our top story: the us has threatened new sanctions against russia over its support for president assad. the move, which follows the western air strikes on syria, will target russian companies supplying damascus with chemical weapons capability. meanwhile, president putin has warned that any further western missile strikes against syria would cause international chaos. hundreds of firefighters are tackling a large bushfire burning out of control in the southern suburbs of sydney. police say the blaze, which has forced many residents to leave their homes, may have been started deliberately. and this story is trending on bbc.com. braving the dark and the danger of india's record—breaking "fairy cave," with tunnels stretching nearly 25 kilometres. that's all from me now. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, we've got some

of the best of radio 1 newsbeat‘s documentaries, which include a few images which you may find distressing. here's nesta mcgregor. coming up in this special programme, two reports from radioi and 1xtra's newsbeat team. firstly, what happens when you lose your hair early? it can be caused by genetics, stress or even a poor diet, and it happens to men and women. this is chidera's story. people have always gone bald and they've tried lots of strange ways to hide it or stop it falling out. but some techniques work better than others. my name's chidera. i'm 23 and most people don't know this is a wig. there's a massive bald patch right here and it's pretty much what i've been hiding underneath this the whole time. my hair loss gets to me and it's something that upsets other women and loads of young men too. i'm going to meet others who are losing their hair and some who are going to extreme lengths to get it back. so i'm going only as deep as we need to go, which is where the roots sit.

i'll find out about my own hair loss and discover whether you can ever feel good about it, because it doesn't matter how rich or famous you are, you can't hide from hair loss. so i wear this and it doesn't disturb my hairline at all. my hairlinejust remains as it is underneath and then ijust put it on, clip it on, it's really easy to put on, but also, very easy to remove as well. so...going to remove it. so this hairstyle is pretty much what took away my hairlines. you can see that the extensions are quite thick and heavy and then, as if that wasn't enough, i went and tied it up into a ginormous bun and what happens is when you have

your hair in a heavy bun like that, each time you move your head, the bun sways. so each time that sway happens, a bit of hair pulls out because of the weight of it. i would never wear my hair upwards or in an afro without covering it. no—one sees this. hello, everyone. my name is perry and this is perry presents. he has male pattern baldness, by far the most common form of hair loss in men. so in times like this, what you do? so i get my phone and, obviously, i will look like a mirror. oh, you put the front camera! yeah, front camera, so i'm going to take a selfie, and then i'll check it a bit and obviously, you can see now, really bad. 0k, yeah. and the wind makes it worse. so i have my brush. basicallyjust do the same thing again, restyle it. but to be honest with you, in the wind... the wind just blows again!

it's life, it's just life. and until i get indoors, that's just the way it is. speaking about it being just life, how are you sort of preparing yourself, i'd say, for it becoming more and more obvious? i've kind of got to embrace it, but at the same time, it is quite scary, ‘cause i'm like, "oh, will people think differently of me? will i look really bad." so deep down, do you feel like your hair, to an extent, holds a core part of your sort of personality and who you are? yeah, yeah. a massive person. like, my hair is me, that's how i feel. and personality, whatever i do on youtube, whatever i do in everyday life, it's always there and it's something that i'm so self—conscious of. losing part of yourself, yeah. if my hair is gone, i feel like i'm becoming someone else or something different. i guess it's a good thing if you're being different. but at the same time, it's a worry because i'm like, what if somebody thinks differently of me? what if i go out on a night out and someone isn't attracted to me

or likes me or i don't look good, as such, do you know what i mean? i can tell perry's thought about his hair loss a lot and worries about what he'll look like in the future. his dad lost his hair when he was young and is now completely bald. in most men, it will never grow back. but there are ways to sort it out. i'm in manchester to see a 28—year—old guy who's having a hair transplant today, and i'll be meeting the surgeon who's doing it. i'm really excited to see how this is going to happen. nice to meet you. yeah, you too. nice to meet you. alright? nice to meet you. i'm really good. jordan started losing his hair when he was 20, and dr bessam farjo has been carrying out hair transplants since the 1990s. look towards me. straighten your shoulders and turn your neck all the way that way. the plan is to take hair from the back ofjordan‘s head and plant it in the thin areas on top. it's a weird one, really, because, obviously, it affects so many men. so it's like, should it upset you? should it, you know... because it wasn't the worst feeling, but it's also, it knocks your confidence a little bit as well. someone might look at me

