https://www.scmp.com/rss/323776/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation Blanca and her family fled a deadly wildfire in January that devastated her Los Angeles area neighbourhood and burned the clothing alterations business she had owned for six years to the ground. Her rented flat in Altadena was spared but uninhabitable, with no gas, electricity or hot water, and contaminated with toxic ash and soot. But she was ineligible for federal help for her business or her home because she is undocumented. Now 48, she came from Mexico more than 20 years ago with one... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3322878/undocumented-renters-caught-between-fire-and-ice-los-angeles-burn-zone?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3322878/undocumented-renters-caught-between-fire-and-ice-los-angeles-burn-zone?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Aug 2025 16:00:12 +0000 Since he was 15, Junrey Longos has lived among lush mangrove forests and turquoise waters in Del Carmen, his hometown on Siargao Island, the surfing capital of the Philippines. Once an illegal fisherman who would cut down the tropical trees to be sold as fuel, he now protects them as part of a civilian fisheries patrol force. “Because life was difficult, we were forced to cut and sell mangroves back then. We couldn’t find other jobs,” Longos, 44, said. Because of efforts by the local government... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3305438/siargao-philippines-illegal-fishermen-turn-ecotourism-operators-and-revive-mangroves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3305438/siargao-philippines-illegal-fishermen-turn-ecotourism-operators-and-revive-mangroves?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Apr 2025 03:13:48 +0000 As artificial intelligence chatbots gain popularity among users seeking companionship online, youth advocacy groups are ramping up protective legal efforts over fears that children can form unhealthy, dangerous relationships with the humanlike creations. Chatbot apps such as Replika and Character.AI belong to the fast-growing generative AI companion market, where users can customise their virtual partners with nuanced personalities that communicate and simulate close relationships. Developers... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3300014/chatbots-cause-deaths-youth-advocacy-groups-pushing-stricter-regulation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3300014/chatbots-cause-deaths-youth-advocacy-groups-pushing-stricter-regulation?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:15:07 +0000 As president-elect Donald Trump prepares to assume the White House on January 20, the federal government is bracing for a massive overhaul in policy – and how it labels issues and individuals. Potentially limited or wiped from official government websites and documents are references to climate change, “undocumented immigrants” or “non-citizens” in favour of “illegal aliens” and prominent mentions of LGBTQ rights, experts say. Ahead of Trump’s first term, researchers expected to see changes that... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3293797/trumps-return-set-wipe-government-language-climate-change-lgbtq-rights-immigration?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3293797/trumps-return-set-wipe-government-language-climate-change-lgbtq-rights-immigration?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Jan 2025 16:00:10 +0000 Home to animated heroes from Tintin to the Smurfs, the Belgian city of Brussels is proud to display its cartoon heritage in mammoth murals that tower over its stately streets. But all is not well in the self-declared capital of comics. In an industry where animators routinely depict epic battles between superheroes and arch-villains, European cartoon artists are now in a real-life fight of their own, fending off a new, faceless adversary: artificial intelligence (AI). AI-generated art operates... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3268398/ai-creating-comics-europes-industry-completely-rejects-it-tintin-executive-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3268398/ai-creating-comics-europes-industry-completely-rejects-it-tintin-executive-says?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Jun 2024 08:15:08 +0000 A plan to marry off 100 Nigerian girls and young women in a state-sponsored mass wedding has sparked heated debate about child marriage and female education, with last-ditch efforts under way to ban the ceremony. Nigeria’s women’s minister, who is leading the campaign to shelve Friday’s wedding, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation she had filed a court injunction to stop it. Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye said the wedding violates Nigeria’s Child Rights Acts and Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3263696/nigeria-state-sponsored-mass-wedding-girls-fuels-debate-forced-marriage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3263696/nigeria-state-sponsored-mass-wedding-girls-fuels-debate-forced-marriage?