China’s lockdowns of big cities to fight coronavirus outbreaks are prompting concern about more disruptions to global industries after two makers of processor chips said their factories were affected.
153 million people worldwide may have dementia by 2050, as ageing populations, poor lifestyles impact citizens’ health
A study published on Thursday forecasting the prevalence of dementia, which is currently the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, claims that, within 30 years, the number of people living with the illness could triple.
An analysis conducted for the Global Burden of Disease Study, which looked at 195 countries, found that a number of risk factors require urgent steps to prevent the predicted rise from coming to fruition.
Experts fear that, without action, lifestyle issues, including high rates of smoking, obesity and diabetes, as well as ageing and growing populations, will contribute to the significant rise in dementia cases globally.
North Africa and the Middle East would see the greatest rise of any region by 2050, with cases growing from around three million to nearly 14 million, while the UK would see the smallest growth, from roughly 907,000 to 1.6 million.
“We need to focus more on prevention and control of risk factors before they result in dementia,” Emma Nichols, the study’s lead author, stated, adding that, to have the “greatest impact,” governments “need to reduce exposure to the leading risk factors in each country.”
Even modest advances in preventing dementia or delaying its progression would pay remarkable dividends.
Researchers were clear that this rise is not inevitable and can be reduced with improvements to education and healthcare, stating also that positive changes around the world have already seen them adjust the projected figure downwards by 6.2 million.
Dementia, which mainly affects older people, currently impacts more than 55 million people worldwide, with 10 million new cases emerging every year, according to The World Health Organization.
The illness has physical, psychological, social and economic impacts on those affected, as well as on carers, family members and others close to them. As of September, it is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases and a major cause of disability among elderly citizens.
ROME, Jan 07 (IPS) – As the Omicron surge overwhelms the world, it is clear to people everywhere that the actions which leaders so far have taken in response to the Covid-19 crisis have not been sufficient to overcome it.
Amid alarming reports of deadly violence in Kazakhstan, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Central Asia have called for restraint and dialogue. Â
Read the full story, “UN urges restraint in Kazakhstan, with dozens reportedly killedâ€, on globalissues.org →find more fun & mates at SoShow now !
The Iranian film A Hero is about a man who becomes a celebrity after doing a good deed. In filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s hands, what seems to be a black and white morality tale becomes more gray.
A French privacy watchdog accused the tech giants of making it difficult for users to opt out of tracking their activity
France’s online privacy regulator has ordered Google and Facebook to cough up some €210 million ($237 million) between them, fining the firms for their questionable use of data-tracking ‘cookies’ on their sites.
The French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) announced the move in a statement on Thursday, saying Google will be made to pay €150 million and Facebook another €60 million within a period of three months, or else face additional fines of €100,000 per day.
The commission said the way the companies employ ‘cookies’ – or small amounts of data generated while users browse websites that can be used to track their activity – “affects the freedom of consent,” as Facebook and Google make it much easier for netizens to authorize that data-tracking than to decline it.
“When you accept cookies, it’s done in just one click,”said Karin Kiefer, who leads the commission’s data protection and sanctions team. “Rejecting cookies should be as easy as accepting them.”
The watchdog org added that those practices violated the French Data Protection Act, and ordered the companies to “provide Internet users located in France with a means of refusing cookies as simple as the existing means of accepting them, in order to guarantee their freedom of consent.”
Both Google and Facebook issued statements vowing to work with French authorities to sort the issue, though the latter firm insisted its “cookie consent controls provide people with greater control over their data,” disputing the consent issues raised by the CNIL. Google, too, argued that “people trust us to respect their right to privacy and keep them safe,” but nonetheless said it would pursue “further changes” to comply with the order.
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