Traveling abroad can be exciting, but high roaming charges from your carrier can quickly turn your trip expensive. Source link
World Humanitarian Day 2025: Humanitarian workers reduce the recording assessment of their own
Talk to UN News From the Wartor enclave to mark World Humanitarian Day, Olga Cherevko from the United Nations Coordination Office, Ochhasaid exhausted marine workers continue to come to work “day after day”.
By approaching two years since the start of the war in Gaza, Ms. Cherevko underlined the commitment of her Palestinian colleagues, “the doctors, the nurses, the workers of the Haid that many of them have lost everything and several times”.
Crossed red lines
In comments in support of humanitarian workers everywhere, the UN Secretary General António Guterres Stressed that the humanitarian teams “are the last rescue buoy for more than 300 million people” affected by conflicts or disasters.
Despite their rescue role, financing reductions have a serious and negative impact on the most vulnerable people in the world, warned Mr. Guterres, while those who provide aid are more and more attacked as “The red lines are crossed with impunity”.
This despite the fact that such attacks are prohibited under international law, the UN chief continued, noting that although governments have promised measures to protect them, “What is missing is political will – and moral courage … humanitarian workers must be respected and protected. They can never be targeted. “
Helpless to help
From its base in Deir Al-Balah in the center of Gaza, Ms. Cherevko has thought about the nature of humanitarian work today and the frustration to which the teams often help when their rescue missions are delayed, preventing them from providing large-scale aid.
“I think that as a humanitarian, I sometimes feel helpless in Gaza because I know what we can do as a humanitarian when we cannot do it, both here in Gaza and in any other humanitarian crisis,” she explained.
“The fact that we continue to deal with massive obstacles to provide aid aid, when our missions are delayed, when our missions lasted 12, 14, 18 hours;The ways given to us are dangerous, impassive or inaccessible. »»
Increase in killings
The latest data indicates an increase of 31% of deaths per assistant workers compared to 2023, drawn by the incessant conflict in Gaza.
The band saw 181 humanitarian workers killed in 2024, with 60 additional deaths in Sudan. More broadly, violence against humanitarian workers increased in 21 countries in 2024 compared to the previous year, with the actors of the state the most common authors.
In a disturbing way, there is no sign that the trend slows this year, with 265 humanitarian workers killed on August 14 of this year, according to provisional data from the assistance worker data database.
In the midst of the first reports according to which Hamas accepted a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and a continuous uncertainty on the Israeli level to continue a complete military control of the enclave, Ms. Cherevko of Ocha underlined the need for a permanent end of the conflict.
Help teams are exhausted and “Everyone always shows up (working), but courage alone and commitment alone will not feed people, will not save people ”she insisted. “What we need is, once again, a permanent ceasefire. We need political solutions to this conflict and a resolution to this crisis. ”
According to OCHA, most of the humanitarian workers killed last year were national staff serving their communities, attacked in the exercise of their functions or at their home.
308 additional people were injured, with 125 kidnapped and 45 detainees in 2024.
“Even an attack on a humanitarian colleague is an attack on us all and on the people we serve“Said Tom Fletcher, Coordinator of United Nations Emergency Rescue. “Attacks against this scale, without responsibility, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy.. Violence against humanitarian workers is not inevitable. It must end. “”
Why are we marking World Humanitarian Day?
On August 19, 2003, an attack on the bomb against the Canal hotel in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian workers, including the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Five years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating on August 19 as World Humanitarian Day.
Each year, International Day brings together partners from the whole humanitarian system to defend the survival, well-being and dignity of people affected by crises and safety of humanitarian workers.
The theme of this year’s commemoration supervised by the OCHA is the end of attacks on humanitarian workers and civilians and impunity under international humanitarian law. “We urge those in power at #Actforhumanity,” said the United Nations Agency.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
Game Devs Embrace AI: 87% Now Use Automated Tools, Google Survey Shows
Game development has reached a turning point. A new Google Cloud study reveals that 87% of developers now
AI health startups lead Europe’s push for competitiveness in healthcare innovation
As Europe navigates an increasingly competitive global AI healthcare landscape, Spanish health tech startup Tucuvi is making headlines by becoming the first voice-based AI solution in Europe to gain Class IIb medical device certification.
Tucuvi is a Spanish health tech startup which developed a medical voice assistant, LOLA, that enables remote patient monitoring through conversational AI. Tucuvi’s breakthrough, backed by ISO 13485 certification and tailored support from EIT Health programmes, comes at a critical moment. A new AI skills report jointly released by EIT Health and EIT Digital highlights the urgent need for upskilling across Europe to remain competitive on the global stage in AI healthcare applications. The report calls for a coordinated European strategy to build human capital in AI and digital health.