and go, you know, you're having a hair transplant. do you really need it? and, you know, in some cases, you might say no, but then it's how it makes you feel, i guess. jordan's transplant will take all day. the procedure‘s becoming increasingly popular, but isn't not normally available on the nhs. it can cost anywhere between £1,000 and £30,000. dr farjo will make small holes in the top ofjordan‘s head. he'll then take healthy hairs from the back to plant in the thin areas on top. so i'm going only as deep as we need to go, which is where the roots sit, approximately about 4mm inside the skin. jordan just looks so chilled out. honestly, it's really painless. like, they said before that it wouldn't be as bad as the dentist. it definitely isn't. we'll turn itjordan over, facedown, and then we'll start removing the graft from the back of his head, and then once we have a certain amount, we then can put them back in, yeah. during the procedure, about 3,000 hairs will be inserted into jordan's head. what's it going to feel like when you finally get up and have a look at your head and actually touch that area? well, it's a long road to see what it's going to be,

but good, hopefully. it'll take a long time to see if jordan's hair transplant has been a success. but for an idea of what the results might look like, i'm meeting a woman who's had it done already. # see a mad person and i ask them what's crackin‘. .. paigey cakey had a hair transplant a few months ago and told her youtube followers all about it. there's, like, no hair. there's, like, really, really, really small strands of hair. paigey‘s hair loss was down to traction alopecia. it's when your hairstyle creates tension on your scalp, for example, tight braids or corn rows. it's what has caused my own hair loss. my forehead probably started like here. no way! you've got a new forehead! so now i've got a new forehead, so... what! ?

it looks so natural. yeah, so... but where exactly was the initial hair loss on your head? so, well, all of this side here, so as you can see, there's still some hairs i've kind of, like, brushed it down, but all on this side, it was literally this whole section up to, like, my ear and a bit went back here. and what did that feel like when you look at it and you see that is clearly missing hair? what did that make you feel? um, do you know what, i felt very self—conscious, but i never told nobody. i never told anybody my insecurities. not a single person knew about it? no—one actually knew, you know. i felt like i was the only person in the world going through this, apart from the people on youtube. i felt like i was the only one going through this. in the real world, yeah. yeah, in this real world. so that's why i never spoke about it. otherwise, i would've spoke about it sooner and i wish i spoke about it sooner, i wish i spoke about it when it was first happening. i wish i was so open about it. i felt like, i'm too young for hair loss. like, i've just turned 25.

i've been experiencing this since college. like, i'm way too young to be losing my hair. ifeel like i was robbed. and now you have reclaimed at! yeah, so, like, your hair, yourface, like, it's beauty, especially to a female. to guys, yeah, hair is a big thing, because i know a lot of females probably only find guys attractive notjust because of their hairline, but a hairline is attractive. if a guy's got a full hair, it's attractive. cutting all my hair and getting a hair transplant, i have so much more confidence, i feel very empowered now and i feel like sharing my story was probably the biggest thing i've ever done and probably the biggest thing i ever will do. i've tried to look online for a solution for my bald patch, but it's all really confusing. it looks like there's hundreds of different techniques to try. so it's time to speak to someone who really knows about hair loss. nice to meet you, iain. pleased to meet you. iain sallis is an expert who helps people understand why they're losing their hair. 95% of men, there is major — well, not major issues, but there is issues with genetic predisposition, and genetic hair loss can be

from the male or the female side. it doesn't have to come through the male side or the female side, so it's non—sex linked. so they will be come in and they will be looking at hairlines, going, this has moved. and, yes, but from 16 to your mid—20s, your hairline does move. it does change, you get a mature hairline. but then there is change over and above what it should. so if you're starting to become thin there and everything else is normal, that's usually genetic. iain says there are only two medications that can help with hair loss — finisteride and monoxidil. the nhs says women shouldn't use finisteride and neither drug is available on the national health service. so when you start taking this medication, it allows the hair, in some cases, to respond quite significantly. it may grow hair density back. i've heard, though, that with medications like monoxidil, once you start using it, you've got to keep using it if you want to keep seeing hair growth. is that true, or can you use itjust once, and then that's it? so you do have to keep taking these medications day after day after day. it's a treadmill medication. so there is no such thing as a one—shot thing

