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Alcohol policies need sharper focus on gender, WHO says
After broad successes in tackling the public health impact of other...
Generali CEO Philippe Donnet targets big insurance deals in Europe
Philippe Donnet,Chief Executive Officer The current takeover...
Factbox-Brexit and the City of London: what changes and when
For now, no. London still has a towering lead over rivals Frankfurt, Milan and Paris when it comes to trading stocks, currencies and derivatives and playing host to asset managers.
Financial firms say shifting more capital out of London than is necessary under Brexit would cause unnecessary and costly market fragmentation.
But in the longer term, if the EU takes a tough line on equivalence and its financial centers reach a critical mass in trading key asset classes, the attractions of London as a financial hub would diminish.
Urgent action expected in South Africa as hospitals run out of beds, oxygen amid Covid-19 spike
Embattled doctors, nurses have pleaded with government for urgent action as they can no longer cope with the large number of patients arriving for Covid-19 treatment, with hospital administrators saying they have to make heart-breaking choices between younger people who are now being affected by the new strain and older ones with co-morbidities as priorities.
Dr Irene Boeddinghaus, an oncologist at Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital in Cape Town, told the weekly that patients were far sicker than in the first wave. ICU bed availability was dire and doctors and nurses were burnt out and sick with Covid, she said.
Covid-19 pandemic will not be the last: WHO chief
“We throw money at an outbreak, and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one. This is dangerously short-sighted, and frankly difficult to understand.” said .Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,Director General, World Health Organization’
UK’s post-Brexit trade deal maintains the existing standards on environment, workers’ rights and climate change
There is a clear commitment not to lower standards on the environment, workers’ rights and climate change from those that currently exist and mechanisms to enforce them, the BBC reported.
Similarly, the restrictions compensation for unfair subsidies to companies “do not apply” in situations such as natural disasters, the BBC said. That will exempt the EU’s large current pandemic support package for aviation, aerospace, climate change and electric cars.
Hammered by virus, investors rethink role of bonds, tech and ESG in 2021
Now, as investors face lower-for-longer rates even as growth picks up, doubts are emerging whether developed-market government bonds can continue to provide both protection and diversification as well as satiate investors seeking income gains. There’s also a debate over the traditional investing policy of putting 60% of funds in stocks and 40% in bonds, even though the strategy proved to be resilient during the year.Innovative stocks now are being valued on intangible factors such as goodwill and intellectual property rather than traditional methods like price-to-earnings ratios, Alan Wang, portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors in Hong Kong said, adding that investors should adopt such valuation strategies.
EU launches vaccine rollout, historic day in virus fight
The rollout marks a moment of hope for a region that includes some of the world’s earliest and worst-hit virus hot spots Italy and Spain and others like the Czech Republic, which were spared earlier in the year only to see their health care systems near collapse in the fall.
It also should ease frustrations that were building up, especially in Germany, as Britain, Canada and the United States kicked off their inoculation programs with the same vaccine weeks earlier
Brexit offers Britain chance to do financial services differently -minister
Under a system known as equivalence, access to EU markets will not be granted to banks, insurers and other financial firms based in Britain unless their home rules are deemed by Brussels to be “equivalent”, or as robust as regulations in the bloc.
The two sides will aim to agree a memorandum of understanding on regulatory cooperation in financial services by March 2021, and Sunak said that such language should provide reassurance.
Global coronavirus count surpasses 79 million
The United States continues to be the worst-affected country in the world with regard to most cases and most deaths from the virus in the world. Currently, the US caseload stands at 18,756,360 and the death toll stands at 330,246.
India and Brazil continue to be the second and third most-affected countries in the world reporting over 10.14 million cases and 7.44 million cases respectively.
Brazil has the second-highest Covid-19 death toll after the US reporting 190,488 deaths in the South American nation.
Ransomware 2.0: India and Australia logged the highest number of incidents across APAC region
Vitaly Kamluk, Director of Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) for APAC at Kaspersky, revealed that at least 61 entities from the region were breached by a targeted ransomware group in 2020. India and Australia logged the highest number of incidents across APAC.
Dubbed as “Ransomware 2.0”, this type of attack goes beyond kidnapping a company’s or an organization’s data. These groups are now utilizing the increasingly valued digital reputation to force their preys to pay hefty ransom.
Virus resurges in Africa, doctors fear the worst is yet to come
The reported toll of the pandemic on the continent — 2.6 million cases and 61,000 deaths, according to the Africa C.D.C. — is lower than what the United States alone currently experiences in three weeks.
“It is possible and very likely that the rate of exposure is much more than what has been reported,” Dr. Nkengasong said in an interview.Now, as they battle new outbreaks, doctors are convinced that deaths have also gone uncounted. Dr. John Black, the only infectious-disease specialist for adults in Port Elizabeth, said he and other physicians feared that many people were dying at home.