Tucuvi’s rapid progress also exemplifies what the AI skills report stresses: combining deep sector expertise and interdisciplinary soft skills as a key differentiator for European AI companies. The company’s trajectory underscores the strategic role EIT Health plays in nurturing startups from ideation to internationalisation, with accelerator programmes offering access to mentors, regulators, and pharma partners across Europe. Impactful innovation happens when education, research, and business are brought together in applied, practical ways, and enabled to exchange skills fluidly across disciplines. The most impactful advances in AI and healthcare stem from this convergence of technical, scientific, and managerial capabilities.
A European wave of AI-driven health innovation
Tucuvi’s success is part of a pan-European wave of AI-enabled health innovation emerging from the EIT Health ecosystem. Their solution supports decision making when delivering diagnoses with reliable and safe data. Across Europe, start-ups are leveraging artificial intelligence to transform diagnostics, treatment, and patient care, with many achieving regulatory milestones and global commercial traction thanks to EIT Health’s multi-stage support model.
BrainTrip, based in Malta, has developed the NeuroAI platform, which interprets EEG data to deliver fast, non-invasive cognitive assessments. Its flagship tool, the BrainTrip Dementia Index (CogniScore), is CE‑marked and achieves roughly 95% diagnostic accuracy within a 30-minute test, compared to traditional neuropsychological evaluations that last over an hour. With over 2,000 tests performed, BrainTrip is scaling in Europe with EIT Health support in regulatory strategy, mentoring, and clinical integration.
These start-ups reflect a growing pan-European innovation movement, grounded in regulatory readiness, cross-sector integration, and patient-first design.
Their momentum aligns with key insights from the EIT Health and EIT Digital AI Skills and Occupations in the European startups ecosystem, which calls for a unified European strategy to combine technical excellence, ethical standards, and practical implementation. These start-ups show that such a strategy is not only possible – it’s already underway.
World News in Brief: Gaza aid crisis latest, deadly floods in India and Pakistan, funding cuts exacerbate Somalia drought
In an alert from the World Food Programme (WFP), the agency said that half a million people “are on the brink of famine”, a claim backed up by multiple humanitarian agencies. The latest worrying data is showing widespread acute malnutrition.
A ceasefire is the only way to scale up aid deliveries, the UN agency insisted. It explained that although teams are doing everything they can to deliver food assistance, only 47 per cent of the daily target amount is getting in.
No meals, no bread
Unless the fighting stops, organized aid distributions and WFP-supported hot meals and bakeries can’t restart, the agency stated.
The UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, reported on Monday that instead of being able to prepare for the start of a new school year, children in Gaza are instead searching for water and queuing for food while their classrooms have “turned into crowded refuges”.
Three years of schooling has now been lost, the agency stressed in a tweet.
Starvation deaths in Gaza continue
The UN on Monday sounded the alarm over rising hunger in Gaza, after the Ministry of Health reported that five people – including two children – died in the past 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation.
“To prevent such deaths, humanitarians must be able to deliver food at scale, and consistently, through all available crossings and routes to reach the population of 2.1 million people, half of whom are children,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York.
He said that of 12 aid missions requiring coordination with Israeli authorities on Sunday, eight went ahead without impediment, including the transfer of nutritional supplies and fuel to the north. One mission – to replace a water pipeline in Deir al Balah – was denied, while three others faced delays but were eventually completed.
Movement restrictions, including long waits inside the Strip, continue to hamper delivery of life-saving supplies.
Shelter supplies ban lifted
Mr. Dujarric welcomed Israel’s announcement that it will lift a five-month ban on shelter supplies, noting that more than 1.3 million people urgently need emergency shelter. But he voiced concern that this move comes amid plans for expanded military operations in Gaza City, which risk forcing thousands more into already overcrowded and under-served areas in the south.
UN chief expresses ‘deep sorrow’ over deadly flash floods in India and Pakistan
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday expressed his deep sorrow at the tragic loss of life due to flash floods in India and Pakistan in recent days, with many still missing and forecasts showing the possibility of further flooding and landslides ahead.
Indian rescue services responded to a deadly flood on Friday which reportedly killed at least 60 after it crashed through a village in the Himalayas while in remote villages of northwestern Pakistan, torrents of water killed more than 300, according to news reports.
Hundreds were also injured, Pakistani authorities reported. Buner district was the worst hit, with more than 200 deaths reported there, said the provincial disaster management authorities.
Standing in solidarity
“The Secretary-General offers his sincere condolences to the victims’ families and stands in solidarity with those affected by this disaster,” said the statement issued by his Spokesperson.
