Tag Archive for: aid

Biden Worries House Tumult Could Disrupt U.S. Aid to Ukraine: Live Updates


President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arriving at the European Political Community summit in Granada, Spain, on Thursday.Credit…Marcelo Del Pozo/Getty Images

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived in Spain on Thursday to participate in a European summit aimed at strengthening cooperation across the continent amid concerns about waning support for his country as it faces another winter of Russian aggression.

The Ukrainian leader’s trip to the southern Spanish city of Granada came a day after President Biden expressed worries that the recent political turmoil in Congress could disrupt the flow of U.S. aid to Ukraine.

“I think it’s too late for us to worry. I think we have to work on it,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters at the summit when asked if he was concerned about a possible scaling back of U.S. military aid.

He said that he was confident that the United States would continue to support Ukraine’s war efforts, noting that meetings with Mr. Biden and with Congress members last month were positive.

Mr. Zelensky earlier said that the “joint goal” of those gathering in Granada was “to ensure the security and stability of our common European home.”

“We will pay special attention to the Black Sea region as well as our joint efforts to strengthen global food security and freedom of navigation,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Ukraine’s key priority, particularly as winter approaches, is to strengthen air defense.”

E.U. leaders are expected to discuss long-term financial aid for Ukraine at a summit planned later this month in Brussels. On Thursday, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told reporters in Granada that what Ukraine needed was “predictability and reliability” on direct budget support.

“I’m very confident of support for Ukraine from the United States,” she said. “What the United States is working on is the timing.”

Thursday’s meeting in Grenada comes amid concerns about potential cracks in Europe’s united front on Ukraine, as governments reckon with the economic and political costs of providing long-term support for Kyiv.

It is just the third meeting of the European Political Community, a…

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Survivors work to prevent human trafficking, aid victims


Survivors work to prevent human trafficking, aid victims

By Lauren Monsen

Left: Holly Austin Gibbs (© Kim Van Oosten/Catholic Health Association) Right: Tanya Gould (Courtesy of Tanya Gould)

Victims of human trafficking come from every region of the globe. Increasingly, survivors are taking the lead in the fight against the crime and in helping its victims to heal.

To understand the scope of the problem, caused primarily by criminals subjecting victims to forced labor or sex trafficking, one need only see the International Labour Organization estimates, which say that at any given time in 2021:

  • 21 million people worked in a factory, on a farm or as a domestic worker under threat of penalty or harm.
  • 6 million people — adults and children (99% female) — were forced to participate in the sex industry.
Signs recruit women to leave Manila, the Philippines, for work in the Middle East. The country is fighting illegal ads aiding human traffickers. (© Aaron Favila/AP)

 

Since 2010, every U.S. president has dedicated January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and January 11 is observed as Human Trafficking Awareness Day. (The Department of Homeland Security will host #WearBlueDay on social media on January 11.)

Survivors spare others

Portrait of smiling woman (Courtesy of Tanya Gould)
Tanya Gould (Courtesy of Tanya Gould)

Two survivor leaders spoke with ShareAmerica about protecting young people, in particular.

Tanya Gould, the anti-human trafficking director for the attorney general of Virginia, brings a survivor’s perspective to the state’s response to the problem.

Gould says parents should make “internet guardianship” a priority because traffickers often seek young victims online. “Teach your kids that buying sex is wrong. Everything is not for sale, and the value of sex and intimacy is priceless.”

School staffers should be trained to identify traffickers and minors under their influence, she said. In addition, adults who supervise children should know how to use reporting protocols for suspected trafficking.

Parents and guardians can educate themselves by watching videos of survivors telling their stories and learning about apps that traffickers use to contact young people….

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Pea Ridge police say body cameras to aid in security, efficiency


PEA RIDGE — As they prepare for their shifts, don their vests and attach gear, from now on police officers with the Pea Ridge Police Department will add one more piece of equipment. Each officer will wear a body camera that can record video and audio as well as take still photographs.

The small rectangular black box fits securely on the officer’s chest and will provide an additional dimension of security for both the officer and the public, according to the department.

“The Pea Ridge Police Department’s goals and objectives in deploying body-worn cameras are the accurate documentation of interactions between our officers and members of the public, arrests, and other critical incidents,” according to a press release issued by the department.

“It’s going help officers with transparency,” Police Chief Lynn Hahn said. “If anyone has questions … if we get complaints against an officer, we’ll be able to see what happened, not just hear.”

He said the evidence gained will be invaluable for court cases and will provide a more secure and efficient means of sharing evidence and case information with prosecutors.

In the past, officers have used their own personal phones for photographs. Now, Hahn said, they can take pictures with the camera and automatically upload the photographs to the cloud.

“I think it’s going to save us time in the long-run in document management,” Hahn said. The photographs and videos are uploaded to the cloud, and any evidence or documents pertaining to that case can be added.

Hahn said previously sharing case files with prosecutors could be very laborious. With the software, it is simplified. The department can share a link to prosecutors to receive the necessary information.

Officer Justin Lawson was the first Pea Ridge officer to return to the station with video. He placed the camera in the dock, and the images were quickly uploaded to the cloud and available on the computer.

As he reviewed the files, Matt Dugas, national director of business development for Intrensic, noted the information available on the file. Dugas was in Pea Ridge last week to train officers on the use of the camera and software.

Dugas said the range of the camera is 140 degrees and the camera is…

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Talking Labels Aid the Blind With Prescriptions



Not for over-the-counter drugs

One drawback to these talking RFID labels is that they’re generally used for prescriptions only, and not for over-the-counter drugs.

“This one area of our advocacy has been the most challenging,” Bridges says. “Obviously, we wanted to focus first on prescription drugs because they’re the most critical to our own health.”

Neva Fairchild, national aging and vision loss specialist at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), uses the CVS app and sometimes braille labels for prescription drugs.

“You’d be amazed how much an ibuprofen feels like an iron pill feels like an allergy pill,” she says.

Pharmacist-recorded solution

Other companies offer additional solutions. Walgreens stores have a Talking Pill Reminder that is free for people who self-identify as visually impaired. It costs about $10 otherwise.

Dosing directions and label information that a pharmacist records are played back when you push a button on a Talking Pill Reminder, which attaches to the bottom of most prescription vials. It can record up to a 30-second description.

The Seeing AI app for the iPhone from Microsoft can read aloud the short text it sees in front of the phone’s camera, including what appears on a prescription bottle. The versatile app has other functions, such as identifying people and the denominations on currencies.

“The reason I find [Seeing AI] particularly useful is you don’t have to specifically know where the text is if you’re trying to scan a pill bottle,” Aaron Preece says. He’s editor-in-chief of AccessWorld, AFB’s technology magazine.

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