The UK government must provide clarity on the future of Flood Re or risk seeing its failure to do so feed through to the country’s housing market. That’s according to the Climate Change Committee, a group created back in 2008 under an act of parliament with the goal of ensuring the UK is ready for the fallout from global warming. “One of our top recommendations for government is to undertake a priority review of what is the future of flood reinsurance,” said Richard Millar, the CCC’s director of adaptation. There needs to be “a clear decision,” not just for the…
Author: Awais
Two supertankers exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday while another is making its way out, after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months with 6 million barrels of Middle East crude oil onboard, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed. The ships are among a handful of supertankers exiting the Gulf this month via a transit route that Iran has ordered ships to use. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran which began on February 28 has severely curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one fifth of the world’s supply of oil and energy normally…
The small plane that crashed while carrying four pickleball players to a tournament near Austin last month had problems with freezing instruments before it broke apart midair, according to a preliminary federal investigation report released Friday. The Cessna 421C took off from Amarillo on April 30 at 9:10 p.m. and crashed at about 11 p.m. in Wimberley, a city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Austin. Pilot Justin Appling and passengers Hayden Dillard, Brooke Skypala, Stacy Hedrick and Seren Wilson died. The National Transportation Safety Board report said that during the flight, the pilot reported problems with the plane’s…
The United Arab Emirates for decades has advertised itself as a haven for international business in a Middle East awash in violent upheaval. Those waves have now crashed into this nation, testing its economic model like never before. The UAE, a close ally of the United States and Israel, faced more missile and drone attacks from Iran during the war than any other country. The attacks — and Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz — have more than halved the Emirates’ exports of crude oil and natural gas. Its tourism and conference sectors have also suffered. The country, which…
SANDPOINT, Idaho — An anti-abortion pregnancy center on the outskirts of this Idaho Panhandle town greets visitors with an abridged Bible verse painted on the wall of its waiting area: “Come to me & I will give you rest.” 7B Care Clinic has been operating in Sandpoint since 2001 and was previously called Life Choices Pregnancy Center and Sandpoint Crisis Pregnancy Center. It is an affiliate of a nationwide network of Christian evangelical centers called Care Net. 7B, one of about 1,200 pregnancy centers affiliated with Care Net, offers pregnancy tests, limited ultrasounds, parenting and life skills classes, community support…
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s (TWIA) reinsurance renewal for 2026 is fully-committed by markets and expected to be signed in the next couple of days, while Allen Cashin of Gallagher Re said that the competitive auction-like process the broker employed has resulted in the “optimal structure at the lowest price.”As we’d reported back in February, in order to meet its new 1-in-50 year probable maximum loss funding level for 2026 TWIA only requires around $2.28 billion of risk transfer in total this year. With catastrophe bond maturities and a significant amount of early redemptions of cat bonds coming, the Texas…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has secured an agreement with West Creek Financial, Inc., a Virginia corporation doing business under the name Koalafi, to resolve allegations that the lease-to-own financing company violated the Michigan Consumer Protection Act and Rental-Purchase Agreement Act. Under the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance and Discontinuance, West Creek Financial will pay $3.25 million to the Department of Attorney General. The settlement will primarily be used to provide restitution to eligible Michigan consumers who entered into auto-repair lease-to-own agreements with the company. The Department began investigating West Creek Financial in 2024 following consumer complaints that lease-to-own agreements, traditionally…
North Carolina’s insurance commissioner announced his department will again offer webinars, starting this month, on the intricacies of flood insurance, with continuing education credit for insurance agents, adjusters, engineers, real estate agents and others. The WebEx sessions are free of charge and will delve into the National Flood Insurance Program as well as state-based flood programs. The need for more flood coverage in the state became painfully obvious after Hurricane Helene and other storms “devastated thousands of residents who didn’t have flood insurance because they relied on their homeowners’ policy, which does not cover damage from rising water,” Commissioner Mike…
Many insurers and the businesses they cover are treating AI risk as a cyber problem in a new costume. The early litigation is quietly explaining why that is a category error, and the companies that understand the difference first will be the ones ahead when the market corrects. You can feel the instinct in every boardroom conversation. AI looks like cyber. It chimes with cyber. The underwriting muscle memory reaches for cyber. That muscle memory is about to become expensive. Look at where the cases are actually landing. Not breaches. Not ransomware. Not exfiltration. The exposure is arising from an…
A day of wild weather and thunderstorms in Texas has led to nearly 500 canceled flights in the Dallas area, power outages across eastern reaches and a wildfire in a landfill near Amarillo that’s been dubbed the “Stinky Fire.” As of 4:20 p.m. local time, about 490 flights in and outbound of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field were canceled, according to data from FlightAware, an airline tracking service. Meanwhile, more than 30,000 homes and businesses were without power in the state, according to PowerOutage.com. A long line of unsettled weather from Michigan to Mexico was rattling…
A man who spent nearly 21 years in prison for the deaths of two Michigan hunters agreed to a $5.25 million settlement after accusing police of failing to turn over evidence that could have helped him at trial, a lawyer said Monday. Jeff Titus was released in 2023 and his murder convictions were erased at the request of prosecutors. The Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school and two investigators got authorities to acknowledge that an Ohio serial killer might have been the person who killed the hunters in 1990. Titus had long declared his innocence. “It’s been a…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating an incident at SpaceX’s South Texas facilities that resulted in the death of a worker. Jose Luis Bautista, a 25-year-old man from Donna, died Friday morning after falling 8 feet from scaffolding, according to Cameron County Justice of the Peace Mary Esther Sorola. Sorola said Bautista was transported from Starbase to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville, where he was pronounced dead at 5:15 a.m. A preliminary autopsy report showed he died from blunt force trauma caused by the fall, Sorola said. The city of Starbase confirmed the worker’s death, who is…
Mangrove Property Insurance continues to target between $100 million and $111 million of named storm reinsurance protection from its debut Buttonwood Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond sponsorship, but the company seeks to capitalise on investor appetite and has lowered and adjusted the price guidance for the notes on offer again, Artemis has learned.For its first catastrophe bond sponsorship under Buttonwood Re, Mangrove is seeking to secure both occurrence and aggregate reinsurance to protect its business against losses from named storms and hurricanes in the state of Florida. Initially, Mangrove was targeting $100 million of reinsurance across issuance of four tranches…
Private Coverage Despite high rates of employment, noncitizen immigrants have limited access to employer-sponsored coverage. Although most noncitizen immigrant adults report being employed, they are significantly more likely than citizens to report being lower income (household income less than $40,000) (Figure 5). This pattern reflects disproportionate employment of noncitizen immigrants in low-wage jobs and industries that are less likely to offer employer-sponsored coverage. Given their lower incomes, noncitizen immigrants also face challenges affording employer-sponsored coverage when it is available or through the individual market. Federally Funded Coverage Some lawfully present immigrants may qualify for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) subject…