When the first COVID-19 case was detected in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in April last year, Hnin Hnin (not her real name), was able to keep her school for migrant children open, spending her mornings as she usually did, drawing up word games on a large whiteboard as her five-year-old pupils looked on.Infections and deaths at the time remained in the single digits, and Hnin Hnin, a teacher from Myanmar, was cautiously optimistic that the pandemic would end soon.

Worried his appearance would detract from opportunities in China's competitive society, Xia Shurong decided to go under the surgeon's knife to reshape his nose - one of the millions of young men in the country turning to cosmetic surgery.The 27-year-old researcher wanted medical procedures to transform his look from an "engineering geek" to something he thinks will boost his life chances. Beauty standards in China can be exacting, from pressure over skin tone, eye

A survey of senior Singapore-based business leaders conducted by BBC Global News in June 2021 has found that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how they consume, engage and share the news.

At least one person died and 17 were missing after a storm dumped heavy rain and caused flooding in the Philippines, authorities said Thursday, as a powerful typhoon barrelled towards the country.Tropical Storm Conson hit the central province of Eastern Samar as a typhoon on Monday before weakening as it passed over the archipelago, forcing around 10,000 people to flee their homes, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.One person drowned on the island provin

Trapped on island habitats made smaller by rising seas, Indonesia's Komodo dragons were listed as "endangered" on Saturday, in an update of the wildlife Red List that also warned overfishing threatens nearly two-in-five sharks with extinction. About 28 percent of the 138,000 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are now at risk of vanishing in the wild forever, as the destructive impact of human activity on the natural world

The pandemic’s next effect might be a wave of political conflict. A rising tide of anger among young people at what they have willingly sacrificed for older people emerges in a major survey across 12 European countries.

Faced with a worrying demographic crisis of its own making, China is encouraging couples to have more children.There's just one problem: women aren't too keen on the idea.For more than 35 years, the ruling Communist Party strictly enforced a one-child policy, as the country tried to address overpopulation and alleviate poverty.

Almost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at “extremely high risk” from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The UN agency’s head called the situation “unimaginably dire”.Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said.

Three-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey.The Ipsos Mori survey for the Global Commons Alliance (GCA) also found a majority (58 percent) were very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the planet.Four in five respondents said they were willing to step up and do more to regenerate the global commons.The

July was the hottest month globally ever recorded, a United States (US) scientific agency said Friday, in the latest data to sound the alarm about the climate crisis."July is typically the world's warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded," said Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)."This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has