Vaccine alliance raises $US2 billion to buy COVID shots for poor nations
London, UK/Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters A facility set up by the World Health Organization and the GAVI vaccine group has exceeded an interim target of raising more than $US2 billion to buy and distribute COVID-19 shots for poorer countries, but said it still needs more. The GAVI alliance said on Friday that the funds for an advance […]
“Algorithms of oppression”: Big tech urged to combat discrimination
Thomson Reuters Foundation Nearly a decade has passed since Safiya Noble googled “Black girls” and found the search results were mostly pornographic – a discovery that drove her to explore how algorithms can perpetuate discrimination and inequality. Google went on to fix that search engine issue, but Noble said the problem is far from solved. […]
Women and girls bear brunt of Africa “transport poverty”
Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation Long queues in the rain, daily four-hour trips in a public taxi, the constant threat of road accidents, and nearly having to use a pen as a knife to fight off an aggressive male passenger. These are just some of the challenges Busisiwe Nongauza has faced while commuting to and […]
Investors pressure Australian firms to tackle slavery in Asia-Pacific
Phnom Penh, CambodiaThomson Reuters Foundation Leading investors urged big businesses in Australia this week to eradicate modern slavery from their Asia-Pacific supply chains, as thousands of companies prepare to present their first reports under the country’s new anti-slavery law. A group of 24 investment firms, with $US4.22 trillion under management, sent letters to 100 Australian […]
Sony Pictures to acquire evangelical Christian streaming service Pure Flix
RNS Sony Pictures announced Thursday it is purchasing Pure Flix’s evangelical Christian video-streaming service launched in 2015 as a family-friendly competitor to Netflix. The streaming service will become part of Sony’s Affirm Entertainment, which also includes Affirm Films, the division responsible for popular faith-based films like Miracles From Heaven, War Room and last year’s Overcomer. Screenshot […]
A blue surprise?: As the US state of Arizona trends toward Biden, Latino voters stand out
ALEJANDRA MOLINA, of Religion News Service, reports on why Latino residents in Arizona – a majority Catholic group – largely voted Democrat during the US election…
Biden pledges to raise refugee ceiling to 125,000 in address to Jesuit group
RNS President-elect Joe Biden announced he will raise the number of refugees allowed into the United States to 125,000 in his first year in office, a major reversal from President Donald Trump’s steep cuts to the US refugee program. It’s not the first time Biden has made that pledge. He previously floated the number in a statement […]
Polish bishops defend John Paul II after McCarrick report
Warsaw, PolandAP Polish bishops defended St John Paul II on Friday against evidence that he rejected reports that ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick slept with his seminarians, seeking to salvage a papal legacy that has been badly tarnished by his inaction on clergy sexual abuse. The head of the Polish bishops conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, said in […]