Despite the current ceasefire between the United States and Iran, it remains too risky to move the thousands of sailors stuck in the Gulf, the head of the U.N.’s shipping agency said. “We will not be able to activate anything until the root causes are addressed and there is more of a final agreement, a ceasefire, or complete agreement, between the parties involved in the conflict,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, told Reuters on Sunday ahead of the start of the Posidonia shipping industry week in Athens. There are an estimated 20,000 seafarers aboard vessels stuck in…
Author: Awais
Transcript AI Usage Disclosure: This transcript was created with assistance from AI tools. It was reviewed and edited by KFF Staff. Chip Kahn: Now we move from the health system actually deploying AI inside its hospitals to the health care company doing it across the full stack. One organization bearing the financial risk for care, delivering that care, building the AI that informs coverage decisions, and running the analytics that tie it all together. My guest today is Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum. No one else in American health care has occupied all four of Patrick’s positions. Regulator at CMS; payer at Blue…
(Candice Evers for WPLN and KFF Health News) Jill Woodrow reached a tipping point as a caregiver when her mom began struggling to communicate information about her latest doctor appointments. Woodrow’s mother, a uterine cancer survivor, was seeing specialists to get to the bottom of several new, concerning symptoms. “When she would try to tell us about what happened or what the conversation was, she couldn’t remember,” Woodrow said. So Woodrow, a school therapist, started taking her mom to medical appointments. Woodrow was able to ask doctors questions and explain their answers. But it was difficult to juggle her mom’s…
Shipping executives meeting in Athens on Monday said that any peace deal worked out between the United States and Iran would need to offer clear rules allowing vessels to resume normal business via the Strait of Hormuz. Shipowners and maritime industry officials met at a Capital Link conference and other events to begin Posidonia, a week-long biennial shipping exhibition. Below are selected quotes (in alphabetical order): ARSENIO DOMINGUEZ, SECRETARY GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANISATION (IMO) “There have been … recent announcements that there’s a possibility of a 60-day ceasefire. If that includes, of course, the Strait of Hormuz, and I can…
The target investment allocation range for the Mt. Logan Capital Management, Ltd. quota share structure named Scenery Re has been increased for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) portfolio managed by PGGM, the Dutch pension fund investment manager, on behalf of its end-client pension PFZW.This comes as two of the private collateralized reinsurance sidecar structures that PFZW has been investing in are reportedly being downsized, resulting in the pension fund’s target allocation ranges for Munich Re and Swiss Re operated sidecars now having shrunk. PGGM, the Dutch pension investment manager first allocated US $200 million to Scenery Re on behalf of its…
Lack of transparency in property protection classifications from a state rating bureau is one of the biggest concerns from people involved with fighting fires in Washington, a new report from the Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner shows. The OIC’s report on property protection classification standards recommends performance-based modernization and transparency for the Washington Survey & Rating Bureau, among other changes to the state’s independent fire protection rating bureau. The Legislature requested a report on the WSRB’s rating methodologies and the potential for modernizing them. The OIC delivered the report to the Legislature on May 28. Related: Wildfire Risk…
Artificial intelligence hallucinations, also known as “AI slop,” have become such a concern in court filings that the Florida Supreme Court has issued new statewide rules designed to hold attorneys more accountable. The rules, which take effect June 15, will require lawyers to certify that case rulings and opinions cited in filings actually exist and are accurately referenced. The order, an amendment to existing court rules, also authorizes lower courts to impose sanctions on attorneys and self-represented people who cite cases that turn out to be bogus. In recent months, a number of circuit courts around the state have required…
Alfa Insurance, one of the largest property insurers in Alabama, named David Bailey senior vice president of claims, effective this week. Bailey Bailey, who recently served as regional vice president, takes over from Bryan Hubbard, who retired after 36 years at the Montgomery-based firm, Alfa said in a news release. Bailey has been with Alfa since 2005, when he started out as a claims adjuster. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and his law degree from Birmingham School of Law. He holds an associate in claims designation from the Insurance Institute of America. In Atlanta, Alliant Insurance…
Warming global temperatures will probably mean more hailstorms with larger and more damaging hailstones, a study published in a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal predicts, echoing troubling trends identified in by other data sources. “Here we show a 36.5%–42.1% increase in global hailstorm-induced damage potential by the late twenty-first century, with the magnitude determined by the emission scenario,” reads the abstract for “Rising global hail damage potential in a warming world,” posted last week in the journal Nature. Researchers from Peking University and from Central Michigan University found that the frequency of hailstones larger than 1.18 inches in diameter will rise by…
A former mergers and acquisitions lawyer with top firms including Latham & Watkins and Goodwin Procter pleaded not guilty to charges that he led a massive insider trading ring that made tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits. Nicolo Nourafchan entered his plea Monday during a court appearance in federal court in Boston. His brother, Lorenzo Nourafchan, and more than a dozen other defendants also pleaded not guilty on Monday. Around 30 people have been charged with participating in the ring. According to two indictments, as well as a parallel suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nicolo…
Uninsurable areas refer to places where property insurance has become either impossible to get or to afford. This can happen because insurers are not offering coverage in a high climate risk area (due to coverage limits or market withdrawal), or because they offer insurance at premiums so high that most residents simply cannot pay them. One of the clearest examples of an uninsurable area to date comes from California. In 2024, State Farm, one of the largest home insurers in the United States, chose not to renew 72,000 home insurance policies across the state due, in part, to unsustainable wildfire…
A judge has temporarily blocked the National Science Foundation from dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, a globally significant weather and climate research center based in Boulder, Colorado. Senior US District Judge R. Brooke Jackson on Monday granted a preliminary injunction to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of institutions that manages NCAR. The consortium sued the National Science Foundation in March, after the federal agency — which provides much of NCAR’s budget — announced plans to break apart the center’s functions. The lawsuit specifically challenged plans to remove supercomputer facilities in Wyoming from under…
Verisk, the data analytics and technology provider, has announced a major update to its Tropical Cyclone Model for the United States, delivered through its new cloud-native Synergy Studio platform, providing a more realistic assessment of individual risk and portfolio exposure across insurance, reinsurance, and capital markets.As per Verisk, the updated U.S. Tropical Cyclone model reflects a near-present climate view, grounded in recent tropical cyclone behaviour and impacts, enhanced hazard and vulnerability modelling, and a clearer representation of loss drivers. The company noted that it combines an updated stochastic event catalog, peer-reviewed wind-field methodology, and a comprehensive reevaluation of vulnerability to…
The highly anticipated interim final rule weighs in on key issues for states hustling to operationalize work requirements before the 2027 deadline. But there’s still some gray area — and lots of critics.