that willjust get rid of hair loss. hair loss can also be caused by stress, weight loss, cancer treatment or an unhealthy diet. in some cases, your immune system can attack your hair follicles. that's what's known as alopecia areata. i first noticed my hair loss when i was about 19. do you want to see what it looks like? sure. because this is a wig, and i hide behind this all the time. as you can see, i have got braids, i've got lots of hair on my head, but there's clearly a lot missing here. this is classed as a diffuse thinning around here. it does look as though the follicles are what's called atrophied, which means that some follicles have actually died off. if you've cared for your hair over a period of time and it hasn't returned, then the likelihood is that it's probably permanent... yeah, most people hate hearing that and i didn't want to accept that my hair is not going to grow, back so i tried all kinds of weird things i came

across on the internet. apparently, like, if you bend all the way down and then massage your head for, like, a minute with castor oil, it will apparently make your hair grow quicker, did not work. there is egyptian texts from 2000 bc that are the remedies and prayers for hair loss. if there was something natural out there, we would know about it. thank you, iain. i've learned so much. no problem. you know what, hearing that my hair loss is at its permanent stage, i'm not going to lie, it's super disappointing, even though, i did know somewhere in the back of my mind that it's not going to grow back, but really hoped that i'd be told that, you know, if you just use this one thing, it will grow back. but now that i know, i guess i've got closure and all i'm going to do now is just embrace it and accept it. chidera sounding very upbeat

at the end of herjourney. next, a journey of my own. veganism seems to be the latest buzzword and the lifestyle is on the rise. so much so that as a self—proclaimed meat lover, i decided to give veganuary a go — no meat, no fish, no dairy, for a month. how hard can it be? when it comes to my food, there's only ever been one rule — the more meat, the better. but as much as a kebab or spicy wing free life scares me, i am going meat free forjanuary,

and who knows, maybe forever. so if i told you i was going vegan forjanuary, what would you say? laughs. nesta on no meat for 31 days? no chance. nesta going vegan to me is a myth. yeah, it's going to be hard for you, very, very, very, very, very hard. i do like meat, but i love a challenge more. i've also heard there are health benefits to a vegan diet. it seems the vegan lifestyle is growing, and at a rapid rate, with thousands of people across the uk taking part in veganuary. # vegan, now i see clearer, no meat, no cheese, no milk... veganism also has a lot of celebrity backing — sia, miley cyrus and ariana grande have all committed to the diet. my last ever kebab, so no more business from me. yeah? i'm about to go vegan.

you go vegan? you going to come back or no? i might come back, i might not, but if i don't, thank you very much, it's been emotional. over the next month, i'll meet those leading the vegan charge. i would say at least 40% to 50% of the people that come to the market aren't vegan, or they're not yet of vegan. we like to call them ‘pregans‘. i think that it's definitely the best decision i've ever made in my life. i went somewhere the other day, i ordered tomato soup. that's not vegan. and those leading the defence of meat... veganism isn't the future. all i want to do is have a lamb chop. ..to find out if being a vegan is a fad. after walking around this supermarket for what feels like an eternity, reading the small print on all the ingredients,

i think i have what it takes to make soup. i've never made soup in my life. i've never contemplated making soup in my life. as for how it tastes... not too bad. not too bad at all. sarahjane is a friend and former bbc presenter. her vegan journey started when she tried it as a challenge on her show. 2.5 years later, she's still going strong. you know what? it's been so easy. people used to say to me rabbit food. you know? rabbit food. but now it is like, you can get the junk food. obviously you don't want to eat junk food every day, whether it's meat or not. do something today that your future self will thank you for. a few days in, thumbs up to a vegan menu. if you had told me a month ago, i would be making a kebab

and it wouldn't have meat, chilli sauce or mayonnaise in it, i would have laughed at you. today's destination — a vegan cafe in birmingham. the founding principle for being a vegan is that no animal should be killed, harmed, exploited for human benefit. the animal welfare argument makes a lot of logical sense because most of us are against animal cruelty, we don't want to see animals being hurt. vegans and vegetarians are becoming more widely accepted, it's becoming mainstream. even mcdonald's has a vegan burger. some people have this idea that veganism is only accessible to people in big cities, but actually, this couldn't be further from the truth. we've seen a growth in vegan places all over the uk. one man always happy to sing the praises of the lifestyle, fat day vegan. he's in coventry for a book signing. this is a little shopping centre in coventry. it's a testament to how strong veganism is in this part of the country.