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 May 2024 14:01:41 +0000 Natalia Lane’s work is hybrid – like most jobs these days. So the 34-year-old graduate creates exciting online content for half her day then gives over the rest to in-person services. Lane, though, is a sex worker, so her job comes without any of the basic rights, benefits or protections that jobs in Mexico routinely offer. Something she is desperate to change. “I’ve been a sex worker for 14 years. How much could I have contributed so far towards my social security, a house loan, or a credit?”... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3262794/mexicos-sex-workers-seek-employment-rights-both-online-and-streets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3262794/mexicos-sex-workers-seek-employment-rights-both-online-and-streets?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 May 2024 09:36:35 +0000 Her living room is a far cry from the bustling, brightly lit film sets she once loved, but Setaish Hayat says making YouTube videos at home is the next best thing in Afghanistan, where Taliban edicts have increasingly confined women indoors. Hayat, 21, was a budding actor in local film and television until the Taliban seized power in 2021 and began issuing decrees on women that included banning TV dramas with female actors and ordering women to wear strict hijab while presenting the news. Now... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3259360/afghan-women-become-youtubers-bypass-taliban-work-bans-had-do-something-generate-income?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3259360/afghan-women-become-youtubers-bypass-taliban-work-bans-had-do-something-generate-income?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Apr 2024 12:02:14 +0000 Like millions worldwide, Southeast Asians have been trying out large language models such as Meta’s Llama 2 and Mistral AI – but in their native Bahasa Indonesia or Thai. The result has usually been gibberish in English. This leaves them at a disadvantage, tech experts warn, as generative artificial intelligence transforms education, work and governance worldwide. A Singapore government-led initiative aims to correct the imbalance with a Southeast Asian LLM, the first in a family of models named... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3251353/singapore-builds-chatgpt-alike-better-represent-southeast-asian-languages-cultures?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3251353/singapore-builds-chatgpt-alike-better-represent-southeast-asian-languages-cultures?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Feb 2024 04:07:38 +0000 On the coast of Tanzania’s Mafia Island is a blue lagoon – a dreamlike pool of bright turquoise water, filtered and cooled by the mangroves that surround it. Ailars David, a marine conservation warden at the reserve, says there is a plan to build a boardwalk for tourists to reach the lagoon so they can swim surrounded by nature and the freshest of air. “When you look up, you only see trees and the sounds of birds,” David said on Nature, Land Use and Ocean Day,Nature Day”, at the Cop28 UN climate... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3244626/why-mangroves-are-critical-climate-change-fight-and-how-indonesia-and-tanzania-are-using-eco-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3244626/why-mangroves-are-critical-climate-change-fight-and-how-indonesia-and-tanzania-are-using-eco-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:15:18 +0000 With all eyes on climate talks in Dubai, the world of fashion is working out how it can fulfil an ambitious pledge to slash the emissions it makes clothing the world with speed and style. And the outlook isn’t rosy. Big brands have promised big cuts to their carbon footprint – but it is manufacturing that causes most of the environmental damage and somebody has to foot the bill for the radical change. “The scale of the decarbonisation challenge completely dwarfs the funds available,” says... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3244200/why-fashion-worlds-net-zero-carbon-emissions-goal-hinges-big-brands-sharing-cost-and-why?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3244200/why-fashion-worlds-net-zero-carbon-emissions-goal-hinges-big-brands-sharing-cost-and-why?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Dec 2023 08:15:10 +0000 For a few weeks this year, villagers in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka read out dozens of sentences in their native Kannada language into an app as part of a project to build the country’s first AI-based chatbot for Tuberculosis. There are more than 40 million native Kannada speakers in India, and it is one of the country’s 22 official languages, and one of over 121 languages spoken by 10,000 people or more in the world’s most populous nation. But few of these languages are covered... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3243896/india-turns-ai-special-effort-capture-its-121-languages?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3243896/india-turns-ai-special-effort-capture-its-121-languages?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Dec 2023 02:00:16 +0000 Thousands of hospitals worldwide are “at high risk of total or partial shutdown from extreme weather events” if fossil fuels are not phased out by the end of the century, a report by XDI, a climate-risk data analysis company, said on Saturday. The report comes as world leaders meet to discuss the impact of climate change on health at the Cop28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, and the benefit to health of reducing emissions. Cop28: War on climate change must transcend all other... