The suggestion comes after Iranian warnings that several important cables in the strait were a vulnerable point for economies in the Middle East. Iran’s comments expose an invisible foundation of the internet and globalisation itself: the web of more than 500 undersea cables that carries more than 95% of international data traffic. We may think the internet lives in a kind of virtual cloud. But its physical underpinnings are vulnerable – and that vulnerability is becoming a very real geopolitical concern. Gulfs, Straits and Cables Several of the world’s most critical submarine cable routes run through the Middle East. Narrow…
Author: Awais
The city of Austin will pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused of the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop, a case that initially sent one of the men to death row and another to life in prison, under a tentative settlement reached Tuesday. Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce had all insisted they were innocent of one of the city’s most notorious crimes. They were finally declared innocent by a judge in February after investigators determined the crime was committed by…
Mt. Logan Capital Management, Ltd. (MLCM), the Everest Group owned and operated third-party capital management platform, has hired experienced actuary and analytical expert Yulia Bruskova as its new Chief Analytics Officer.Bruskova has worked in the Bermuda market for two decades, across roles focused on actuarial science, reinsurance risk and capital, with experience gained in consultancy and underwriting company positions. Joining Mt. Logan Capital Management, Ltd. this month, Bruskova takes on the Chief Analytics Officer role, further strengthening the firm’s analytics expertise. She will be tasked with leading the Mt. Logan Capital Management analytical framework across the multiple classes of reinsurance…
Dream Finders Homes Inc. submitted a $704 million offer to acquire rival homebuilder Beazer Homes USA Inc., which rejected the bid as too low. Jacksonville, Florida-based DFH is offering $25.75 per share in cash for Beazer, according to a statement Monday that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. The bid represents a roughly 40% premium to Beazer’s closing price on May 5, the day on which DFH submitted the offer to the target’s board, the statement shows. Beazer rose 34% to close at $25.16 in New York trading Monday, giving the company a market value of about $688 million. DFH…
The Labcorp agreement continues the expansion of Aura, which gives healthcare providers access to tests from companies including Quest Diagnostics.
An Illinois man who suffered severe injuries to his hand and fingers in a dog attack received a $300,000 settlement, the law firm John J. Malm & Associates said. The man attacked by two pit bulls while taking his German Shepard for a walk in the town of Elgin. The incident occurred when he tried to separate the pit bulls from his dog, at which point he was attacked. Local animal control authorities cited the owner of the pit bulls, and the dogs were officially declared dangerous animals under applicable regulations, the man’s attorneys said. These findings played a key…
From a distance, the small solar farm in central Tennessee looks like others that now dot rural America, with row upon row of black panels absorbing the sun’s rays to generate electricity. But beneath these panels is lush pasture instead of gravel, enjoyed by a small herd of cattle that spends its days munching grass and resting in the shade. Silicon Ranch, which owns the 40-acre farm in Christiana, outside of Nashville, believes cattle-grazing is the next frontier in so-called agrivoltaics, which mostly has involved growing crops or grazing sheep beneath the panels. The solar company debuted the project this…
Reconstruction cost inflation in the U.S. cooled in the second quarter, offering a bit of relief for insurers and businesses, a new report shows. Verisk’s Q2 2026 360Value Quarterly Reconstruction Cost Analysis shows total reconstruction costs, which includes materials and retail labor, rose 3.6% year-over-year, a pace that was down from 5.2% growth in the prior year’s period. Quarter-over-quarter growth slowed to 0.8%. Residential reconstruction costs rose 3.2% nationally. Commercial costs climbed 4.1%. The report out Wednesday arrived as wholesale prices, a broad measure of inflation wholesale, in April posted their highest annual increase in more than three years. The…
American Family Insurance has launched a branded reality competition series, “Designed To Last,” a first-of-its-kind show that reimagines how to think about protecting homes and families against increasing climate risk. The four-episode series sponsored by American Family Insurance premiered May 5 and streams on Hulu. Watch the trailer here. “Designed To Last” brings together architects, engineers and inventors to tackle one of today’s most urgent challenges: safeguarding homes against unpredictable and extreme real-world conditions. Through high-stakes design challenges, the series showcases innovative solutions that aim to fortify homes while inspiring audiences to think differently about preparedness, protection and resilience. Each…
The Bank of Canada struck an optimistic tone on the economic impact of artificial intelligence, arguing that widespread adoption of the technology will boost the country’s ailing productivity without significant job losses. In her first speech as external deputy governor, Michelle Alexopoulos extolled AI for its potential to increase output per hour worked, adding that it could also improve business competitiveness, boost wages for workers and create cost savings for consumers. The productivity gains from AI depend on whether the technology ends up being the so-called general purpose type, like computers, where use spreads throughout the entire economy and create…
The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. is back in the catastrophe bond market looking to sponsor its fourth issuance, with an initial target to secure at least $100 million of US-wide multi-peril reinsurance protection from a Commonwealth Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) transaction, Artemis can report.Previously, The Hanover has sponsored three successful catastrophe bond issues under the Commonwealth Re program. In 2022 and 2023 the first two Commonwealth Re cat bonds provided The Hanover fully-collateralized named storm reinsurance across just US northeast states. In 2025 the insurer returned and secured its first multi-peril reinsurance from the cat bond market, with the $200…
Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic’s appointment comes months after Oracle named former Quest Diagnostics CEO Stephen Rusckowski to the board as the technology giant expands its reach in the healthcare sector.
While auto insurance leaders reported premium growth percentages in the single digits last year, with sprinters like Progressive and Root up in the low-to-mid teens, premiums at Tesla’s insurance operations skyrocketed 40.7%, according to a new analysis. S&P Global Market Intelligence reported total direct premiums across Tesla’s insurance business topped $1 billion last year, coming in at nearly $1.4 billion, compared to $970.8 million in 2024. But while Tesla’s premiums soared—particularly in California, where a whopping 585% jump brought the state’s premiums to $725 million, compared to just over $100 million in 2024—loss ratios for one of the Tesla insurers,…
New York State is providing financial assistance to a captive insurer and taking other steps to advance this form of self-insurance as part of an effort to lower insurance costs for operators of affordable housing. The state has made a $2 million loan to Milford Street Association, an organization with an insurance captive that is owned and operated by members of the state’s affordable housing industry. The loan is from Empire State Development (ESD) to the Milford Street Association Insurance Co. Milford Street plans to use the $2 million to cover a portion of the initial capital contribution cost for…