UN country teams in India and Pakistan have also been placed are at the disposal of authorities although no request for assistance has been made so far.
Impacts of Somalia drought made worse by funding cuts: OCHA
In Somalia, severe drought and funding cuts are undermining lifesaving assistance there, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Monday.
Because of the reduction in the amount of support for aid work, food assistance has declined, health centres are closing and malnutrition is high, the UN agency warned.
OCHA said that 4.6 million people now face high levels of food insecurity while two million more are at risk from funding cuts.
Funding cuts mean ‘lives lost’
Without scaled-up support, “lives will be lost and progress reversed” across the east African nation, where cash shortfalls have left one million people without food assistance every month.
The global trend seeing less humanitarian assistance has curtailed vital support for healthcare across Somalia. So far this year, it has impacted at least 150 medical facilities and left hundreds of thousands of Somalis without the medical care they need.
OCHA noted that because of the cuts, the number of people being targeted for assistance in Somalia has had to be reduced by a staggering 72 per cent.
TechBBQ 2025 | EIT
TechBBQ returns to Copenhagen in 2025. This annual conference brings together the Nordic startup ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and tech professionals from across the Nordics and beyond.
What began in 2013 as a small barbecue for entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts has since evolved into a major event attracting attendees from around the world.
Over the course of two days, participants can look forward to an engaging programme featuring keynote speeches, panel discussions, startup pitches, networking sessions and exhibitions. The content centres on entrepreneurship, innovation and the power of technology to address pressing societal challenges. This year’s theme, “Built to Matter,” explores how we can build meaningful solutions together.
A key highlight of TechBBQ 2025 is UrbanTech, a dedicated track showcasing 25 handpicked startups. UrbanTech will feature a curated exhibition, startup pitch sessions, tailored matchmaking opportunities and facilitated networking events.
The event aims to support knowledge sharing, collaboration and access to funding within the startup ecosystem.
SPIN: Rise | EIT – The European Times News
DISCLAIMER: Information and opinions reproduced in the articles are the ones of those stating them and it is their own responsibility. Publication in The European Times does not automatically means endorsement of the view, but the right to express it.
DISCLAIMER TRANSLATIONS: All articles in this site are published in English. The translated versions are done through an automated process known as neural translations. If in doubt, always refer to the original article. Thank you for understanding.
South Sudanese ‘are counting on us’, top UN official tells Security Council
Referencing the recent quarterly report from the Secretary-General on challenges facing the world’s youngest nation, Ms. Pobee underscored that since March, previous gains in the peace process have been largely eroded.
Military offensives, primarily involving South Sudan’s rival militia which answers to the First Vice President and Government troops loyal to the President, have continued, and trust in the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement between the two has been undermined.
Murithi Mutiga, another briefer from the International Crisis Group, explained that the 2018 agreement required President Salva Kiir to work in concord with his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar; thus, the agreement was effectively terminated when President Kiir placed the former Vice President under house arrest on 26 March.
Humanitarian crisis
Ms. Pobee highlighted that recent military offensives have resulted in deaths, displacement and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Furthermore, the displacement crisis is a two-way street, Mr. Murtiga explained: the devastating civil war in neighbouring Sudan has driven 1.2 million refugees into South Sudan, straining already-limited resources.
The conflict in Sudan has also disrupted oil flows to the military Government-controlled Port Sudan and the broader market, causing South Sudan to lose most of its valuable oil revenues.
Mr. Murtiga also underscored that this is one of South Sudan’s worst humanitarian crises since independence in 2011, with 9.3 million in need of dire assistance and 7.7 million suffering food insecurity, including 83,000 at risk of catastrophic conditions, all while brutal sexual violence is on the rise.
And funding cuts are leaving millions without lifesaving assistance, Ms. Pobee emphasised. Halfway through 2025, the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is only 28.5 per cent funded.
Additionally, challenges to humanitarian access are growing with increased instances of aid workers being attacked, as poor infrastructure and administrative obstacles impede relief efforts.
Call to act
The UN, African Union, regional intergovernmental development body, IGAD, and many others in the international community, have repeatedly called for a cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue without any concrete response from the warring parties.
Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, addresses the Security Council meeting on Sudan and South Sudan.
“While government officials have publicly expressed their commitment to elections by December 2026, the Parties must take steps to return to dialogue and make the necessary decisions to move the country forward. Declarations of commitment are not enough,” Ms. Pobee stressed.
She urged the Security Council to call on all actors and stakeholders to uphold the peace agreement. If they fail to lay the groundwork for peaceful, credible elections in December 2026, the risk of a relapse into violence will rise significantly amid growing regional instability.