there's a vegan cafe, a vegan grocery, and we are inside a vegan brewery right now. it is not a trend, it is not a fad. it is here to stay. how we know that is that we have seen the numbers of vegans growing year on year? now, we walk down the high street and businesses are shouting, "hey, vegan customers, come in here!" we have reached that tipping point, the point of no return. it's not gonna fall back. wherever you go now, there is more choice than ever, because people are slowly sort of waking up. all the other companies, they don't want to lose out. so everybody is really adapting. wherever you go now, you will always find something that will be suitable for vegans. i had struggle at first at school, people telling me that i was being really stupid and it was wrong, and that i wasn't actually helping anything and it wasn't making a difference. but ijust kind of learnt to ignore it, because it is what i want to do. i think that it is definitely the best decision i've ever made in my life. i don't see myself as someone

who's easily brainwashed, but the more people i talk to, the more empowered ifeel, the more i feel like i'm making a choice to me. my parents fed me meat when i was born because that was their choice. for me to decide to stop eating meat, i's doing something for me, no—one is forcing me to live our way. once people have got that reason in their hearts and their minds, for going vegan, it is very difficult, almost impossible to come back from that. the weather, mainly dry today apart from some patchy rain in the east. it's 7:33am. thank you very much. i just wanted to ask you, actually, about your vegan diet. um... it's hard, i won't lie. today is january 15. i think it's the day i became bored with not eating meat. there's no shame with admitting that when it comes to my life it's all about convenience. there are days i don't feel like cooking, ijust wanted a kebab.

so that's what i'm going to have, vegan style. that's amazing. i'm almost gonna taste it again, because i don't believe it isn't meat. this is my type of vegan food. veganism is obviously on the rise, and one of our slogans is meat free more often. we know that a lot of people, without trying veganism, are just cutting back on meat. it is in high demand. we get messages all the time on social media asking us, to be glasgow, manchester or birmingham. i think it is the future. what's more, people are going meat free. i don't think it is going to be too long before they are on every street corner. normally, i would eat a meat kebab, but this is better. this actually tastes more like meat than normal meat, do you know what i mean?

this is by far one of the nicest things i have eaten. the problem is, two parts to this problem, actually. a, i can't eat this every day. b, my local kebab shop doesn't do food like this. so until there's a vegan kebab shop at the end of my road, i'm going to be honest, i would struggle to be vegan. any kebab too often isn't healthy. but is a vegan diet any healthier than one which contains meat? if you're on a strict vegan diet, it is very difficult to get some minerals and vitamins. the key ones would be bi2, which you really only get from animal sources. the vegan society themselves recommend a vitamin b12 supplement for all vegans. and omega—3 fatty acids is another that's really difficult to get. the best source of that is from oily fish. well, there is no doubt that veganism is on the boom, but it continues to have plenty of doubters. i'm about to meet one woman who doesn't think it's the answer and reckons the future might actually be small—scale ethical

farming. fiona's farm in suffolk is a calf at foot dairy. she describes it as small—scale and ethical. unlike high—volume industrial farming, cows here, like bella, are ryegrass fed. they are only milked once a day and are never separated from their calves. i don't think a plant—based diet, en masse, is the answer at all. we've got to think of the planet. it just wouldn't sustain most people, cannot live a whole lifetime on a vegan diet. i understand where vegans are coming from. i have a conscience when it comes to food. i think the way we're doing it is the best for the future and i think all the people that work here learn sort of invaluable skills for the future, because this is the future. whether it's a lamb chop or a sausage, it is a long journey from a farm to a dinner plate. but how will seeing where an animal's life ends affect me? take the knife out of there,

and he would actually cut the blood vessels, the main vessels in the animal's neck here. the animal would bleed out here, the heart would stop and the animal would die. no, i don't think it's wrong to eat animals. if we want to eat meat and continue eating meat, an animal has to be killed. these animals would not have been born in the first place if we weren't eating meat. physiologically, we are designed as omnivores to eat meat. i think if people want to make a life choice not to eat meat, fine, but i think we have to acknowledge that if you are going to eat meat, an animal has to die, and we have to do that in the most humane way possible. this is what a vegan diet does. two vegans. i am not saying it is the vegan diet... at this stage, i am feeling leaner, more energetic, and my skin

