uninsured:Aon report
“When Natural Disasters and a Pandemic Collide” global annual report explores “connected extremes”
Asia recorded $95 billion in economic damage from natural disasters in 2020. Just 9% was insured; which means the protection gap was 91% further highlighting protection gap vulnerabilities in 2020
Job losses from virus four times as bad as 2009 global financial crisis: UN
“This has been the most severe crisis for the world of work since The Great Depression of the 1930s. Its impact is far greater than that of the global financial crisis of 2009,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.
Covid-19: Unemployed supertankers are about to get junked on Asia’s beaches
While the vessel glut has really been in place since when Covid-19 caused oil demand to collapse early last year, it has until recently been masked by a huge chunk of the fleet storing crude that was previously surplus to requirements
The scrapping may not be enough to save the market in the coming months. The amount of oil being shipped at sea remains far below normal levels as OPEC and its allies continue to withhold huge volumes of production and vessels that were used as storage during the oil market’s mammoth 2020 glut are now coming back onto the market and looking for business.
Airlifted COVID vaccines to 9 countries, will gradually supply to WHO’s COVAX facility: India at UN
“We have already airlifted more than 6 million doses to nine countries in Phase-I as grant assistance. Contractual supplies to various countries are also being undertaken in a phased manner. We will also gradually supply to the COVAX facility of the WHO,” Naidu said, adding that India has also provided training to several partner countries to strengthen their clinical capabilities, as well as to enhance their capacities for vaccine administration.
“As the largest vaccine-producing country of the world, we are fulfilling our commitment to make our vaccine production and delivery capacity available for the benefit of the entire humanity,” Naidu said.
Crypto industry has ‘wind in its sails’, 8 companies eye public offerings
The IPO market has been red-hot since last fall as companies rushed to take advantage of the 70% surge in stocks since the March lows. Public debuts and blank-check companies have grown so popular that record after record fell. And first-day pops in share prices, a barometer of investor appetite for newly public firms, are among the biggest in decades.
It has all become too much to ignore for the crypto industry.
The IPO mania alone is enough to stoke bubble worries, but adding crypto to the mix after its record run is fueling concern that investors are setting themselves up for an especially painful comeuppance.
Vaccinated people may still transmit COVID-19, warns England’s chief medic
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, also warned that there is no clear evidence yet to show that vaccinated people cannot transmit the deadly virus on to others.
“Regardless of whether someone has had their vaccination or not, it is vital that everyone follows the national restrictions and public health advice, as protection takes up to three weeks to kick in and we don’t yet know the impact of vaccines on transmission,” said Van-Tam.
WHO says deal with Pfizer to allow poor countries to start vaccinating in February
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the 40 million doses announced on Friday would be sold on a non-profit basis. He described it as an initial agreement and said more doses could be sold through the COVAX programme in future.