Diana Baptista profile background image
Diana Baptista profile image

Diana Baptista

Data Journalist

Thomson Reuters Foundation

Diana Baptista is a Data Journalist at the Thomson Reuters Foundation based in Mexico City. Before joining the Thomson Reuters Foundation Diana was a fact-checking producer at Reuters, and a journalist for Noticias Telemundo and national newspaper Reforma. Diana has a graduate degree in Data Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

February 28, 2024

Seeking a better life in the United States, migrant Nohe Vargas has spent the past two months dodging police as he weaves a slow way north by bus and motorbike from his home in Nicaragua.

Taking refuge at a migrant camp in Mexico City, the 32-year-old cook is now in a hurry to breach the U.S.-Mexico border.

January 24, 2024

From hail the size of golf balls to deadly heat, concert-goers in 2023 were forced to deal with extreme weather events that put them in harm's way during the world's warmest year on record, with temperatures predicted to climb even higher in 2024. 

Crowd safety experts and outdoor event organisers are exploring ways to protect performers and fans from the growing threat of extreme weather, after global warming neared an internationally agreed limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius last year.

January 23, 2024

As Europe, the United States and China set the pace in the global race to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Latin America will be next to take action, said the senator leading Mexico's push to govern the technology's use.

Sen. Alejandra Lagunes heads Mexico's National Artificial Intelligence Alliance, set up by Congress last April to help the country reap economic benefits from AI's development while also limiting its potential harms - from election disinformation to digital sexual harassment.

November 23, 2023

When 12-year-old Daniel transitioned gender in middle school, his Mexican teachers had no clue what to call him, how he should dress or what on earth to tell his classmates.

So they kept it all secret - prompting his mother to join a group that is backing a new text book for teachers on the dos and don'ts of trans life to ensure children like Daniel get the sort of help he never had.

November 22, 2023

Two years since the Mexican state of Veracruz legalised abortion, reproductive rights activist Metzeri Ávila still travels for hours into remote areas to deliver free abortion pills to women excluded by the public healthcare system.

Some women cannot afford to travel to a public hospital or do not know they are allowed to terminate their pregnancies, but others are being turned away by medical staff opposed to the procedure, Ávila said.

October 25, 2023

Olimpia Coral Melo got famous for all the wrong reasons - then used all the sexual attention she never sought to help other Latinas reclaim their bodies and dignity online.

It was a decade ago - Coral Melo was just 18 - when a video of her having sex with her then-boyfriend was shared on social media across her native Mexico.

October 20, 2023

Voice actor Armando Plata does not recall promoting a shopping mall in Bogota, narrating a porn movie or advertizing a big bank. Yet his voice comes over loud and clear: schmoozing, sighing and selling with neither permission nor payment.

It was the mild, robotic twang - rather than worry over any memory lapse - that alerted Plata to the fact his voice had been quietly cloned via artificial intelligence, robbing the veteran actor of his key asset, artistic choice and vocal rights.

September 14, 2023

As people around the world swelter in rising heat hitting new highs, spare a thought for those living in city centers - where research has found that temperatures can be considerably higher than in nearby green spaces or surrounding rural areas.

This phenomenon is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect - where dense clusters of concrete buildings and infrastructure such as roads absorb, retain and radiate more heat than green areas, leading to temperatures that are often several degrees hotter.

September 13, 2023

As the United States endures record temperatures, people working in tough conditions from farms to construction sites have little respite from the heat - and are often unable or afraid to take breaks despite the risks to their health and even their lives.

Extreme heat is the top weather-related killer in the nation - yet protections for workers are widely lacking, according to advocates who say that failing to ensure people can take breaks for water or shade will lead to more severe illness, and deaths.

September 12, 2023

Lawmakers in Latin America are carving out new rights for the human brain in response to advances in neurotechnology that make scanning, analyzing and selling mental data ever more possible.

Last month, the Chilean Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision ordering Emotiv, a U.S. producer of a commercial brain scanning tool, to erase the data it had collected on a former Chilean senator, Guido Girardi.