Society

A book featuring portraits of women from around the world aims to challenge the narrow concept of beauty depicted by the mass media, and celebrate diversity

E-cigarettes, legislation and cultural changes have led to record numbers of people successfully kicking the smoking habit in the UK, say UCL researchers

Amid uncertainty about the movement of people to and from the UK following the EU referendum, an exhibition presents pivotal moments in the nation’s migration history

Canada has become the latest country to introduce a gender neutral ‘X’ option on passports

A Supreme Court ruling means that members of India's LGBT community are legally able to express their sexuality without discrimination

Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon have scrapped laws that allow rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims

The number of Zika transmissions in the Americas has dropped dramatically in the past year

Emojis are often blamed for destroying our ability to use language, but people have communicated using symbols for centuries. Are they simplifying the way we communicate, or actually adding nuance?

We examine the popularity of different emojis around the world

Decoding pictures is at the root of written language. What came before emojis?

After his 18-year-old son’s suicide, Steve Mallen sees the world differently. Along with a growing number of mental health experts, he wants to reduce the rate of suicide across the world, and is [...]

Stop Funding Hate is urging leading UK mobile phone providers to halt advertising in newspapers that ‘promote hate’

All slaughterhouses in England will have to be fitted with CCTV cameras in a bid to improve animal welfare and enforce laws against cruelty

Sex workers in Mozambique are providing health support to those at the margins of society. They face political and financial challenges, but against the odds they are helping thousands

Though an estimated 800 million women are menstruating as you read this, periods can be associated with silence and shame. We explore efforts to change this, from outlawing menstrual seclusion, [...]

Our pick of initiatives aiming to make menstruation sanitary products accessible to all

Why are some people able to become happy, well-adjusted adults even after growing up with violence or neglect? Their life stories – from 1950s Hawaii to the orphanages of Romania – could provide [...]

Young people in Tunisia face a very real risk of becoming radicalised. Many members of Les Scouts Tunisiens have friends and family who have left to fight for extremist causes, so the [...]

Holly Cave wants to know why her pregnancy ended at nine weeks. There are no easy answers, but talking about miscarriage could help us change the way we think about it

From glaring fabrication to masterful manipulation, fake news is a global problem. But society is fighting back. We meet the people separating fact from fiction