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International News

Global leaders at UN meet: If virus does not kill us, climate change will

With Siberia seeing its warmest temperature on record this year and enormous chunks of ice caps in Greenland and Canada sliding into the sea, countries are acutely aware there’s no vaccine for global warming.

“We are already seeing a version of environmental Armageddon,” Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said, citing wildfires in the western US and noting that the Greenland ice chunk was larger than a number of island nations.

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Alphabet settles shareholder suit over sexual misconduct cases

The company will prohibit severance packages to employees who are subject to any pending investigation for sexual misconduct or retaliation. Sexual misconduct accusations against senior executives will be investigated by a “rapid response” team, and they will be barred from amending their stock-selling plans while under investigation.

Penalties and training will be made more consistent. And Google employees will be able to publicly discuss the facts of their cases.

A new council to oversee diversity efforts will include executives including CEO Sundar Pichai as well as independent experts such as a retired judge and outside attorneys. The council will report quarterly to the leadership development committee of Alphabet’s board.

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New York retains rank as Top Global Financial Hub, London Gains in Volatile Index

New York leads the FinTech rankings, followed by Beijing, Shanghai, London, and Shenzhen. Five of the top ten centres for FinTech are Chinese.
The instrumental factors used in the GFCI model have been grouped into five broad areas of competitiveness: Business Environment, Human Capital, Infrastructure, Financial SectorDevelopment, and Reputation. 

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Swiss Re to further streamline the Group’s legal entity structure

As part of the changes, the Group intends to make Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd (rated AA- by S&P / Aa3 by Moody’s / A+ by AM Best) the sole direct wholly-owned operating subsidiary of Swiss Re Ltd.

The target legal entity structure is expected to be implemented by the end of 2021, subject to receipt of the required regulatory approvals. As a result of these planned changes, Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd intends to assume the debt of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Ltd.

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Lloyd’s of London CEO expects appeal over UK business insurance judgment

When asked on a panel at a conference organised by insurance buyers’ association Airmic if he expected an appeal, Neal said “yes”, adding that due to the complexity of disputes over policy wordings, “cases run for a period of time”.
The FCA has said the case could affect more than 60 insurers, 700 different types of policies and 370,000 policyholders, as many policies have similar wordings.Businesses, their lawyers and insurance brokers have urged insurers to pay claims as soon as possible to relieve financial distress.

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Global COVID-19 death toll could hit 2 million before vaccine in wide use, WHO says

The number of deaths about nine months since the novel coronavirus was discovered in China is nearing 1 million.

“We are not out of the woods anywhere, we are not out of the woods in Africa,” said Ryan.

He said young people should not be blamed for a recent increase in infections despite growing concerns that they are driving its spread after restrictions and lockdowns were eased around the world.
The WHO is continuing talks with China about its possible involvement in the COVAX financing scheme designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines, a week after the deadline for committing passed.

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Catastrophic cyber event leading to claims of more than $10 billion has increased since the Pandemic:Willis Re

Mark Synnott, Global Cyber Practice Leader, Willis Re, said: “This year’s survey shows quite clearly that risk professionals around the world believe that the pandemic has increased cyber risk, in some cases dramatically. They expect the insurance industry to respond, but unfortunately not in the way we might hope. While three quarters of the people we surveyed think demand for cyber cover will increase post-COVID-19, only 45% think supply will increase, which perhaps explains why three-quarters think the cost of cover will rise. The insurance industry has some work to do to ensure these expectations are not met!”

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