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International News

Markel consolidates all Property CAT Reinsurance business under Nephila

“This move allows us to more fully leverage Nephila’s market leading competitive position while also generating necessary operational efficiencies.We believe the companies that will win in the future will be those who most efficiently connect risk with capital, and this strategic shift will help us do that in the property CAT market.”,” said Markel Co-CEO Richie Whitt.

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‘Food is the best vaccine against chaos’; U.N. food agency WFP wins Peace Nobel

“There is an estimate within the World Food Programme that … there will be 265 million starving people within a year, so of course this is also a call to the international community not to underfund the World Food Programme.”

WFP runs a logistics service that has dispatched medical cargoes to over 120 countries throughout the pandemic to help governments and health partners fighting COVID-19.

It also has provided passenger services to ferry humanitarian and health workers where commercial flights were unavailable.

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Central banks sketch out digital currency as China forges ahead

Central banks began looking closely at digital currencies after Facebook last year announced its yet-to-be-launched digital token Libra that would be backed by a mixture of major currencies and government debt. The body behind Libra has since tweaked plans and now hopes to launch several “stablecoins” backed by individual currencies.Central banks need to keep up to avoid the private sector plugging payments gaps in unsuitable ways,Bank of England (BoE) Deputy Governor and chair of a BIS committee on payments Jon Cunliffe said.

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Mercenary’ hacker group runs rampant in Middle East, cybersecurity research shows

The hackers pursued royals and business executives in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. In August 2019 they attempted to compromise an employee of major Indian energy conglomerate Reliance Industries around the time that the company was negotiating the sale of a stake in its oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco.

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Hyundai Motor to recall Kona EV in South Korea over concern of fire risk

Some 13 incidents of fire involving the Kona EV, including one each in Canada and Austria, have been documented, the office of ruling party lawmaker Jang Kyung-tae said in a statement.

The safety recall “is a proactive response to a suspected defective production of high-voltage batteries used in the vehicles, which may have contributed to the reported fires”, Hyundai said, adding that it will deploy all necessary measures to identify the cause of the fire and address customers’ needs.

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WHO reports record one-day rise in global coronavirus cases amid European outbreak

As a region, Europe is now reporting more cases than India, Brazil or the United States.
According to a Reuters analysis of more recent country data, COVID-19 infections are rising in 54 countries, including surges in Argentina, Canada and much of Europe. 

Infections in the United Kingdom have reached record levels with over 17,000 new cases reported on Thursday.

“We are seeing a definite and sustained increase in cases and admissions to hospital. The trend is clear, and it is very concerning,” said Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England.

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