The Conversation
Thailand inmates are taking green chiretta to fight mild COVID – here’s what we know about this herbal drug
The news that inmates in Thailand are being handed capsules of a herbal medicine called green chiretta (Andrographis paniculata) to treat asymptomatic and mild COVID is unlikely to come as a surprise to the average Thai citizen. In Thailand, healthcare professionals and the public alike are familiar with ...
Jose Prieto Garcia
A metropolis arose in medieval Cambodia – new research shows how many people lived in the Angkor Empire over time
How big were the world’s ancient cities? At its height, the world’s first city of Uruk may have had about 40,000 people about 5,000 years ago. In the medieval period, London may have had a population of about a quarter of a million people, growing to approximately 600,000 by ...
Sarah Klassen and Alison Kyra Carter
Roving bandits and looted coastlines: How the global appetite for sand is fuelling a crisis
Next to water, sand is our most consumed natural resource. The global demand for sand and gravel stands between 40 billion and 50 billion tonnes annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and its scarcity is an emerging global crisis. The world may run out of sand if we ...
Melissa Marschke, Jean-François Rousseau, Laura Schoenberger and Michael Hoffmann
Journalist killings, arrests and assaults climb worldwide as authoritarianism spreads
Myanmar, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom. The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence ...
Even as more new species are found, Southeast Asia is in the grip of a biodiversity crisis
Rich in wildlife, Southeast Asia includes at least six of the world’s 25 “biodiversity hotspots”—the areas of the world that contain an exceptional concentration of species in habitats that are also exceptionally endangered. The region contains 20 percent of the planet’s vertebrate and plant species and the ...
Vanishing Mekong? shifting tropical storms threaten a great river delta
Recent changes in the patterns of tropical storms are threatening the future of the Mekong River delta in Vietnam. This is one of the world’s great deltas. It is home to more than 20m people and the rice that is grown on its fertile land ...
Vietnam is struggling to unite its Mekong neighbours against China
Vietnam moved rocket launchers into disputed territory in the South China Sea, reports recently suggested, meaning it could potentially attack land that China has controversially reclaimed. This all comes at a time of heightened tension over territorial wrangling in the region. A Pentagon report released in ...
