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
A massive Chinese-financed dam in Cambodia has "washed away the livelihoods" of tens of thousands of villagers while falling short of promised energy production, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.The 400-megawatt (MW) Lower Sesan 2 dam in the kingdom's northeast has sparked controversy since long before its December 2018 launch.Fisheries experts had warned that damming the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers – two major tributaries of the resource-rich Mekong River –
Saza Faradilla was 22 when she discovered her genitals had been cut when she was a baby, part of a quietly persistent traditional practice among Singapore's minority Muslim community.The Asian city-state is modern and cosmopolitan but social values remain conservative and female genital mutilation – banned in much of the world – is not illegal.Although the practice is believed to be widespread among the ethnic Malay Muslim minority, many do not realise they have been subject to it until
A Chinese state media interview with an Olympic gold medallist asking when she would get married and have children has sparked backlash online.The CCTV segment with Gong Lijiao, who won the women's shot-put final on Sunday, also described her as a "manly woman".Netizens have criticised the interview calling it sexist and narrow-minded.They discussed it online with the hashtag: "Is marriage the only thing that can be talked about women?"The questions have led many to o
On the heels of jaw-dropping heat and flooding across three continents, nearly 200 nations gather Monday to validate a critical United Nations (UN) climate science report 100 days ahead of a political summit charged with keeping Earth liveable.
Tuk-tuks and garishly coloured taxis that once weaved through chaotic Bangkok traffic are sitting idle in storage as a fresh coronavirus surge scuttles hopes of relief for Thailand's tourism-dependent economy.The kingdom is currently undergoing its worst-ever stretch of the pandemic after largely keeping COVID contained when the illness first emerged last year. Bangkok is subject to a night-time curfew and a ban on gatherings as authorities advise residents of the capital to sta
Alcohol consumption was linked to four percent of all new global cancer cases last year, according to a study published Wednesday, as researchers warned of an urgent need to alert people of the risks. Men accounted for more than three quarters of the estimated cases, which were mainly linked to risky or heavy drinking, although one in seven of these alcohol-related cancers were linked to moderate consumption of around two drinks a day. The study, published in the journal The
An explosion near Thai capital Bangkok's international airport Monday left a plastics factory in flames, killing at least one firefighter and wounding 29 people, officials said.Heavy plumes of black smoke could be seen rising up to the sky from the city's downtown 35 kilometres (21 miles) away, as helicopters continued to dump fire suppression foam from the air on the site.The blast occurred around 3:00 am at Taiwan-based Ming Dih Chemical Co., located on the outskirts of Bangkok ne
Journalist Nathan Maung turned to meditation when he was jailed for reporting on Myanmar's bloody coup, but even back home in sleepy Virginia, he can't forget those left behind, including a colleague still at the mercy of their jailers.In March, as the junta moved to crush mass pro-democracy protests on Myanmar's streets, about 45 soldiers arrived at Maung's office in the commercial capital Yangon, he said in an interview. As the squad battered their way through t
