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WHO/Europe will host a webinar on 6 June looking at how data and digital health can be used to optimise the work of health and care professionals. This is the eighth webinar in the “Decoding Data and Digital Health” series, which covers digital health topics of importance to countries in the WHO European Region.Digital LifelineGlobally, the healthcare sector faces numerous challenges, including the threat of new disease outbreaks and severe workforce shortages. Although the WHO European Region has the highest density of health workers among WHO regions, many countries still report shortages. Furthermore, the workforce is ageing, with the number…
In 2020, “pandemic gardens” were as popular as new pets and sourdough starters, but many of us learned the hard way that keeping indoor plants healthy (or even alive) isn’t always easy. This little gadget is looking to change all that, giving you real-time data on what your plants need. According to the makers, it will “revolutionize” the way we care for our indoor plants.It’s estimated that American adults kill or kill about 190 million houseplants each year, enough to cause many to give up the houseplant hobby altogether.SmartyPlants, as its name suggests, aims to change all that. Designed specifically…
Over the past few decades, the textile industry has evolved towards a “fast fashion” approach: cheap clothing made from cheap materials that is worn for one season or less and then discarded. Textile production and consumption puts enormous pressures on the environment and climate change. These pressures range from the land and water used to produce textiles, the energy and chemical dyes used in manufacturing and production, to retail and waste.Our assessment shows that compared to other consumption categories, textile consumption in the EU had the third highest pressure on water and land use in 2020, and the fifth highest…
Libattion, a Swiss company that offers stationary energy storage solutions made from upcycled electric vehicle batteries, has secured €14 million in funding. Libattion aims to provide the battery market with more sustainable and cost-efficient battery technology to reduce imports of critical resources and contribute to the decarbonisation of the industry. The company produces innovative energy storage systems called “e-Racks” that are available in a wide range of capacities, from 97kWh to 60MWh. Energy storage systems provide energy flexibility services for businesses, such as frequency control, peak demand reduction and fast charging for electric vehicles. This makes batteries ideal for supporting…
The fifth EU-China high-level environment and climate dialogue, held in Brussels on June 18, highlighted Beijing’s concerns over clean technology trade restrictions and stressed that an agreement on climate finance is crucial to the success of COP29 in Baku. In 2023, Frans Timmermans, the EU’s climate change minister, made the long journey to Beijing to meet with Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang for the fourth meeting, a trip that helped pave the way for the successful and widely acclaimed COP28 climate change conference. This year, the Chinese traveled to the city to attend the forum’s fifth edition against the backdrop of…
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — As the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing a vast expanse of wet sand stretching to the distant cliffs, the enormity of the task faced by Allied soldiers who landed on Nazi-occupied Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, begins to sink in.Several events were held Sunday to mark the 77th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the decisive attack that liberated France and Western Europe from Nazi rule, and to honour those who died. “These were the men who made it possible for freedom to regain a foothold on the European continent and who, in the days…
Generative AI tools like Midjourney use machine learning algorithms trained on the artist’s images to generate images in minutes.Street art depicting characters from Asterix in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Getty ImagesAccording to Gautier van Meerbeeck, editor-in-chief of Le Lombard, this has led to a “total rejection” of AI in the European comics industry.His company publishes The Adventures of Tintin, a book about the intrepid boy reporter who is now almost 100 years old.Created by Hergé, Tintin is known for his blonde bangs, baggy plus-four and trusty dog sidekick Snowy and is now considered a global industry icon.”[AI-generated] “Art is created by…
European Union regulators on Tuesday accused Microsoft of violating antitrust laws by bundling its video conferencing and collaboration software, Teams, with other productivity tools, giving the company an unfair advantage over rivals.Regulators said Microsoft’s packaging of Teams with other popular software tools within Office 365 and Microsoft 365, which include programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, amounts to an illegal abuse of market power that rivals such as Zoom and Slack cannot match. If companies want other Microsoft software, they essentially have little choice but to choose Teams, they said.The charges are just the latest in a series…
This beautiful island in the Adriatic Sea is home to one of Europe’s most beautiful seaside towns and is known as the “sunniest place in Europe” with an average of over 2,715 hours of sunshine per year and hot Mediterranean temperatures in July and August. The Croatian island of Hvar, off the Dalmatian coast, sits between the better-known islands of Brac, Vis and Korcula, but gets relatively little attention compared to them. In July, it can be scorching hot, with an average high of 31°C.At 42.25 miles long and 6.5 miles wide at its widest point, the island has an…
Brussels, 12 June 2024 A pioneering report from the WHO Regional Office for Europe clearly outlines how certain powerful industries are causing ill health and premature deaths across Europe and Central Asia, including through their interference and influence on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, and their risk factors – tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diets and obesity. The report calls on governments to put mechanisms in place to identify conflicts of interest and protect public policies from industry interference.Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Welfare, Frank Vandenbroucke, launched the report…