Israel launched its largest assault on Lebanon since the start of its invasion, escalating the campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah even after the US announced a ceasefire in the wider Middle East conflict. The Israeli military said Wednesday it targeted more than 100 Hezbollah command centers and military sites within 10 minutes. That included parts of central Beirut, with strikes reported without warning in dense residential and commercial areas across the capital. The surge threw the nascent truce between the US and Iran into jeopardy, with Tehran threatening a heavy response and saying it would close the Strait of Hormuz just…
Author: Awais
In response, companies have moved quickly to adjust. Eighty percent have changed their trade and supply chain routes since the 2025 trade war. Asia Pacific markets outside China have gained from competitive labor costs, improving logistics and regional integration under RCEP, attracting fresh investment flows to Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Enforcement cases brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fell more than 20% in the latest fiscal year as the regulator “recentered” its enforcement program, the agency said April 7. The SEC brought 456 enforcement actions in the fiscal year that ran through the end of September, the agency said in a long-awaited annual enforcement report. The regulator brought nearly half of those actions before the start of the Trump administration in January 2025, SEC data showed. Total monetary penalties surged to a whopping $17.9 billion, largely due to a final judgment in a Ponzi scheme case the SEC…
“In today’s ultra-competitive construction environment, the strongest contractors are those who can most effectively balance growth, risk, and profitability with precision and discipline,” said Andy O’Brien, partner at The Baldwin group. “As we move forward through 2026 and beyond, we anticipate volatility across many critical sectors of the construction insurance market. By creating a peer group of best-in-class contractors and equipping them with industry-leading risk management, claims, and safety advisory, we’re building a model designed to outperform the standard insurance market while empowering our clients to transform risk management discipline into a competitive advantage.”
The Strait of Hormuz remained largely blocked on Wednesday, as shipowners try to understand if they can safely transit the vital waterway following a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran that was announced overnight. Just three ships were observed leaving the region on Wednesday, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Some had links to Iran, and the country’s media subsequently reported that passage for tankers will remain blocked after attacks on Lebanon. In normal times about 135 ships cross daily, and more than 800 freighters are stuck inside the gulf, mostly waiting to leave. While shipowners and insurer…
Jeff Shell is stepping down as president of Paramount Skydance Corp. following a contentious lawsuit by a high-stakes gambler who accused him of leaking inside information. Shell, who served as the No. 2 executive under Chief Executive Officer David Ellison, had been instrumental in finalizing Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media last year. The company agreed to pay $110 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. in February. But Shell became the subject of a scandal in recent weeks after R.J. Cipriani sued him for $150 million over allegations that the executive failed to deliver on a promise to develop a TV…
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which backs deposits at thousands of US banks, is laying out its guidelines for how those institutions and their fintech subsidiaries can use stablecoins as digital currencies become more widely accepted in the financial system. New guidelines would seek to establish requirements related to reserve assets, redemptions of outstanding stablecoins, permissible activities and capital, among others, FDIC Chair Travis Hill said Tuesday in prepared remarks at the agency’s board meeting in Washington. The move, which is subject to public comment, is part of rulemaking efforts by FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and…
Anthropic announced an initiative with major technology companies, including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Apple, that lets partners preview an advanced model with cybersecurity capabilities developed by the AI startup. Under its “Project Glasswing,” select organizations will be allowed to use the startup’s unreleased and general-purpose AI model, “Claude Mythos Preview,” for defensive cybersecurity work, Anthropic said. Other partners include CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Google and Nvidia. The April 7 announcement follows a Fortune report last month that Anthropic was testing Claude Mythos, which it said posed security risks and also offered advanced capabilities, dragging shares of cybersecurity firms such as Palo…
Shipowners are placing “huge volume requests” for insurance cover as they look to transit the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Iran ceasefire deal, according to broker McGill and Partners. With the increased demand from the market also comes “a pronounced rate correction,” said David Smith, head of marine at the London-based firm. He added that despite the ceasefire agreement, “heightened war conditions still remain and the Strait of Hormuz is still classified as a very high risk area.” The Strait of Hormuz remained largely blocked on Wednesday, as shipowners try to understand if they can safely transit the vital waterway…
Catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format continued to expand their combined assets under management (AUM) through the first-quarter, surpassing the milestone $20 billion in February before declining slightly to just under $19.8 billion by the end of March 2026.Catastrophe bond funds grew strongly through 2025, adding roughly $5.3 billion or 39% across the asset base of the UCITS structured cat bond fund strategies. Driving that has been the record levels of new catastrophe bond issuance, as our market reports demonstrate. With new cat bond issuance outpacing maturities again in the first-quarter of 2026, it’s no surprise that the UCITS…
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Catastrophe bond pricing has fallen by more than 20% year-on-year as of early March 2026, according to Gallagher Securities, with the company explaining that the softer pricing environment means that investors have been willing to allocate capital to riskier tranches of cat bond notes.The investment banking and insurance-linked securities arm of reinsurance broker Gallagher Re explains that catastrophe bond multiples now stand around 30% lower than two years ago as of late in the first-quarter of 2026, a data point reflected in our charts tracking cat bond multiples-at-market by year and quarter. As the reinsurance and ILS market have softened,…
The health system claims the policy, which reduces reimbursement for some inpatient hospital stays, violates federal law and its reimbursement contract with Aetna. The insurer disagreed with Jefferson’s allegations.