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<big><big>Here</big></big> is part of the website of the Thomson Reuters Foundation which wikipedia tells us is:
a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate.[2] The Foundation is registered as a charity in the United States and United Kingdom and is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London.[3] Antonio Zappulla has been CEO since 2016.[4] Contents:
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Reuters originated as what used to be called a news wire service (“wire” meaning telegraph) — see here for the four major ones globally.
In addition to the women’s rights page you reach by clicking on that big <big>HERE</big> up there, you’ll see the site also has pages/tabs for ■ Coronavirus ■ LGBT+ ■ Climate ■ Economies ■ Technology ■ Slavery/Human Trafficking ■ Cities ■ Land ■ and “More” (In Focus, Videos, Opinion). As long as keeping in mind that this is news aggregator from TheAdvancedWest looking at the whole world, even if very skilled at it and extensively employing local news reporters/writers where events are —at lot of them stringers, it appears, as the term used to be— the ReutersFndn site can be very useful, among with all the all the rest of the sources our group draws upon, including the ThomsonReuters main site.
Stories that appear on one page of the Foundation site may also appear on others — it’s nice that they’re not too rigid about that. So, I’ll link and exerpt a story or so from each page, and that should supply some idea of the scope and orientation of the Foundation’s reportage. (All images are from the dk image library, for general illustrative purposes, no necessary connection to the stories they’re with. )
African rainforests slow climate change despite record heat, drought
Rainforests in 6 African nations found more resilient than Amazonia and S.E. Asian tropical forests.
By Nita Bhalla
NAIROBI, May 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Africa's tropical forests appear more resilient as carbon sinks than Amazonian rainforests - mopping up planet-warming carbon dioxide even [in drought and] when sizzling El Nino heat [of 0.92 degrees Celsius above the 1980-2010 average] halted absorption in other parts of the world, researchers said on Monday.
They studied the [2015-16] impact of the worst El Nino weather event on record ... on intact rainforests in six African nations: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia and Congo Republic. (El Nino is a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific that occurs every few years. It affects wind patterns and can trigger both floods and drought across the world.)
[African rainforest trees] continued to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere... "We saw no sharp slowdown of tree growth, nor a big rise in tree deaths ..." said Amy Bennett, lead author of the study and a professor at Britain's University of Leeds...
Whore no more: Italian dictionary scraps 'sexist' definitions of a woman — and the British Oxford University Press dictionary does too, after...
[dozens] of public figures, from writers to lawmakers, signed an open letter to the Treccani online dictionary in March demanding action to remove offensive terms - ... the synonyms used for "man" were largely positive. Among [“synonyms” removed] from the entry defining a woman are "puttana" (whore) and "cagna" (bitch).
Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, an activist who led the campaign [and said she’s been contacted by people everywhere from Greece to India interested in launching similar fights], said Treccani had also promised a wider review to ensure women are shown playing an equal role in society in definitions and to describe relationships using LGBT+-inclusive language. [A spokesman for Treccani said the changes were made as part of its "continuous research on the evolution of the social and cultural context" of language.]
"It's great ... It's so widely available and accessible online and it's used by everyone ... it's important, given that it is so accessible, that it's not spreading something so toxic,"..." said Britain-based Giovanardi, who won a similar victory against the Oxford English dictionary last year…. The renowned English language dictionary [had been] criticised for listing terms such as "bitch", "bird" and "bint" as having a similar meaning to "woman"...
Observe (wiktionary): bint
Borrowed from Arabic <big><big>بِنْت </big></big> (bint, “girl, daughter”) ... used to denote a patronym [i.e., “daughter of” followed by her father’s name]
The term entered the British lexicon during the occupation of Egypt at the end of the 19th century, where it was adopted by British soldiers to mean "girlfriend" or "bit on the side". Its register varies from that of the harsherbitch to being affectionate, the latter more commonly associated with the West Midlands. The term was used in British armed forces and the London area synonymously with bird in its slang usage (and sometimes brass) from at least the 1950s. (In the Tyneside shipping industry, particularly in Laygate, in South Shields, the term may have been adopted earlier, from the Yemeni community which had existed there since the 1890s.[1])
...(Britain,<big><big>derogatory</big></big>) A woman, a girl.
In the 1960s, I observed some Brits using it as an insult insinuating that the woman or girl is stupid, silly, ugly, valueless as a person/ human being, promiscuous, etc., in order to portray her as legitimate to abuse. --ed.
Ghana police arrest 21 LGBT+ activists at 'unlawful' gathering
ACCRA, May 21 (Reuters) - Ghanaian police on Friday said they had detained 21 people they suspected of promoting an LGBT+ agenda at an unlawful assembly in the southeastern city of Ho.
LGBT+ people face widespread persecution in the West African nation where gay sex is punishable with up to three years imprisonment.
The 16 women and five men were arrested on Thursday at a hotel for nurses and midwives, the police statement said, alleging they had gathered to advocate LGBT+ activities with books and flyers with titles including, "Coming out" and "All about Trans."...
In South Africa, a zero-waste food bus hopes to drive away hunger
JOHANNESBURG, May 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Sidney Beukes got his bus driver's licence, he never imagined himself behind the wheel of a 40-year-old school bus that has been turned into a mobile grocery store serving low-income residents of Johannesburg.
The bus is not an easy drive: there is no power steering and it chugs along. But Beukes said every time a customer climbs aboard to buy groceries they could not afford in the shops [or couldn’t get to because of COVID], he is reminded of why he would not want to drive anything else.
...The Skhaftin bus - named after a local slang word meaning lunchbox - was born at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when activist Ilka Stein appealed on social media for social entrepreneurs to brainstorm ideas to help the community….
How Myanmar's military moved in on the telecoms sector to spy on citizens (wik link added)
SINGAPORE/BANGKOK, May 19 (Reuters) - In the months before the Myanmar military's Feb. 1 coup, the country's telecom and internet service providers were ordered to install intercept spyware that would allow the army to eavesdrop on the communications of citizens, sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
The technology gives the military the power to listen in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance of the telecom and internet firms, the sources said[, all] part of a sweeping effort by the army to deploy electronic surveillance systems and exert control over the internet with the aim of keeping tabs on political opponents, squashing protests and cutting off channels for any future dissent, they added.
Decision makers at the civilian Ministry of Transport and Communications that delivered the orders were ex-military officials…
See also: More than 15,000 people from Myanmar shelter in mountainous north-east Indian border state of Mizoram, beginning in late February as policemen and some lawmakers fled to avoid having to take orders from the military junta suppressing opposition to its Feb. 1 coup. Local officials estimate the numbers in excess of 15,400.
From teaching to football, communities seen as key to ending use of child soldiers Exact numbers are uncertain, but iIn 2019 alone, an estimated 7,700 children down to the age of 6 were recruited and used as fighters or in other roles, mostly by non-state armed groups, such as militias and rebels.
ADDIS ABABA, May 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Listening to local communities is key to … ending the use of children by armed groups by 2025, a top United Nations (U.N.) official and charities said on Thursday.
Former child soldiers often face stigma when they return home, and [risk re-recruitment] if they cannot find food, security and support among their communities … "Even when separated from armed forces and groups, children ... struggle in regaining their place in their families and communities," the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, told a virtual event.
"Community-led reintegration programming is the most efficient way to ensure [their] rehabilitation and recovery … to break the cycle of violence and prevent future ... recruitment..."
Girls and boys are forced to join armed groups, as fighters or in roles such as cooks or for sexual exploitation, in at least 14 countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Somalia...
Senegal architects ditch concrete for earth in revival of old techniques
Construction is booming in Dakar, where unfinished apartment blocks tower over most streets, their exposed concrete bricks a dull uniform gre. … Concrete is inexpensive and used with abandon in Senegal's capital, but it is [both pollutive to manufacture and] poorly suited to the West African heat. On summer days, when temperatures frequently reach 100 degrees fahrenheit (38°C), the buildings become furnaces, cooled only with blasts of air conditioning.
In one site, however, a building stands out - the bricks the workers are laying are made of raw, red earth. … Earth naturally regulates heat and humidity, say the founders of Worofila, an architecture firm specializing in bioclimatic design.
..."Before air conditioning, people paid attention to materials and orientation for the natural regulation of heat," said Worofila co-founder Nzinga Mboup, while workers laid bricks for the upper floors of what will be a family home with a pool. "The moment A/C arrived, these considerations went out the window."...
Brazilian police target environment minister in wood smuggling probe
BRASILIA, May 19 (Reuters) - Brazilian police on Wednesday targeted Environment Minister Ricardo Salles and other officials in a probe of an alleged wood smuggling ring, according to court documents, throwing a harsh spotlight on a key figure in U.S.-Brazil environmental talks.
Salles has been leading negotiations with President Joe Biden's administration in a push to get international funding of Brazilian efforts to protect the Amazon jungle, the world's largest tropical rainforest.
However, as minister, Salles has presided over a surge in Amazon deforestation to a 12-year high in 2020 as the government rolls back environmental enforcement….
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