Postcards: “You wake up well” – Amazon villagers take vine tea to treat COVID
LUCAS LANDAU, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how one Indigenous community in Brazil is responding to the coronavirus pandemic…
UK rules on goods from China’s Xinjiang seen as soft on business
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation British measures to tackle forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region do not go far enough and are “a missed opportunity” to make companies clean up their operations, activists said on Tuesday. The government said it would introduce rules for businesses aimed at keeping goods from Xinjiang out of supply chains – from guidance […]
Climate change blamed for a third of US flood losses in past three decades
Thomson Reuters Foundation Climate change has boosted the cost of flood damage caused by heavy rainfall in the United States by $7US5 billion over the last three decades, accounting for about a third of total losses, Stanford University researchers said this week. With planet-heating emissions still going up, both extreme rainfall and related losses will […]
Google launches $US3 million fund to fight vaccine misinformation
Gdansk, PolandReuters The Google News Initiative on Tuesday launched a global open fund to fight misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, worth up to $US3 million. The “COVID-19 Vaccine Counter Misinformation Open Fund” aims to support journalistic efforts to effectively fact-check misinformation about the COVID-19 immunisation process, the initiative belonging to Alphabet’s Google said in a blog […]
Irish PM says “perverse” morality drove unwed mothers’ homes
London, UKAP Ireland’s Prime Minister said on Tuesday that the country must “face up to the full truth of our past”, as a long-awaited report recounted decades of harm done by church-run homes for unmarried women and their babies, where thousands of infants died. Micheal Martin said young women and their children had paid a […]
New Zealand to ask international travellers for negative virus test before flying in
Sydney, Australia/Wellington, New ZealandReuters New Zealand will ask international travellers from most countries to show negative COVID-19 test results before boarding flights to the country as new contagious variants of COVID-19 spread across globally. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear […]
In the US, Democrats barreling toward impeaching Trump in wake of Capitol siege
Washington DC, USReuters Democrats in the US House of Representatives plan to impeach Donald Trump on Wednesday unless he steps down or is removed before then, after drawing up charges accusing him of inciting insurrection ahead of last week’s siege of the Capitol. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told his fellow Democrats the chamber would […]
Drive for goal to protect 30 per cent of planet by 2030 grows to 50 nations
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation A global coalition to protect at least 30 per cent of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030 has swelled its ranks to about 50 countries, as governments said at a summit hosted by France Monday that biodiversity loss and climate change should be tackled jointly. First launched in 2020, the High […]
Mississippi Governor signs law for flag without rebel emblem
Jackson, Mississippi, USAP Mississippi hoisted a new state flag without the Confederate battle emblem on Monday, just over six months after legislators retired the last state banner in the US that included the divisive rebel symbol. The new flag has a magnolia and the phrase, “In God We Trust”. Voters approved the design in November, […]
Somali PM reserves 30 per cent of parliament seats for women in upcoming poll
Garowe, SomaliaThomson Reuters Foundation Nearly a third of Somalia’s parliamentary seats will be reserved for female lawmakers in an election next month, the prime minister said, a measure long demanded by women’s rights campaigners in the Horn of Africa nation. While welcoming Saturday’s announcement by Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, some women’s groups cautioned that […]