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3243669/cop28-thousands-hospitals-high-shutdown-risk-if-fossil-fuels-are-not-phased-out-report-warns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3243669/cop28-thousands-hospitals-high-shutdown-risk-if-fossil-fuels-are-not-phased-out-report-warns?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Dec 2023 07:03:34 +0000 Hours after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, a WhatsApp message purporting to list the names of 17 Indian Hindus killed or wounded in the assault went viral in India, drawing horrified reactions. But the list was fake – none were hurt. In the following weeks, hundreds of messages referencing the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group spread rapidly on Indian social media accounts, said fact-checkers and researchers documenting online disinformation about India’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3242910/beware-evil-muslims-indias-hindus-told-viral-pro-bjp-misinformation-surges-elections?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3242910/beware-evil-muslims-indias-hindus-told-viral-pro-bjp-misinformation-surges-elections?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Nov 2023 04:02:33 +0000 When Mahmoud’s father, a well-known sheikh in Aleppo city in Syria, found out his youngest son was gay, he was furious. “He pointed a rifle at my face, finger on the trigger, and fired into the air,” Mahmoud, 23, said, recalling the shame he felt five years ago when his father found him wearing make-up, an event that led to him revealing his sexuality. “Then he beat me nearly to death with an iron bar,” Mahmoud said. Mainly Muslim Syria is deeply conservative and people tend to disapprove of any... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3240894/gay-syrian-refugees-see-intolerance-rise-once-liberal-lebanon-i-will-slaughter-you?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3240894/gay-syrian-refugees-see-intolerance-rise-once-liberal-lebanon-i-will-slaughter-you?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Nov 2023 23:00:21 +0000 Born intersex and raised as a boy, Polina has known for years that she wanted to live as a woman. But Russia’s sweeping curbs on gender-affirming healthcare have made that much more difficult. The 33-year-old from Moscow said that since a new law – which targets transgender people – was passed in July, doctors have been wary about prescribing her female sex hormones and other gender-affirming treatment for fear they could lose their licences or face prosecution. “The law likens any treatment,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3241151/russia-put-back-years-intersex-people-fear-fallout-sex-change-curbs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3241151/russia-put-back-years-intersex-people-fear-fallout-sex-change-curbs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Nov 2023 23:00:20 +0000 A new bill that could be a game-changer in the battle against teen pregnancies in the Philippines is inching through Congress, with activists hoping it could galvanise a wider campaign to tackle this “national social emergency”. The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill, which was passed by the House in September and has now moved to the Senate, aims to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, like contraception, in the mainly Catholic country where early pregnancies, even among... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3239482/can-new-philippines-law-help-tackle-child-teen-pregnancy-emergency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3239482/can-new-philippines-law-help-tackle-child-teen-pregnancy-emergency?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2023 23:00:21 +0000 Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation A new bill that could be a game changer in the battle against teen pregnancies in the Philippines is inching through Congress, with activists hoping it could galvanise a wider campaign to tackle this “national social emergency”. The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill, which was passed by the House in September and has now moved to the Senate, aims to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, like contraception, in this mainly Catholic country where early pregnancies, even among... https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/news/asia/article/3239427/proposed-new-law-aims-tackle-philippines-teen-pregnancy-emergency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/news/asia/article/3239427/proposed-new-law-aims-tackle-philippines-teen-pregnancy-emergency?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Oct 2023 09:00:17 +0000 Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are boosting online disinformation and enabling governments to increase censorship and surveillance in a growing threat to human rights, a US non-profit organisation said in a report published on Wednesday. Global internet freedom declined for the 13th consecutive year, with China, Myanmar and Iran having the worst conditions of the 70 countries surveyed by the Freedom on the Net report, which highlighted the risks posed by easy access to generative... