Latest UNICEF Report on the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen

Undergraduate student Isabella Bacino is in her second year at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly State) pursuing a degree in political science. A member of the National Honor Society, Isabella Bacino has published some of her research reports, including one on UNICEF’s work in Yemen, on her personal website, www.isabellabacino.org.

UNICEF released a report in late 2018 detailing the latest developments in what is considered the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Four years of relentless warfare have created an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The country relies on imports for more than 90 percent of its food supply.

The report cites that more than half of Yemenis are at risk of malnutrition due to blockades and insecurity at Yemen’s ports and the rising cost of food. Additionally, the civil war has brought the country’s economy and government to a halt.

Many Yemenis have no source of income or access to basic services. Public school teachers are not being paid, leaving over three million children without access to an education. A lack of functioning water treatment facilities has left more than 14 million people without clean water.

UNICEF estimates that over 80 percent of the country’s population will require some type of humanitarian assistance in the near future. In 2019, UNICEF called for more than half a billion dollars in aid to provide essential medical care, nutritional assistance, and economic support to the most vulnerable segments of Yemen’s population.

Basics of a Parliamentary No-Confidence Vote in UK Politics

Political science major Isabella Bacino is a student at California Polytechnic State University. Isabella Bacino has written extensively on Western European governments. Her discussion of the political process in the UK can be found on her personal website, www.isabellabacino.org.

While the political system in the United States uses the impeachment process to remove elected officials from office, the United Kingdom Parliament uses the no-confidence vote. Members of the Lower Parliament, elected representatives referred to as the House of Commons, can spur a general election by declaring that they have no confidence in either a party leader or the entire government. 

This declaration leads to a vote by secret ballot. If the majority of Parliament members agree with the declaration, then one of two outcomes is possible. 

The first is that the Prime Minister (PM) must step down and be replaced by another person from his/her party. The government then has two weeks to win back the confidence of the House of Commons. If this is not achieved, or if there is not a favorable replacement for the ousted PM, the entire Parliament must be dissolved and replaced in a general election. 

Calls for confidence votes are quite common. The most recent took place in January 2019 against PM Theresa May. However, most prime ministers and governments survive. The last vote that resulted in a general election took place in 1979.

How to Prevent Fake News on Social Media from Misleading Students

A resident of Tiburon, California, Isabella Bacino is a political science student at Cal Poly State University. At the institution, Isabella Bacino has conducted research on the influence of social media on college students’ political beliefs.

Her research found that social media does play a role in shaping students’ political opinions and that less politically engaged students were more likely to be misled than politically engaged students. The study included the following recommendations to stem the tide of misrepresentation arising from fake news on social media: 

Users should get their news from reputable and authoritative news sites, not from their social media news feeds. In specific, they should get their political news from renowned outlets like the New York Times, NPR, CNN, and BBC. If they do see political news on social media, they should verify it from reputable news outlets.

Students should also be encouraged to form their own political opinions through comprehensive research and deductive reasoning rather than peer or parental influence. They should do their own research, look at all relevant facts, and then make determinations. The more politically engaged students are, the less likely they are to be influenced by fake news on social media. This research, and more like it, can be found at isabellabacino.org.