June 20, 2018 – Bridge Agents

Technology is Both a Weapon and a Shield For Those Experiencing Domestic Violence

June 20, 2018 Bridge Agents

Australia (Conversation) – With growing recognition that domestic violence can be perpetuated using technology, there has been an increase of news stories that focus on how abusers use it to coerce and control victims. For example, when a man stole his ex-partner’s laptop so he could monitor her private Facebook messages. Or when a husband installed a GPS tracking device in his daughter’s doll to monitor his wife’s whereabouts without her knowledge. But there’s also considerable potential for victims to use new technologies to hold abusers accountable. Technology as a…

Why people choose to stay in areas vulnerable to natural disasters

June 20, 2018 Bridge Agents

(JR) – In the anticipation and aftermath of natural disasters, those in their path face difficult choices: To stay, or to leave? To relocate, or to rebuild in areas prone to the risk of property damage, which is predicted to become more acute as climate change progresses? Storms are particularly threatening weather events, according to a report issued in 2015 by the United Nations, which found that over the span of 20 years, they accounted for 40 percent of global weather-related deaths. Research indicates that massive floods, projected in the 1970s…

On a bridge over the Rio Grande, immigrants seeking asylum wait for a chance to enter the U.S.

June 20, 2018 Bridge Agents

Rio Grande (TT) – On Sunday and Monday night, 22-year-old Marcos Samayoa slept on pieces of old cardboard on a concrete sidewalk. He was perched above the Rio Grande, surrounded by a small pack of strangers on the international bridge that connects this Mexican border city to Brownsville, with his dusty green backpack and an old pair of sneakers. A few yards away, on the Texas side of the line, three Customs and Border Protection agents watched. It had been a long journey from Samayoa’s hometown of Mazatenango in southwest Guatemala….