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3236756/ai-advances-supercharge-online-disinformation-censorship-and-surveillance-growing-threat-human?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3236756/ai-advances-supercharge-online-disinformation-censorship-and-surveillance-growing-threat-human?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Oct 2023 08:17:33 +0000 Nearly 80 years after they were abducted and raped by Japanese soldiers, a small group of elderly women in the Philippines hope their government will finally acknowledge their wartime ordeal by creating a compensation fund. For the few remaining survivors, all aged in their late 80s or 90s, the reparations demand issued by a UN committee earlier this year is realistically their last hope following a series of disappointments in their long quest for justice. “In our last moments alive, I hope we... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3235756/philippine-wwii-rape-victims-japanese-soldiers-final-bid-reparations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3235756/philippine-wwii-rape-victims-japanese-soldiers-final-bid-reparations?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:14:01 +0000 As Ripon Mondal’s family try to recover from the drought that ruined their watermelon crop in central Bangladesh in 2022, the 19-year-old university student fears that his father’s financial worries are just the tip of the iceberg. “I can feel my father’s mental distress,” Mondal said. “He has to pay for our studies, and sometimes I feel terrible about the debts piling up.” The family lives in a village in the Kamarkhola Union area, which is surrounded by four rivers, leaving them far from any... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3234927/how-climate-change-disasters-cause-mental-health-issues-anxiety-and-depression-shown-devastating?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3234927/how-climate-change-disasters-cause-mental-health-issues-anxiety-and-depression-shown-devastating?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Sep 2023 03:15:16 +0000 Five years since India legalised gay sex, persistent discrimination means many LGBTQ Indians continue to suffer “mental trauma and alienation”, said one of the Supreme Court judges who lifted the ban. Indu Malhotra was part of the five-judge constitutional bench that in 2018 unanimously struck down part of Section 377, a law introduced by India’s former British colonial rulers that had stood for almost 160 years. Malhotra, who is now retired and was only the seventh woman to serve as a Supreme... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3233640/lgbtq-indians-still-haunted-trauma-years-nation-lifted-gay-sex-ban-says-judge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3233640/lgbtq-indians-still-haunted-trauma-years-nation-lifted-gay-sex-ban-says-judge?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Sep 2023 00:00:17 +0000 Female protagonists are often the biggest stars in Bollywood films, but behind the scenes, the Indian film industry is dominated by men. Tired of being sidelined, women are banding together to ensure their voices are heard – on set and off. “We’d have at least 80 to 90 people on a set and only three or four of them were women,” says Petrina D’Rozario, a film producer. “We’d bump into each other [and say] ‘Oh, my God, why can’t we get a toilet?’,” says D’Rozario, founder and president of Women in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3233086/women-bollywood-bypass-boys-club-trade-unions-their-fight-equal-opportunities-and-better-treatment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3233086/women-bollywood-bypass-boys-club-trade-unions-their-fight-equal-opportunities-and-better-treatment?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Sep 2023 08:15:09 +0000 Ovy Sabrina fights plastic waste in Indonesia by spreading noodle packets, coffee sachets, straws and other rubbish items around the sprawling archipelago – entombed in eco-friendly bricks. Her family knows not to stand in her way on environmental issues, especially five years ago when she came up with the idea of making bricks using single-use plastic to counter pollution and the capital Jakarta’s high-emissions building boom. Using machinery from her family’s conventional brick factory and... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3231440/indonesia-firm-turns-plastic-bricks-faces-uphill-task-recycling-push?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3231440/indonesia-firm-turns-plastic-bricks-faces-uphill-task-recycling-push?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Aug 2023 23:00:24 +0000 After just five months of dating, Mark and his girlfriend Mina decided to take their relationship to the next level by holidaying at a lake cabin over the summer – on his smartphone. “There was this being who is designed to be supportive … to accept me just as I am,” the 36-year-old UK-based artist says of the brunette beauty from the virtual companion app Soulmate. “This provided a safe space for me to open up to a degree that I was rarely able to do in my human relationships,” says Mark, who... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3230353/how-having-ai-girlfriend-could-lead-men-violence-against-women-real-life-reinforcing-abusive-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3230353/how-having-ai-girlfriend-could-lead-men-violence-against-women-real-life-reinforcing-abusive-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Aug 2023 11:15:10 +0000 After a decade lecturing at an Afghan university, former economist Shabana Sediqian is about to retrain as a nurse – it is not a career change she ever envisaged, but it will at least allow her to get out of the house again. A growing number of professional women are enrolling in nursing and midwifery courses, fed up with being cooped up in their homes since the Taliban seized power two years ago – and needing money after losing their jobs. Sediqian said nursing was almost the only vocation... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3230409/afghan-women-gradually-dying-taliban-shuts-more-jobs-retrain-nurses?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3230409/afghan-women-gradually-dying-taliban-shuts-more-jobs-retrain-nurses?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Aug 2023 23:00:10 +0000 It is a place some older Australian LGBTQ people remember with horror – where they were detained and say they were even brutally beaten, just for being who they are. Now, the old police station in Sydney’s gay village of Darlinghurst will host the city’s first dedicated LGBTQ museum, called Qtopia Sydney. Supporters say the museum is reclaiming a space, while critics say the former lock-up is too tainted by a history of violence and the project should be halted for more community... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3229889/state-torture-centre-lgbtq-museums-location-old-sydney-police-station-sparks-anger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3229889/state-torture-centre-lgbtq-museums-location-old-sydney-police-station-sparks-anger?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Aug 2023 09:15:10 +0000 Like many transgender Indians, 32-year-old social worker Leela thinks twice before using a public toilet. After facing insults and hostility in the past, she often opts to put up with the discomfort until she gets home. “Using a public toilet is perhaps the easiest thing for a non-LGBTQ person. But for a trans woman like me, it can be … a traumatic experience,” Leela said in the capital, New Delhi, asking to use only her first name. She recalled an incident several years ago when she was forced... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3229774/india-using-public-toilet-traumatic-experience-trans-people?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3229774/india-using-public-toilet-traumatic-experience-trans-people?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Aug 2023 22:00:30 +0000 Women will bear the brunt of extreme heat as more frequent heatwaves on a warming planet pose a growing threat to their work, earnings and lives, researchers have warned. The impacts of rising heat are disproportionately dangerous and costly to women – be it at home or on the job – according to a report titled “The Scorching Divide” by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock). The US-based non-profit’s research, which analysed India, Nigeria and the United States,... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3229655/warming-world-brutalises-women-heatwaves-deepen-gender-divide-india-us-nigeria?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3229655/warming-world-brutalises-women-heatwaves-deepen-gender-divide-india-us-nigeria?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Aug 2023 22:00:21 +0000 When Raj heard British farmers were hiring seasonal workers from Nepal last year, he jumped at the chance to earn what he thought would be a sizeable income for his family. Having already worked in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, the father-of-two figured he could make enough in six months of farm work in Britain so as not to have to get a job abroad again. After all, he had read on social media he could earn as much as £3,000 (US$3,870) a month. “There are not enough jobs back home in Nepal so this... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3227786/nepali-indonesian-farm-workers-uk-trapped-systemic-recruitment-debt-bondage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3227786/nepali-indonesian-farm-workers-uk-trapped-systemic-recruitment-debt-bondage?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Jul 2023 22:00:16 +0000 When India’s Supreme Court started hearing a case to legalise same-sex marriage earlier this year, matchmaker Kamakshi Madan suddenly received an increase in inquiries from parents seeking spouses for their LGBTQ children. “I had mothers calling me looking for husbands for their sons,” Madan, a specialist matchmaker for the LGBTQ community, said by phone from the western Indian city of Pune. A ruling to allow same-sex couples to marry would be a huge boost to the LGBTQ wedding industry in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3226776/india-gay-marriage-case-supreme-court-could-fuel-gold-rush-nations-wedding-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3226776/india-gay-marriage-case-supreme-court-could-fuel-gold-rush-nations-wedding-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:00:32 +0000 Put women in charge of cultivating forests and the trees grow stronger. That is the takeaway from a pioneering 30-year scheme that has elevated women to the top of Nepal’s community forests – and paved their way into local and national politics. Three decades of picking women for leadership roles has produced healthier forests and happier workers, according to Nabaraj Pudasaini, joint secretary of the government’s Department of Forest and Soil Conservation. “In comparison to other community... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3226687/nepals-male-dominated-society-forests-and-trees-thrive-under-honest-transparent-women-bosses?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3226687/nepals-male-dominated-society-forests-and-trees-thrive-under-honest-transparent-women-bosses?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Jul 2023 22:00:24 +0000 When Indian businesswoman Aditi Bhutia Madan recalls her childhood in Darjeeling, she remembers pine forests, Himalayan sunrises and her grandmother’s momos – the savoury dumplings that years later inspired her to launch her own company. A former MasterChef India contestant, Madan was confident of her cooking skills but she did not know how to access formal financing to grow her Yangkiez By MomoMami brand – a major hurdle for many female entrepreneurs in India. For years, Madan ran the gauntlet... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3225999/india-women-led-start-ups-face-gender-hurdle-when-seeking-funding?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3225999/india-women-led-start-ups-face-gender-hurdle-when-seeking-funding?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jun 2023 21:00:13 +0000 Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation Mental health counsellor Nicole Doyle was stunned when the head of the US National Eating Disorders Association showed up at a staff meeting to announce the group would be replacing its helpline with a chatbot. A few days after the helpline was taken down, the bot – named Tessa – would also be discontinued for providing harmful advice to people in the throes of mental illness. “People ... found it was giving out weight loss advice to people who told it they were struggling with an eating... https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/lifestyle/features/article/3224739/ai-therapist-can-chatbots-boost-mental-health?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/lifestyle/features/article/3224739/ai-therapist-can-chatbots-boost-mental-health?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jun 2023 02:00:19 +0000 When Sonali Singh was little, she would beg then brawl with her brother for a turn on his video games. Her mother would broker peace by handing Singh a story book. “It’s our Indian culture. Girls don’t play games,” Singh said. Fast-forward to adulthood and Singh works remotely as a software engineer for a big American university, adding an extra 50-60 per cent to her already high earnings playing video games by night. Singh’s success comes as India’s US$1.5-billion-dollar gaming industry grows... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3220626/more-indian-girls-gaming-competitively-us15-billion-esports-sector-grows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3220626/more-indian-girls-gaming-competitively-us15-billion-esports-sector-grows?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 May 2023 23:00:24 +0000 Ronald Ignacio became a nurse at the height of the Philippines’ nursing boom in 2008, when there were not enough jobs in the health system for the many thousands of newly qualified nurses. At first, he struggled to find a job, so instead worked on a farm for two years. Ignacio eventually landed a job as a nurse in a private hospital in the capital, Manila, in 2010. “But the situation is very different now,” said Ignacio. Just as Filipino nurses grapple with meagre pay, poor working conditions,... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3220466/philippine-hospitals-lose-lifeblood-us-uk-lure-nurses-high-wages-residency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3220466/philippine-hospitals-lose-lifeblood-us-uk-lure-nurses-high-wages-residency?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 May 2023 22:00:18 +0000 When a bomb exploded in the heart of Istanbul last year, killing six and wounding more than 80 people, Selcuk Ada did what journalists usually do in a crises: he started tweeting. “They started the election campaign,” he tweeted, referring to the Turkish government blaming the attack on Kurdish militants. The PKK and YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied involvement. Soon pro-government trolls inundated him with attacks on social media. His website was hacked. His family was insulted and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3220118/turkey-silences-online-critics-ahead-landmark-election-disinformation-law-defies-definition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3220118/turkey-silences-online-critics-ahead-landmark-election-disinformation-law-defies-definition?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 May 2023 15:17:02 +0000 In flood-hit southeastern Pakistan, villagers are trading tents and tarpaulins provided by aid agencies for local materials such as lime, mud and bamboo to build their own low-cost and water-resistant homes as part of a post-disaster recovery rethink. Designed by Yasmeen Lari – Pakistan’s first certified female architect – about 1,000 such houses have been built in Sindh province following unprecedented floods last year that submerged about a third of the country and killed at least 1,700... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3219178/pakistan-architect-mission-help-350000-families-build-green-disaster-resilient-homes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3219178/pakistan-architect-mission-help-350000-families-build-green-disaster-resilient-homes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 May 2023 23:00:26 +0000 In her long career as an Afghan judge, Sara helped lock up scores of Taliban militants for deadly attacks, ranging from bomb blasts to assassinations – now freed from jail, they have vowed to hunt her down. “When the Taliban seized power, they opened the prison gates. I’ve lived every day since then in panic and fear,” Sara told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from a secret location where she lives with her children and husband. Sara is among dozens of women judges in hiding since the hardline... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3219116/she-jailed-scores-taliban-fighters-now-freed-theyre-targeting-all-afghan-women-judges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3219116/she-jailed-scores-taliban-fighters-now-freed-theyre-targeting-all-afghan-women-judges?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 May 2023 18:00:09 +0000 Their factories are safer, but many Bangladeshis stitching clothes for big Western brands say they still face dire pay and working conditions 10 years since more than 1,100 garment workers died in the Rana Plaza collapse. A few blocks from the site of the disaster, one of the worst-ever industrial accidents, Ripon Das earns 15,000 taka (US$141) per month for working a seven-day week as a machine operator. As his family’s sole breadwinner, it is nowhere near enough. “I choose to work overtime... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3218196/decade-after-rana-plaza-collapse-bangladesh-garment-workers-fight-better-pay-and-conditions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3218196/decade-after-rana-plaza-collapse-bangladesh-garment-workers-fight-better-pay-and-conditions?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:24 +0000 A move to decriminalise gay sex in the Cook Islands is a welcome step, but LGBTQ people in the Pacific Islands region still lack basic rights and risk discrimination – or worse – at every turn, activists say. Lawmakers in the tiny island nation of 15,000 people passed a bill on April 14 to decriminalise same-sex sexual relations, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, although the law was rarely, if ever, enforced. The measure is expected to become law on June 1. Announcing his... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3218161/lgbtq-rights-still-lag-pacific-region-despite-cook-islands-move-lift-gay-sex-ban?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3218161/lgbtq-rights-still-lag-pacific-region-despite-cook-islands-move-lift-gay-sex-ban?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Apr 2023 21:00:08 +0000 In the indigenous community where Rukka Sombolinggi grew up, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, strict rules governed how a slaughtered buffalo’s meat was divided. The elderly, the sick and other vulnerable people received choice pieces – the head, the liver and the small intestine, considered a particular delicacy once roasted. Others, better off, waited their turn for a share, risking condemnation from the community if they took too many of the best bits for themselves. “People in powerful... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3217148/indigenous-indonesians-face-fresh-risks-green-climate-drive-new-hell-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3217148/indigenous-indonesians-face-fresh-risks-green-climate-drive-new-hell-us?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Apr 2023 23:00:19 +0000 From February to April each year, Kam Thon spends most of her days knee-deep in the waters of the Mekong River by her village in northern Thailand, gathering river weed to sell and cook at home. Kam Thon and other women who live by the Mekong have been collecting river weed, or khai, for decades, but their harvest has fallen since China built nearly a dozen dams upstream. The dams have altered the flow of water and block much of the sediment that is vital for khai and rice cultivation,... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3214383/chinas-dams-turn-thai-fishing-villages-mekong-river-ghost-towns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3214383/chinas-dams-turn-thai-fishing-villages-mekong-river-ghost-towns?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Mar 2023 05:01:08 +0000 Keen to store more irrigation water to shore up food security and protect itself from longer climate change-fuelled droughts and extreme rainfall, Indonesia has embarked on a dam-building project that aims to see 57 new dams in place by 2024. But for those in their path, the work has not always brought greater security. In Indonesia’s Central Java province, ongoing work on the 690-hectare (1,700-acre) Bener Dam has destroyed farmer Gunawan’s small durian fruit plot, robbing him of his... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3212475/indonesias-huge-dam-building-push-tackle-looming-water-crisis-doing-more-harm-good?