Category:

Non-Life

‘Covid vax must prevent infection, progression and transmission’

“It is possible that the first vaccines, including those being released now, maybe more effective in preventing disease progression and hospitalisation and less effective in preventing transmission,” explained study senior author Jeremy Farrar from SAGE.

“Knowledge of their performance in pre-approval trials and in surveillance trials after licensure will enable further modifications such that improved second and third-generation vaccines may be available later in 2021 and beyond,” Farrar added.

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Ransomware attacks on the rise even as cyber insurers scale back

Ransomware attacks typically involve the infection of computers with malicious software, often downloaded by clicking on seemingly innocuous links in emails or other website pop-ups and leaving users locked out of their systems, with the demand of a ransom to be paid to restore computer functions.
Paul Bantick, Beazley’s global head of cyber and technology, said that ransomware attackers were demanding more money than in the past and had also become more creative in ways in which they sought to extort money.

“COVID-19, coronavirus, vaccines, all these things, they have enabled people to target organizations,” Bantick said.

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Dutch court case claims Shell’s operations violate human rights

The case brought by the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, Milieudefensie, links the oil major’s stance on climate change with human rights. The ruling will also have implications for Shell’s European peers as pressure mounts on polluting energy companies to step up the fight against global warming.

Over two weeks of court proceedings, lawyers for Milieudefensie have argued that Shell is violating human rights by extracting fossil fuels and undermining the Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping temperature rises below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Shell says it’s playing its part in addressing climate change, which can only be tackled through collaboration and not court action.

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Canada records 20-year high in outbound insurance M&A

International deals in insurers involving Canadian investors rose to $11.6 billion in 2020, the highest in at least two decades, according to data from Refinitiv.

That places Canadian investors as the third biggest investors in insurance deals, behind the UK and the United States, according to the data. Last year, Canadian investors were the fifth largest in the space.

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