Tag Archives: driving

Haiti: Violence and displacement driving humanitarian crisis as funding needs go unmet

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Nearly 1.3 million people in the Caribbean country have fled their homes, with an additional 15,000 uprooted last week after armed attacks in the communes of Dessalines and Verrettes in the Artibonite department.

Further, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have screened more than 217,000 children for acute malnutrition in 2025. Some 21,500 children have been admitted for acute malnutrition treatment, representing a mere 17 per cent of the 129,000 children who are projected to need lifesaving services this year.  

This malnutrition stems from severe food insecurity across the country. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported that an estimated 5.7 million people – more than half of Haiti’s population – faced high levels of acute food insecurity between March and June this year.  

Education emergency

Haiti’s children also face an education emergency. More than 1,600 schools remain closed in Haiti, an increase of over two thirds compared to the start of the year.  

“Without access to education, children, of course, are more vulnerable to exploitation and recruitment by gangs,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at Headquarters in New York

In response, UNICEF has provided learning opportunities to more than 16,000 children, and the agency has given over 100,000 children mental health and psychosocial support.      

Insecurity and lack of funds straining access

Despite dire humanitarian needs and commendable efforts by UN agencies, the current support “is just a fraction of what is needed in Haiti”, Mr. Dujarric emphasised.

Insecurity continues to constrain the humanitarian response, causing access challenges, supply shortages and the closure of health facilities.

Subsequently, the many displaced families in urgent need of hygiene supplies, food, emergency shelter, medical assistance and other essential items are often unable to access them.  

Humanitarian response is also hampered by a severe lack of funds.

“Haiti remains, as I have said here many times, the least funded of our underfunded country appeals globally,” Mr. Dujarric stressed. More than halfway through the year, the Haitian humanitarian response plan has received less than 9 per cent of the $908 million required.  

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Greed is driving oceans toward collapse

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Mr. Guterres’ stark assessment came during a press conference on the second day of the weeklong UN Ocean summit, known as UNOC3, where hundreds of government leaders, scientists and civil society representatives are gathered on France’s Côte D’Azur. Their mission: to confront the escalating emergency facing the world’s oceans.

Greed is a ‘clear enemy’

“We are in Nice on a mission – save the ocean, to save our future,” the Secretary-General said, and warned that a tipping point is fast-approaching “beyond which recovery may become impossible.”

The “clear enemy” that is pushing our oceans towards the brink is greed.

According to the UN chief, greed sows doubt, denies science, distorts truth, rewards corruption and destroys life for profit. “We cannot let greed dictate the fate of our planet,” he insisted.

Calling for all stakeholders to assume their responsibility and to play a vital role to push back against these profit-hungry forces, the Secretary-General said: “That is why we are here this week: to stand in solidarity against those forces and reclaim what belongs to us all.”

He cited four priorities for governments, business leaders, fishers, scientists, saying “everyone has a responsibility and a vital role to play”:

  • Transform ocean harvesting – It’s not just about fishing, it’s about how we fish. We must meet the globally agreed “30 by 30” goal to conserve 30 per cent of oceans by 2030.
     
  • Tackle plastic pollution: Phase out single-use plastics and improve recycling; and finalize a global treaty to end plastic pollution this year.
     
  • Fight climate change at sea: Countries must submit bold climate plans ahead of COP30 in Brazil. Plans must align with the 1.5°C target and cover all emissions.
     
  • Enforce the High Seas Treaty: Ratify and implement the new treaty, known by the shorthand, BBNJ treaty, to protect marine biodiversity, and urge all nations to join and bring the agreement into force.

Calling for a grand global coalition of governments, business leaders, fishers, scientists, the Secretary-General urged everyone to step forward with decisive commitments and tangible funding.

“The ocean has given us so much. It is time we returned the favour.”

More to follow.
 

 

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Social and economic barriers, not choice, driving global fertility crisis: UNFPA

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The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) unveiled its flagship State of World Population report on Tuesday, warning that a rising number of people are being denied the freedom to start families due to skyrocketing living costs, persistent gender inequality, and deepening uncertainty about the future.

Titled The real fertility crisis: The pursuit of reproductive agency in a changing world, the report argues that what’s really under threat is people’s ability to choose freely when – and whether – to have children.

The report draws on a recent UNFPA/YouGov survey covering 14 countries that together represent 37 per cent of the global population.

Money worries

Economic barriers were the top factor, with 39 per cent of respondents citing financial limitations as the main reason for having fewer children than they would like.

Fear for the future – from climate change to war – and job insecurity followed, cited by 19 per cent and 21 per cent of respondents, respectively.

Thirteen per cent of women and eight per cent of men pointed to the unequal division of domestic labour as a factor in having fewer children than desired.