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3212475/indonesias-huge-dam-building-push-tackle-looming-water-crisis-doing-more-harm-good?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Mar 2023 06:02:09 +0000 In Iran this winter, hospital emergency rooms have been full, schools regularly closed and many people unable to work or even leave their homes due to toxic smog, which a leading United Nations expert is calling an “air pollution catastrophe”. Dirty air is a chronic problem in Iran. Many of its cities including Tehran regularly rank among the world’s most polluted, due to emissions from millions of older vehicles on the roads, and from refineries, power plants and factories. About 40,000 people... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3211645/toxic-smog-iran-criticised-winter-air-pollution-catastrophe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3211645/toxic-smog-iran-criticised-winter-air-pollution-catastrophe?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Feb 2023 04:56:07 +0000 In Singapore’s prisons, CCTV cameras in the cells watch over inmates, facial recognition is used for headcount checks, and an artificial intelligence-based behaviour detection system monitors for fights and other suspicious activities. “Sometimes, the facial recognition cameras would turn on at odd times, without warning. Or the behaviour detection would alert the guards if people were just exercising in the cell,” said Tan, 26, a former inmate, who asked to go by his last name. “I was arrested... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3211068/being-fishbowl-spotlight-singapores-prisons-over-facial-recognition-technology?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3211068/being-fishbowl-spotlight-singapores-prisons-over-facial-recognition-technology?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Feb 2023 07:31:48 +0000 Soon after Texas university students returned to classes in January, they received a note from the IT department telling them of a new rule: they could no longer access TikTok, the popular video app, on university Wi-fi. Students had mixed feelings. “There are legitimate security concerns with the app,” said Adam Nguyen, a 19-year-old computer science major at the University of Texas at Austin. “But people should be able to make their own decisions – this sets a dangerous precedent with the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3209695/death-thousand-cuts-us-tiktok-bans-gain-ground-amid-growing-concern-user-data-privacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3209695/death-thousand-cuts-us-tiktok-bans-gain-ground-amid-growing-concern-user-data-privacy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Feb 2023 18:00:11 +0000 When Kiri Banda retired from his job as a cook in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, he hoped for a peaceful old age living with his son. But with his medical bills straining household finances last year, he decided it was time to move out. “I didn’t want to be a burden,” said Banda, 84, who spends his days begging or searching for food and sleeps on a bench in a public park. It is an increasingly common sight since Sri Lanka plunged in 2022 into its worst economic crisis since independence in... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3209544/sri-lankas-economic-crisis-leaves-senior-citizens-homeless-destitute?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3209544/sri-lankas-economic-crisis-leaves-senior-citizens-homeless-destitute?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Feb 2023 22:00:21 +0000 Cooped up at home, Pari Sediqi spends her days worrying how she will feed her sick husband and six children now that women are banned from carrying out aid work in Afghanistan. Add to that Kabul’s coldest winter in more than a decade, making warm clothes, fuel and food all the more crucial, and Sediqi is out of ideas about how to keep the family going. “I was the sole breadwinner of my family in this critical situation,” Sediqi, 40, said by phone from the capital. “Now who will pay for our food,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3208121/im-prison-afghan-women-aid-workers-lose-hope-after-taliban-ban?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3208121/im-prison-afghan-women-aid-workers-lose-hope-after-taliban-ban?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Jan 2023 20:00:11 +0000 When an elderly man with dementia started wandering off from his Singapore home, often walking miles before being found, his carers were at a loss over how to keep track of him – until a tech firm suggested fitting him with a wearable GPS tag. Carers also placed motion sensors in the 74-year-old’s flat and a CCTV camera at its doorway so they could monitor him from a distance. The public housing building has a further six CCTV cameras in the common areas to watch over its elderly residents. “We... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3207770/they-may-feel-they-are-being-watched-techs-growing-use-monitor-asias-elderly-robot-carers-cctv-gps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3207770/they-may-feel-they-are-being-watched-techs-growing-use-monitor-asias-elderly-robot-carers-cctv-gps?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Jan 2023 09:15:10 +0000