Author: completebodyneeds

The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry posted a much higher net underwriting gain of $31.7 billion for the first half of 2026, up from $11.6 billion the prior year. According to a report from data analytics and technology firm Verisk and industry trade association the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), net written premium growth for the industry slowed to 2.1%, compared with growth of 5.2% a year ago, showing an overall shift to moderated rate increases. Property insurance softened during H1 but casualty lines such as excess liability, umbrella liability, and commercial auto, remained under pressure from increased claim severity…

Florida has banned local police from installing license-plate readers on state roads, responding to growing concern about the proliferation of surveillance cameras made by Flock Safety and other companies. The Florida Department of Transportation on Monday revoked all permits for local law-enforcement agencies to operate license-plate reader systems, ordering any that have been installed removed from state roadways within 30 days. The department said in a memo that use of the devices had seen an exponential increase, and that “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”…

PG&E Corp. plans to defer about $2 billion of investments next year as part of a strategic review of its businesses, a move that comes after it said a proposed revamp of California’s wildfire response didn’t do enough to protect the company and its peers from the cost of such disasters. The gas and power utility announced its plan on Wednesday, a day after the California Assembly adjourned without passing the wildfire legislation. Gov. Gavin Newsom had pushed for measures that would shift liabilities related to the blazes away from publicly traded utilities, but he failed to win consensus among…

AIG said early Wednesday that its former chief executive officer and current executive chair Peter Zaffino will be leaving the board effective Sept. 15 to join Palantir Technologies Inc. as global head of financial services. Peter Zaffino Zaffino had just transitioned to the position of executive chair on June 1. Prior to that, he had been AIG CEO since taking over in March 2021, succeeding Brian Duperreault. Eric Anderson, most recently a member of Aon’s executive committee, became the AIG’s CEO on June 1. AIG announced the succession plan in January. Zaffino will assume a role with AIG as senior…

Houston-based title insurer and real estate services firm Stewart Information Services Corp. reports it has acquired East Providence, Rhode Island-based Tower Title, a national specialist in title services for the telecommunications industry. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2019, Tower Title serves the telecommunication industry, while also servicing solar farms, wind turbines, data centers, and billboards. Telecommunications firms rely on title insurance to protect the land they lease or purchase for their data centers, cell towers, data centers, fiber optic lines, and rooftop equipment against boundary disputes, ownership claims or legal defects. The acquisition strengthens and diversifies…

Germany’s power grid was hit twice in a single day on Tuesday, with incidents on opposite sides of the country knocking units of coal-fired power plants offline and authorities investigating possible terrorist or extremist motives. The latest incident occurred in the industrial heartland surrounding the Rhine river on Tuesday evening, shutting off five units of RWE AG’s lignite-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 4.2 gigawatts. Earlier that morning, unknown perpetrators damaged several transmission lines in eastern Germany using homemade projectiles, triggering a temporary outage at LEAG’s Jänschwalde coal plant. Germany has faced several attacks on its energy infrastructure…

Germany’s government said an investigation found that Russia is behind a failed drone attack at an airport in Leipzig last month and that the Kremlin is likely to step up hybrid aggression. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced the shuttering of Russia’s consulate in Bonn, the former seat of government of West Germany, this month and the cancellation of a contract with a key Russian cultural center in Berlin. The country will tighten border controls for Russian nationals. The activity on German soil indicates a readiness by Moscow to inflict “greater damage,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said. Read more: Russia’s Escalating…

A historic diamond necklace originally designed for the Egyptian royal family and valued at about $4 million was stolen from a major Vienna museum, triggering a police manhunt for the two alleged thieves. The men smashed a display case in Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts during opening hours on Thursday [Aug. 27] and fled on foot, according to a police statement. Their target was a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace designed for an Egyptian royal wedding in 1939. Made for the marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt and the Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Sotheby’s assessed its value…

The devastating deluge that swept through the mountain valleys on the border between Nepal and Tibet in China is a potent reminder of a growing green-energy risk in one of the world’s most hazard-prone areas.Hydropower dams high in the Himalayas seem to be a ready solution for an energy-starved region. Governments see mountain rivers as an answer to rising electricity demand, fossil-fuel dependence and economic underdevelopment. But a changing climate is bringing with it unstable glaciers and unpredictable rain, creating new risks for existing projects and raising the potential cost of those that are still on the drawing board. “Hydropower…

Technology giant Apple Inc. has agreed to pay $150,000 and update its religious observance policy to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of an Apple store employee who was denied a work accommodation so he could honor the Jewish Sabbath. According to the EEOC’s suit, Apple failed to accommodate a Reston, Virginia employee’s request to be off from Friday sundown through sundown on Saturday in observance of the Jewish Sabbath. EEOC said Apple rejected the employee’s request because it conflicted with a new store scheduling policy regarding weekend work. The…