Southeast Asia has shown an improvement in the number of women in leadership roles.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, all eyes are on China and its response to containing the spread of the virus. On 31 December, 2019, the Chinese government reported that it was treating dozens of patients infected with a new virus. Just two weeks later, the first death was reported. As of today, more than one million cases have been confirmed.

Malaysia is home to important habitats for marine turtles such as nesting beaches for the laying of eggs and coral reefs and seagrass beds as their feeding grounds. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia, the country hosts four out of the seven species of marine turtles found in the world, which are the green, hawksbill, olive ridley and leatherback. Marine turtles are vital for ocean ecosystems.

At least two people have been killed and hundreds forced to flee their inundated homes in the Philippines.

In March 2019, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) revealed that nine people had been arrested in Thailand, Australia and the United States (US) after investigators took down an online paedophilia ring.

Many countries in the Americas and Europe have legalised the use of medical marijuana, with some legalising it for recreational use as well. It is now safe to say that when the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the United States (US) listed marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs with "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse,” it was without scientific backing. However, no scientific evidence can battle the stigma associated with the controversial herb.

Whether in Paris, Kuala Lumpur or California, gig economy workers fear they can no longer survive on meagre earnings from jobs that leave them increasingly vulnerable.The term "gig" stretches back a century to jazz musicians who used it to refer to a one-off show but now the "gig economy" involves millions of people in all sorts of jobs, from Uber drivers to Deliveroo delivery teams.Algorithm Slaves  Wissem Inal does more than 700 kilometres (450 miles) a week on

From Rakhine state in Myanmar, the Rohingya are an ethnic community of largely Muslim people. Perhaps a million of them have fled from violence in the ASEAN member state in successive waves of displacement since the early 1990s. In 2017, hundreds of thousands more fled Myanmar to escape persecution, war crimes and alleged genocide. Today, over 900,000 Rohingya live in camps in Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh – the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Just a few days ago, ASEAN member state Malaysia made headlines when the country’s coastguard made its largest ever seizure of methamphetamine.

There are more than 400 species of primates across the world, and at least 98 species recognised in Southeast Asia. Living primates include humans, monkeys, lemurs and apes. As primates are related, they are genetically similar.