UK overtakes Italy with Europe’s highest official coronavirus death toll
London, UKReuters The United Kingdom has overtaken Italy to report the highest official death toll from the new coronavirus in Europe, figures released on Tuesday showed, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his response to the crisis. Weekly figures from Britain’s Office for National Statistics added more than 7,000 deaths in England and […]
Indian police use facial recognition app to reunite families with lost children
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Indian police have reunited thousands of missing and trafficked children with their families using a new facial recognition app that campaigners said was a “game changer” in tackling the problem. Tens of thousands of children go missing every year in India and many are trafficked to work in eateries, handicraft industries, […]
Gotta catch ’em all: Pokemon-style app aims to save Indonesia’s forests
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation An Indonesian crowdsourcing app is tapping into the competitive spirit of its users by creating Pokemon Go-type games to help map land across the sprawling archipelago and protect forests and Indigenous people, organisers said on Friday. The Urundata application uses publicly available satellite images to create games where users visit an area […]
Encrypted app aims to boost sex crime reporting in India
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Women in India will be able to anonymously report sexual abuse, seek medical or legal aid and create private journals on a mobile app to be launched next week to make reporting of the crime less traumatic for survivors. The Smashboard app uses blockchain to create an encrypted space where victims […]
New app predicts water-related conflict up to year in advance
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Conflicts over water are likely to flare up in Iraq, Mali and India in the coming year, according to the developers of an app launched on Thursday which aims to help prevent violence by flagging up potential flashpoints. They said the “groundbreaking” early warning tool, which has also predicted risks in […]
Asian pulp giants pressed to paper over rivalry to save rainforest
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation Asia’s pulp and paper giants – which supply materials for stationery, tissues and toilet roll – are being urged by environmentalists to follow the palm oil industry in stepping up collaboration to tackle forest loss and fires in Indonesia. Singapore’s APRIL Group and its main rival Indonesia’s Asia Pulp & […]
POSTCARDS: IN WASHINGTON, DC, AN APP SPOTLIGHTS AMERICAN LANDMARKS “WITH A NATIVE TWIST”
CAREY L BIRON, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports from the US capital…
Armed with tech tools, Colombian cities combat mosquito-borne diseases
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation Armed with a mobile app, Glenis Barragan has been knocking from door to door in the poor neighbourhoods of Colombia’s northern city of Cucuta, aiming to combat the spread of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease. In the past year, Barragan has helped fellow residents identify and destroy mosquito breeding grounds […]
WOW!: APP FOR THE BLIND IS THE LATEST IN JERUSALEM’S EFFORT TO MAKE HOLY SITES ACCESSIBLE
MICHELE CHABIN, of Religion News Service, reports…
New app seeks to reunite South Sudan’s “lost children” with families
Nairobi, KenyaThomson Reuters Foundation A new app launched in South Sudan on Friday aims to help aid workers reunite thousands of children with their families after they became separated during a five-year war and identify other vulnerable children. The app was developed by the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, and the charity Save the Children […]