Snapshot: Bahrain World Trade Center, Manama, Bahrain
See TODD GARDNER’s image…
Facebook’s US election plan patches some holes, creates others
San Francisco, USReuters Facebook Inc’s final policy changes in the lead-up to US elections in November are unlikely to stem a flood of disinformation around the vote, which could suppress turnout and sow confusion about results, election experts said on Friday. Restrictions on paid messaging were a net positive, experts said, but warned such moves […]
Tracing apps may stem COVID-19 spread even when only a few use them – study
Reuters Contact tracing apps can sharply reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus even when only a few people use them, a study published on Thursday by researchers at Google and Oxford University showed. An app used by 15 per cent of the population together with a well-staffed contact-tracing workforce can lead to a 15 […]
Ban virginity tests – Afghanistan rights panel
Kabul, AfghanistanThomson Reuters Foundation Afghanistan’s human rights panel on Thursday backed an “unconditional ban” on virginity tests, saying they violate rights, lack scientific basis and do nothing to protect women. Virginity tests check whether a woman or girl’s hymen – the thin tissue that may partially cover the vagina – is torn, in an effort […]
Australia’s coronavirus death toll surges on aged care fatalities; NZ measures to continue
Melbourne/Sydney, AustraliaReuters An Australian state reported a record 59 deaths on Friday, the highest ever daily total for the country, including previously unrecorded fatalities in aged care homes over the past several weeks. The increase fatalities in Victoria state pushed the country’s death toll to 737 as the national cabinet – made up of Prime […]
Children in detention: How US Christian women are fighting immigrant family separations on Zoom
MICAH DANNEY, writing for Religion Unplugged, reports on the For Every Child campaign…
Indigenous land intrusions help drive higher virus death toll in the Amazon
Sao Paulo, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation The rate of coronavirus deaths among Indigenous people in Brazil’s Amazon is nearly 250 per cent higher than in the general population, for reasons ranging from a lack of access to healthcare to invasions of Indigenous land, researchers said. The fatality rate among COVID-19-infected Indigenous Amazonians had soared by early […]
Essay: US punishes International Criminal Court for investigating potential war crimes in Afghanistan
International human rights lawyer SUSAN M AKRAM – in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at this week’s announcement that the US would apply sanctions against members of the International Criminal Court…
Wow!: Tuk-tuk warriors – the abuse victims who rode to women’s rescue in lockdown India
ANNIE BANERJI, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports from India on how abuse survivors in India are helping other women…
In US city of Kenosha prayer vigil at ELCA church calls for confession, lament and justice for Jacob Blake
Kenosha, WisconsinRNS The message appeared on signs, T-shirts and face masks in the crowd. Black Lives Matter. But Sonja Wolfe, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Church Council and resident of Kenosha, Wisconsin, said she was tired of feeling like they don’t. “I’m tired of feeling like I don’t matter to some people […]