It is the shared responsibility of the international community to work with the South Sudanese parties to avoid such a failure, she stressed. “The people of South Sudan are counting on us.”
SPIN: Rise | EIT
SPIN: Rise is a hybrid entrepreneurial training and pre-incubation programme designed for researchers and scientists curious about exploring how their work can drive change and create impact beyond academia.
Through a mix of online training, personalised coaching, and an immersive in-person bootcamp in a leading European innovation hub, participants explore pathways for IP valorisation – ranging from licensing and industry collaboration to venture creation – while building entrepreneurial skills to translate research into real-world impact.
Who should apply?
SPIN: Rise is open to researchers at any career stage, with a particular focus on early-career researchers such as PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows. Applicants should be working on a research-based innovation with potential for commercial impact. Motivated MSc students may also apply, provided they are actively involved in a research project with clear market relevance.
Participants may apply individually or as part of a team. No prior entrepreneurial experience is required.
Participants must be affiliated with a University or Research Organisation in the European Union, or in a Horizon Europe associated country.
Which SPIN: Rise track is right for you?
SPIN: Rise 2025 offers four distinct programme tracks, each centred on a key industry-driven innovation domain and delivered by a leading EIT Digital partner with deep expertise in the field. Find the track that best aligns with your research and aspirations, and join a dynamic community of researchers working to turn scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact.
First person: “Tomorrow is too late” to increase humanitarian aid in Haiti
Women and girls face this crisis. Sexist violence (GBV) such as gang rape is endemic, in particular in the capital Port-au-Prince, and is exacerbated by precarious conditions in travel camps.
However, recent financing reductions have closed sexual and reproductive health centers and GBV services. Travel and insecurity make services that often exist too difficult to access.
Christian Vovi, the United Nations Reproductive Health Agency (Unfpa) Humanitarian coordinator in Haiti has been working in the island nation of the Caribbean since 2022.
He sat down with UN News Before World Humanitarian Day To discuss this crisis and its point of view as a humanitarian on the ground.
Vovi Chrétien, humanitarian coordinator of UNFPA in Haiti.
Remote work
“Sometimes there is the possibility of an attack, so We are forced to work at home.
This situation has limited our ability to go to the field to see people affected, meet women, to observe the situation in camps and communities, so security is sometimes an obstacle for us.
We can organize meetings practically, meet online women and partners to monitor and monitor activities.
Increase in GBV cases
Continuous displacement creates new GBV needs to which humanitarian actors must meet, despite the limited financial capacities. THere is a continuous increase in the number of GBV reported cases.
In some of the cases we manage, we hear how gang members arrive in the community, burn houses and then violating a mother or father in front of the family.
When you speak with women, they are desperate because they find it difficult to obtain even the most fundamental necessities.
Because women do not have access to financial resources, there has been an increase in prostitution cases.
People meet on a site for people displaced in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Desperate for services
Protective services are urgent. We have more than 100 sites for displaced people, but only 11 or 12 sites are covered by the GBV protective services.
There is also the problem in terms of refuge, because when we have many families living together in a small room, there is a greater risk of GBV.
Urgent financing needs
The UNFPA distributes kits of dignity, which contain articles that women need, and provides other goods and services, but it is not enough, we need more.
In Haiti, there are now more than a million displaced people. Since 26% are women of childbearing age, we must mobilize millions of dollars so that we can meet their urgent needs.
In 2020, the United States provided approximately 65% of the humanitarian financing of the response plan in Haiti. But with American financing discounts, we are no longer able to provide services to 25,000 women and girls in certain travel sites.
The United States has also financed 100% of the post-viole kit bought since 2023, so now our actions in these kits are very low.
A woman says that she was raped as he fled from the violence of the gangs with her six children and when she was four months pregnant.
UNFPA work despite the limitations
Despite these financing and access limitations, the UNFPA and its partners continue to stay in Haiti.
The UNFPA leads the GBV coordination mechanism. We continue to provide remote management for GBV cases via the hotline to ensure that cases can access services despite security limitations.
We continue to ensure that if the movement is limited, the persons concerned can access services, psychosocial support and information on the services available via the telephone hotline.
Appeal to action
The international community and donors must fill the major financing gap in the Haitian humanitarian response plan.
Haitians Think that their situation is neglected Because they believe that the international humanitarian community has all the active and funding to stop violence and help affected people.
The government, diplomats and the international community should now defend a clear end for current violence and stop reprisals against women and girls in Haiti.
It is important to act now because for me, Tomorrow is too late concerning the humanitarian needs and the living conditions of women in travel sites. “”
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
