20 year term life insurance

There is a narrative that generational warfare is increasingly common in our divided world: the Brexit schism of older leavers and young remainers; the middle-aged property investors whose mortgages are paid by generation rent. Then there’s the explosion of tech and shifting cultural values that lead to head-scratching and eye-rolling; each generation bitches about the one below it, we’re told, treating the one above with an unfair disdain. But this is not something I recognise in my own life. I have some brilliant friends, and I count myself especially fortunate that they are from all generations. I had my 30th birthday in August, which I freaked out about in a way I did not expect; but it was glorious to see so many pals together in one place. I can’t remember any other recent setting where people with decades between them were introducing themselves, chatting and drinking: 60-year-old mates asking a mid-20s couple who they vote for; two football fans, one born the … [Read more...] about From the silent generation to ‘snowflakes’: why you need friends of all ages

Jamie Wilson, foreign news editor, and Simon Jeffery, deputy foreign editor The climate crisis is a story that reaches every corner of the world and on the international news desk our team of correspondents report on it from around the globe. For many readers, it is something they experience to varying degrees of intensity at first hand – a hotter summer, an earlier spring, floods in autumn – but by linking up those experiences, we are able to show how interconnected this crisis is. In the past few months we have covered stories ranging from the record-breaking European heatwave, where temperatures of over 45C were recorded in France for the first time, a heatwave and drought in India, where thousands abandoned their homes, and the unprecedented Arctic wildfires that could be seen from space. Such events are not just “weather”, however, and we follow their impact: the buckling European road and rail infrastructure not suitable for the new climate era, the … [Read more...] about How Guardian editors are making the climate emergency a focus

The fund management and UK arm of Prudential has been valued at £5.7bn on its first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange, following a demerger from the 171-year-old insurance group. M&G formally became a separate listed firm on Monday, focusing on what were Prudential’s UK and Europe operations. Prudential will now focus on the US, Africa and Asia. Shares in M&G closed the day slightly below the 220p opening price at 218p, giving it a market value big enough to be eligible for the FTSE 100 index. The decision to split Prudential, which was founded in 1848, was first announced last year, and came after the group combined its UK life insurance arm with its fund management division in 2017. M&G made its market debut with £341bn in assets under management, and with 6,331 staff worldwide. The company serves about 5.5 million retail customers and 800 institutional clients through 20 global office operating across 28 markets. Both Prudential and M&G … [Read more...] about Former Prudential fund management and UK arm valued at £5.7bn

In 2010, the small community of specialists who pay attention to US road safety statistics picked up the first signs of a troubling trend: more and more pedestrians were being killed on American roads. That year, 4,302 American pedestrians died, an increase of almost 5% from 2009. The tally has increased almost every year since, with particularly sharp spikes in 2015 and 2016. Last year, 41% more US pedestrians were killed than in 2008. During this same period, overall non-pedestrian road fatalities moved in the opposite direction, decreasing by more than 7%. For drivers, roads are as safe as they have ever been; for people on foot, roads keep getting deadlier. Through the 90s and 00s, the pedestrian death count had declined almost every year. No one would have confused the US for a walkers’ paradise – at least part of the reason fewer pedestrians died in this period was that people were driving more and walking less, which meant that there were fewer opportunities to be … [Read more...] about Collision course: why are cars killing more and more pedestrians?

Why does it matter what medicines cost? If you are lucky enough to live in a country with comprehensive state-funded healthcare, such as the UK, you probably have no idea how much medicines really cost. But it can be a lot. Some drugs that have been around for ages are very cheap – aspirin, for instance, costs pence. It’s been out of patent and made by numerous companies competing to undercut each other’s price for decades. But new medicines, protected by 20-year patents, can cost hundreds of pounds a packet and sometimes thousands. The new breast cancer drug Kadcyla weighed in at a starting price of £90,000 per patient per year in the UK in 2015, though the manufacturer has now agreed a hefty discount for the NHS. It is an increasing pressure on all health systems around the world. In 2017, NHS England put its annual drugs bill at £16bn, £9bn of which is GPs prescribing, and said it was rising at 7% a year – faster than the overall NHS budget. … [Read more...] about Why do new medicines cost so much, and what can we do about it?