NGO

• WASHINGTON, March 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The VIII International GR Forum, held on March 14th, brought together leading experts and practitioners in Government Relations (GR) from around the globe.
• "IGAPA has served as the beacon of professional excellence in the realm of government relations.
• This international platform has successfully united IGAPA members from over 16 countries and forged partnerships worldwide," remarked Odarchenko.
• Paolo von Schirach, President of the Global Policy Institute and Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bay Atlantic University, skillfully moderated the first panel, delving into emerging trends in lobbying and government relations.

• Seven aid workers from the food aid charity World Central Kitchen were killed in Gaza on Monday night when their convoy was attacked in a confirmed Israeli drone strike.
• Humanitarian aid workers and people receiving aid should be protected and not targeted.
• Despite this, attacks on aid workers in conflict areas are becoming more frequent around the world.
• Aid workers have since pushed for improvements to the deconfliction system, including improved lines of communication and “command and control” within the Israeli military.

Suspended operations

• World Central Kitchen suspended its operations in Gaza after the attack.
• UN organisations, which provide around 80% of the aid in Gaza, have suspended night-time operations in response to the attack.
• Several humanitarian organisations have paused their operations altogether as conditions have become too dangerous for their staff.

• In March, a failed parachute resulted in a dropped pallet of aid killing five people in Gaza.
• In another incident, at least 12 people drowned trying to retrieve items that fell into the sea.
• Fights have broken out for the goods dropped in this way as there is no organised delivery on the ground.

Need for humanitarian access

• Safe and unhindered access for humanitarian goods and workers is vital for the survival of so many in Gaza.
• As UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency with 13,000 staff in Gaza, this hinders relief operations significantly.
• Ultimately, a ceasefire is the only way to ensure aid can enter Gaza at scale and be distributed to those in need safely.
• UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said “it demonstrates yet again the urgent need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the expansion of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Contrary to many claims, a blanket ban on flavoured vaping products is a harmful approach to public health.
• Moreover, mounting evidence suggests that banning flavours leads to an increase in smoking among both adults and youth .
• Rather than imposing flavour bans, the CVA supports, based on the strongest evidence, the enforcement of regulations that protect young people while also promoting harm reduction for adults.
• Conversely, provinces like Ontario and Alberta with balanced regulation have the lowest rates of youth vaping in Canada.

• New Relic , the all-in-one observability platform for every engineer, announced that Trek Medics , a nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to improving global access to emergency response networks, is using New Relic for its observability practice through its Observability for Good program.
• Trek Medics has used New Relic to maintain the reliability of its platform while scaling its growth to support 9x the emergency response incidents dispatched per year.
• Trek Medics has developed a first-of-its-kind technology that allows emergency responders to communicate and coordinate alerts and responses using their mobile devices, with or without requiring internet connectivity.
• Mobile and browser monitoring enable emergency response services using their platform to manage their systems on browsers while coordinating a broad network of mobile devices.