INSURANCE NEWS
AI Boom Fuels 11% Rise in Top Japan Insurer’s Project Loans
Nippon Life Insurance Co. sees its overseas project finance lending climbing 11% to a record high this year due to surging demand to fund AI data centers in the US and elsewhere. The outstanding amount of such loans provided by …
Viewpoint: Rampant Fraud in Staged Accidents
It should come as no surprise that Hollywood has not made many movies about insurance—arguably among the least glamorous of industries. However, there are three insurance-themed films worth watching. Two from the 1940s film noir era are Double Indemnity and …
Department of Energy Launches Effort to Speed Power Grid Projects for AI
The Trump administration on Thursday launched an effort to speed development of power plants and transmission lines as artificial intelligence boosts demand, even as it orders fossil fuel plants set to shut for good to keep operating. The Department of …
People Moves: Gary Joins XPT Specialty’s Pacific Northwest Team
XPT Specialty added Rachel Gary to its Pacific Northwest team in its Seattle, Washington office. Gary has more than two decades of insurance industry experience, previously serving a decade-long tenure at Hull & Company, where she progressed from underwriting associate …
Judge: Vermont’s Delaying Public Access to Civil Case Documents Violates 1st Amendment
A federal judge has granted an injunction against the Vermont judiciary in a legal action brought by news outlets aimed at curbing delays when seeking newly filed civil lawsuits. The ruling issued this month by Judge Christina Reiss is the …
Insurer Says Tech Services Firms Should Pay for Insured’s Ransomware Damages
ACE American Insurance Co. is suing to recover $500,000 it paid in ransomware damages for a staffing company, claiming cloud computing and cybersecurity firms contracted by its policyholder should instead be held responsible due to their alleged negligence. The insurer …
UK Teenager Charged by US for Role in Yearslong Hack Spree
The US Justice Department accused a British teenager on Thursday of engaging in a yearslong spree of cyberattacks that targeted 47 American organizations and netted more than $100 million in ransom payments. Thalha Jubair, 19, from London, participated in a …
Texas Cities and Counties Prepare for Budget Shortfalls
Last year, Fort Worth gained a new distinction as Texas’ fourth city with more than 1 million people. While other major Texas cities grew at a slower clip or struggled to regain residents it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort …
OpenAI Fixed ChatGPT Security Flaw That Put Gmail Data at Risk
OpenAI patched a ChatGPT security flaw that could have allowed hackers to extract Gmail data from its users, according to researchers at cyber firm Radware. The issue was found in ChatGPT’s Deep Research agent, a tool launched in February to …
West Texas Gas Falls to 14-Month Low as Negative Prices Persist
Natural gas cash prices in West Texas, which dipped below zero in recent days, sank to the lowest in almost 14 months, as traders expect pipeline maintenance in the area to stifle movement of the fuel for some time. Gas …
Bulgaria Arrests Russian Owner of Ship at Center of Beirut Port Blast in 2020
The Russian owner of a cargo ship linked to a cargo of ammonium nitrate at the center of the massive Beirut port explosion in 2020 has been arrested in Bulgaria, Lebanese judicial officials said Monday. The arrest of Igor Grechushkin …
Researchers Uncover 140-Year-Old Shipwreck at Bottom of Lake Michigan
After decades of scouring the bottom of Lake Michigan, searchers have finally found the wreckage of a “ghost ship” that sank during a ferocious storm almost 140 years ago off the Wisconsin coastline. The Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin …