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Ecuador’s transgender community decries lack of government aid during pandemic · Global Voices
Interview with LGBTIQ+ rights activist Rashell Erazo “I DON’T WANT TO DIE FOR BEING TRANS”: Rashell Erazo during a march for LGBTIQ+ rights in 2018. Photo used with permission. This article is part of our special coverage of LGBTQI+ pride. In Ecuador, the transgender community is surviving the pandemic thanks toContinue Reading
Female genital mutilation likely to rise in the Middle East amid COVID-19 pandemic · Global Voices
‘FGM is often practiced silently behind closed doors’ Screenshot from a Guardian YouTube video about female genital mutilation. COVID-19 has deeply affected women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), from increased domestic violence to job loss. But there is also one less visible area where women are affected:Continue Reading
Black Lives Matter forces an IBM U-turn on facial recognition · Global Voices
A system which worsens discrimination. Facial recognition technology analyses the structure of faces to allow identification of individuals. Image used with permission. Source: Pikrepo In the midst of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, which raised questions about policing and racism in the United States and elsewhere, technology company IBMContinue Reading
To save our leisure centres from closure, we may need to hand them to the community
Jacob Lund/Shutterstock Despite the UK’s coronavirus lockdown beginning to ease in June, the majority of swimming pools, gyms and leisure centres are still waiting to reopen. This slow return – together with a lack of government financial support and the anticipated tentativeness of consumers – means that many public leisureContinue Reading
Is global fertility really plummeting? How population forecasts are made
Fertility rates: hard to predict. noBorders – Brayden Howie/Shutterstock When the BBC reported on the results of a new study on global population in mid July, the tone was alarmist. “Jaw-dropping” declines in births were foretold, while one of the study’s authors revealed worries about his daughter’s future in lightContinue Reading
Are the Earth’s magnetic poles about to swap places? Strange anomaly gives reassuring clue
St Helena, where Earth's magnetic field behaves strangely. Umomos/Shutterstock Deep inside the Earth, liquid iron is flowing and generating the Earth’s magnetic field, which protects our atmosphere and satellites against harmful radiation from the Sun. This field changes over time, and also behaves differently in different parts of the world.Continue Reading
Tears and rage after Congress rejects franchise renewal of the Philippines’ biggest media network · Global Voices
An ABS-CBN worker raises her fist during a protest condemning the non-renewal of the network’s franchise. Photo from the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, used with permission. This article by Raymund B. Villanueva is from Kodao, an independent news site in the Philippines, and is republished on GlobalContinue Reading
Oxford immunologist on coronavirus vaccine: our early results look highly promising
Numstocker/Shutterstock A vaccine against COVID-19 is urgently needed if we’re to stop the virus spreading and prevent potentially millions of further deaths. We’re now one step closer to that goal. Today, we published early results from our clinical trial of the vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (also known as AZD1222), designed byContinue Reading
UAE Mars mission: extraordinary feat shows how space exploration can benefit small nations
Rocket carrying the Hope probe. MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES HAND/EPA The United Arab Emirates (UAE) successfully launched its Mars mission dubbed “Al Amal”, or “Hope”, from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan on July 20. This is the first space mission by the UAE, and the first Arab mission toContinue Reading
‘Invisible hands’: How millions of domestic workers fare under COVID-19 · Global Voices
Unions and organizations fight against weak contracts Part of a 9-post illustration series on Instagram, by Brazilian artists Leandro Assis and Triscila Oliveira. Used with permission. This is a collectively written story by Emma Lewis, Belen Febres-Cordero, Saoussen Ben Cheikh, Mina Nowrozi, Violeta Camarasa, Juliana Harsianti, Romina Navarro and Giovana Fleck. According to the InternationalContinue Reading