In Ohio, anyone getting a Covid vaccine could win one of five lottery prizes of $1m. New Jersey residents getting the jab are being offered free beers. One site in New York boasted an even more unlikely incentive: a courtesy marijuana joint. Since the start of the year, America has successfully ramped up its vaccine…
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Insurers are examining ways to encourage customers to reduce their carbon footprint, including offering lower premiums, as the industry faces growing pressure to use its underwriting policies to tackle global warming. Policies such as pay-as-you-drive already provide a nudge to motorists to cut their mileage, but some of the world’s largest insurers are now looking…
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Two doses of either the BioNTech/Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines offer good protection against symptomatic infection from the coronavirus variant first identified in India, according to new UK data, indicating minimal reduction in efficacy compared to the so-called Kent variant. The BioNTech/Pfizer jab provided 88 per cent protection against the B.1.617.2 variant found in India,…
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Two doses of either the BioNTech/Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines offer good protection against symptomatic infection from the variant first identified in India, according to new UK data, indicating minimal reduction in efficacy compared to the so-called Kent variant. The BioNTech/Pfizer jab provided 88 per cent protection against the B. 1.617.2 variant found in India,…
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The EU is moving closer towards agreeing a tax on aviation as part of a wide-ranging revamp of fossil-fuel levies to help meet ambitious emissions goals. EU finance ministers meeting in Lisbon on Saturday expressed broad support for upcoming proposals for a Europe-wide tax on kerosene jet fuel used in aircraft, officials told the Financial…
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European leaders are on a collision course over the looming impact of radical emission targets on their citizens and businesses as the cost of going green hits home across the EU. A summit in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday is set to be dominated in part by discussions on how to decarbonise swaths of the…
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New UK government research suggests two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are needed to provide strong protection against symptomatic infection from the coronavirus variant first identified in India, according to two people briefed on the preliminary data. Two vaccine doses provided 81 per cent protection against the B.1.617.2 variant found in India, and 87 per…
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Carbon counter is a series of Lex articles estimating the climate cost of different lifestyle choices. The other articles are here Should an eco-friendly shopper opt for bricks or clicks? Conflicting opinions abound. Shopping online is inherently more carbon efficient than going to the store, Amazon wrote in its 2019 shareholders’ letter. But a study…
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Until last summer, Tsargrad TV, which styles itself as a Russian Orthodox answer to Fox News, was an obscure corner of YouTube. The Russian-language online news channel was best known for its priestly presenters and conspiratorial musings about the global financial system plotting against Moscow — suspicions it viewed as confirmed last July when the…
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For a quality product, consumers can usually justify paying a premium. So it is for investors and the S&P 500 index. Shares in the US stock market benchmark have long traded at a premium to global peers but the trend has been reinforced by the steady transformation of the index towards technology-orientated companies that are…
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