The survey also revealed that one in three adults have experienced an unintended pregnancy, one in four felt unable to have a child at their preferred time and one in five reported being pressured to have children they did not want.

 

Solutions to the fertility crisis

The report warns against simplistic and coercive responses to falling birth rates, such as baby bonuses or fertility targets, which are often ineffective and risk violating human rights.

Instead, UNFPA urges governments to expand choices by removing barriers to parenthood identified by their populations.

Recommended actions include making parenthood more affordable through investments in housing, decent work, paid parental leave and access to comprehensive reproductive health services.

Immigration factor

The agency also encourages governments to view immigration as a key strategy to address labour shortages and maintain economic productivity amid declining fertility.

Regarding gender inequality, the report calls for addressing stigma against involved fathers, workplace norms that push mothers out of the workforce, restrictions on reproductive rights, and widening gender gaps in attitudes among younger generations that are contributing to rising singlehood.

Flavoured nicotine products driving youth addiction, WHO warns

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This is especially true among youth users: it’s one of the main reasons young people experiment with tobacco or nicotine products in the first place, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).  

Flavoured nicotine and tobacco products are inherently addictive and toxic – often more so than regular tobacco. Flavours increase usage, make quitting harder, and have been linked to serious lung diseases, WHO maintains.  

Despite decades of progress in tobacco control, flavoured products are luring a new generation into addiction and contributing to eight million tobacco-related deaths each year.

Youth-oriented marketing

Nicotine products are often marketed directly toward young people through bright and colourful packaging featuring sweet and fruity flavour descriptors.  

Research shows that this type of advertising can trigger reward centres in adolescent brains and weaken the impact of health warnings.

Young people also report a growing presence of flavoured nicotine product marketing across all social media platforms.

This marketing of flavours works across all forms of nicotine and tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, pouches and hookahs.  

WHO said flavours such as menthol, bubble gum and cotton candy, are “masking the harshness of tobacco” and other nicotine products, turning what are toxic products “into youth-friendly bait.”  

Call for action

Just ahead of World No Tobacco Day, the UN health agency released a series of fact sheets and called on governments to ban all flavours in tobacco and nicotine products to protect young people from lifelong addiction and disease.

It cited Articles 9 and 10 of the successful 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which obliges countries to regulate the contents and disclosure of tobacco products, including flavourings.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that “without bold action, the global tobacco epidemic…will continue to be driven by addiction dressed up with appealing flavours.”

As of December 2024, over 50 countries had adopted policies regulating tobacco additives, with most targeting flavourings by banning flavour labels or images and restricting the sale of flavored products. Some also control flavour use during production.

However, the WHO noted that tobacco companies and retailers have found ways to circumvent these rules, offering flavour accessories including sprays, cards, capsules and filter tips, to add to unflavoured products.

Still, WHO is urging all 184 FCTC parties (which make up 90 per cent of the world’s population) to implement and enforce strong bans and restrictions on flavoured products and related additives.

New software can detect when people text and drive

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Computer algorithms developed by engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo can accurately determine when drivers are texting or engaged in other distracting activities.

The system uses cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect hand movements that deviate from normal driving behaviour and grades or classifies them in terms of possible safety threats.

Fakhri Karray, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Waterloo, said that information could be used to improve road safety by warning or alerting drivers when they are dangerously distracted. And as advanced self-driving features are increasingly added to conventional cars, he said, signs of serious driver distraction could be employed to trigger protective measures.

“The car could actually take over driving if there was imminent danger, even for a short while, in order to avoid crashes,” said Karray, a University Research Chair and director of the Centre for Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (CPAMI) at Waterloo.

Algorithms at the heart of the technology were trained using machine-learning techniques to recognize actions such as texting, talking on a cellphone or reaching into the backseat to retrieve something. The seriousness of the action is assessed based on duration and other factors.

That work builds on extensive previous research at CPAMI on the recognition of signs, including frequent blinking, that drivers are in danger of falling asleep at the wheel. Head and face positioning are also important cues of distraction. Ongoing research at the centre now seeks to combine the detection, processing and grading of several different kinds of driver distraction in a single system.

“It has a huge impact on society,” said Karray, citing estimates that distracted drivers are to blame for up to 75 per cent of all traffic accidents worldwide.

Another research project at CPAMI is exploring the use of sensors to measure physiological signals such as eye-blinking rate, pupil size and heart-rate variability to help determine if a driver is paying adequate attention to the road.

Karray’s research — done in collaboration with PhD candidates Arief Koesdwiady and Chaojie Ou, and post-doctoral fellow Safaa Bedawi — was recently presented at the 14th International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition in Montreal.