The European Commission may propose leaving the G7 price cap on Russian crude unchanged at its July review, in an effort to curb Moscow’s windfall from the Iran war and the ensuing oil price shock, EU diplomats said on Monday. The Commission floated this idea in meetings with European Union envoys over the weekend as a possible element in its forthcoming 21st package of sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine. The Group of Seven nations and allies, with the exception of the U.S., agreed to set a moving price cap last year to make it more effective. The…
Author: Awais
HCI Group, Inc., the insurance holding company, has completed its catastrophe reinsurance programs for the 2026-2027 treaty year, securing a meaningful $4.06 billion in aggregate excess of loss (XoL) limit for the period, marking a 16% increase from the prior treaty year.Over the last couple of years, HCI Group has been growing steadily, both through expansion in its home state of Florida, as well as in broadening its multi-state underwriting reach. A year ago, HCI renewed its catastrophe reinsurance programs for the 2025-2026 treaty year with total aggregate limit of $3.5 billion. Now, for the 2026-2027 treaty year running from June…
The state of New Hampshire is getting tougher with drivers using smartphones or other electronic devices while driving. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signed into law a measure that hikes the financial penalties and adds license suspension for repeat offenses involving the use of a hand-held mobile electronic device while driving. The new law calls for enhanced penalties if the distracted driving violation is a contributing factor in a motor vehicle crash. State law prohibits drivers from holding or using any electronic device—such as cell phones, GPS devices, and tablets—while driving or when temporarily halted in traffic. There is an exception…
The Trump administration’s deep cuts to federal health agencies have become a political liability after a deadly outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship and the spread of an even more fearsome disease, Ebola, in Africa. At least that’s the way many Democrats see it. They have seized on the situation to charge that the U.S. is ill prepared to respond to outbreaks — let alone a pandemic — after President Donald Trump slashed jobs and funding for public health infrastructure and pandemic preparedness. Infectious disease specialists have called on the White House to reverse cuts and rejoin the World…
Just hours after a wedding in north Georgia, a helicopter carrying the newlyweds crashed in Dawson County late Friday night, killing the pilot and the groom while injuring the bride, news sites reported. The groom, 25-year-old Dave Fiji, of Snellville, was a pilot for Delta Airlines, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, citing local TV news reports. The name of the helicopter pilot was not immediately available Monday morning. The bride, identified as Jesni Sam, was trapped in the wreckage for six hours before rescue crews found the heavily wooded crash site, the groom’s father said, Atlanta News First reported. The National…
Just days before the civil trial on claims against the owner and operator of the cargo ship Dali was to begin, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine settled wrongful death suits with the families of the six construction workers killed when the ship crashed into Baltimore’s Key Bridge. Court documents show those settlements are among more than 30 settlements that have been reached as of May 29 in the massive litigation over damages for the bridge collapse. The settlements include reimbursements for workers’ compensation payments and cargo losses. Details or amounts of the wrongful death settlements and most other agreements have…
Insurance company Voya Financial Inc. is facing increased pressure from activist investor Toms Capital Investment Management to take M&A action and make changes. Toms Capital said in a letter to Voya’s board Monday that Voya should explore options, including a sale of the company, and engage with interested buyers. “As a high-quality franchise trading at a historically anomalous and self-inflicted discount, Voya is at an inflection point — one that this management team can no longer be trusted to navigate,” Toms Capital co-founder and Chief Investment Officer Benjamin Pass and principal Akash Bagaria wrote in the letter, which was reviewed…
Cost savings from automation are broadly falling short of projections, according to a new Bain & Co. global survey of large companies. The missed targets “should be making executives uncomfortable,” especially since many of them are approving increased spending for artificial intelligence on the basis of expected savings, the consulting firm said in a report shared exclusively with Bloomberg News. “Self-funding the next wave from past returns sounds like discipline. In reality, it is a circular bet with a structural leak,” the report said. The survey, completed in April, was based on responses from executives at 951 companies with more…
California has become the latest Democratic-led state to retreat on climate goals amid affordability concerns as regulators Friday revamped its carbon market to ease costs to the oil industry. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to give up as much as $4 billion worth of free allowances to oil refiners and other industrial polluters to help them comply with greenhouse gas limits imposed by the state’s 13-year-old carbon market, called Cap-and-Invest. Economists and environmentalists said the change may lead to higher emissions and lower prices on the carbon market, which is key to meeting a state mandate to achieve…
Insurance-linked securities investment fund strategies, across catastrophe bonds and private ILS, delivered an average return of 0.53% for the month of April 2026, according to the ILS Advisers Fund Index which saw all tracked strategies reporting so far as positive for the month.The 0.53% return for April 2026 is based on only 76% of ILS funds having reported their performance for the month so far and with all ILS fund strategies positive for the month, there is a strong chance the total rises. At this stage the average return across the 37 ILS fund strategies that ILS Advisers tracks is…
Wildfire season has returned to Canada’s oil sands region, with seven active blazes in the area on Sunday raising risks for communities, workers, companies and investors. Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, and the bulk of its production is clustered in northern Alberta’s boreal forest. Wildfires, which have always occurred in this environment but are more common now due to climate change, have become a perennial threat to Canadian oil output. So far this year, there have been no significant disruptions to Canadian oil company operations due to wildfire. But on Sunday, there were about seven active blazes burning…
When Christine Wood received a $12,000 bill from Bristol Hospital, she thought it must be a mistake. It was more than she and her husband made in a month combined. “I’m freaking out,” said Wood, who lives in a 1,700-square-foot home in Terryville, a village just outside Bristol, Connecticut. “I don’t understand it.” Wood, 52, had weight loss surgery at Bristol Hospital in 2022, hoping it would help with her sleep apnea and the pain in her knees and back. Before scheduling the procedure, she checked with her insurer, she said, and was told the surgery would cost $5,000 out-of-pocket.…
A global food crunch due to extreme weather would boost prices more in the euro area than in Group of Seven economies, according to Oxford Economics. A “severe” shock to food prices from climate events could raise food prices in countries sharing the currency by 1.6 percentage points a year, the economic adviser said in a report. That would translate into an increase in headline inflation of as much as 0.6 percentage point, economists Robert Marks and Ronan Hegarty said in the study published Thursday. Natural disasters and heat waves could cause more harvest failures, damage infrastructure and disrupt supply…
Israel expanded its ground assault in Lebanon with its broadest incursion into the country in a quarter-century as Hezbollah — Iran’s most powerful regional ally — stepped up attacks on Israel’s north. According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah fired more than 300 “projectiles” at its soldiers in Lebanon and at northern Israel over the weekend. The latest escalation has shattered a brittle ceasefire declared after the Tehran-backed group attacked Israel in response to its war on Iran, which it launched with the US on Feb. 28. As part of a military operation that started several days ago, the Israeli Defense…