has never been this clear. well, today, we are combining two things i love — football and food. this is forest green rovers, the first—ever vegan football team. em is the head chef at the club. yes, dale went vegan and is loving it, he has been vegan several months now. he's been great. i did get called a dictator. the argument we came back with was, look, we aren't dictating what you eat. we're just setting the menu. we're responsible for the food we put on here and we're taking that responsibility and we're not involving meat and dairy because those are important thing is to avoid. and if you want to bring your own food to the football, you can. we aren't going to stop you. it's against the traditional outlook of most clubs, where

you get meat and burgers and pies and hotdogs and everything else. the overarching thing is that the food is pretty good. it tastes really good. as the food tastes good, you can't complain. at half—time, the away fans might be applauding the football, but what about the food? it is good. i wouldn't call it gourmet. better than the pies at kidderminster. so, to give veganism a try? yeah, at this level, we are not multimillionaires, you know? there's different pools for different clubs and one of the pulls to come here was the different way of doing things, the vegan way, the way they treat the pitch. it's all about trying to help the environment and trying to make the world a better place. i think it's great to be a part of. 5—2, the final whistle and the time is up on my month as a vegan. it's february i. i've woken up with a fat smile on my face because i made it a month without eating meat. the table's booked. all that's left to be decided is the final meal. an alternate test might be to order a meat option and a vegetarian option, have them in front of me and then i'll choose.

i think i'm ready to decide which one you can take away. no way you'd have said to me that i would be at my turkish restaurant and you gave me my signature special for one and a couple of deep—fried courgettes, and i would say "give me the deep—fried courgettes." but people change. i don't know what it is about me that makes people not believe me, but honestly, for the entire month, no meat, no dairy, no milk, although i slipped up once because i ordered mayonnaise not thinking. i was halfway through the chips and i thought, i could throw them away or i could finish them. so i did finish them. that aside, i promise you, hand on heart, completely for that whole entire month of january. good morning. i think it's pretty safe to say it's been a miserable april so far, hasn't it?

but things look likely to change as we move through this week. yes, if you haven't already heard, we're heading for some warmer weather. there will still some rain in the forecast, mostly out to the west, and at times some strong to gale force gusts of winds. but, you want to know how warm it's going to be — and widely across the country, we could see temperatures peaking into the low 20s. so something to look forward to. ahead of that though for today, quite a quiet start to our working week. this area of low pressure will slowly start to push in, bringing some wet and windy weather but not really until the end of the day. a little bit of showery rain to ease away from scotland, cloudy skies first thing. hopefully, they should brighten, the best of the sunshine likely to be along the south coast, highs of ii to 15 degress. now the winds will strengthen and the rain arrives from the west. some wet and windy weather is expected, gale force gusts of winds through the night across northern ireland, north—west england and scotland. so some of that rain really quite intense to start the day on tuesday, but as it pushes its way out of the borders, it really

will fizzle out quite considerably. a band of cloud and drizzle by then. behind it, somewhat fresher conditions but brighter conditions, so temperatures will peak at around 11! degrees. but if we can keep some sunshine ahead of that weather front, we could see highs across eastern and south—east england of 18 or 19 celsius. move away from tuesday and we look at the weather story across the near continent with this high pressure building. now, this is going to deflect frontal systems coming in from the atlantic up into the far north and west and really influence the story, and with the winds swinging around in a clockwise direction around that high, it drags in this warmer, drier south—easterly flow and hence the reason for the marked change in the story for april. so that means as we move into wednesday, we will see some showery outbreaks of rain into northern ireland and western fringes of scotland, maybe a little more cloud. but through the borders and into central and southern england and wales, we'll some dry, sunny weather and some warmth

starting to build, 19 to 20 degrees the high on wednesday. on thursday, just a little bit of fair weather cloud out to the west, maybe a little bit of coastal mist but nothing particularly untoward, and generally speaking, lots of sunshine, light winds and yes, that's when we could see temperatures as high as 25 degrees, 77 fahrenheit. the last time we had temperatures like that — back on the 29th of august last year. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: more fallout after the air strikes on syria. the us threatens new sanctions against russia over its support for president assad. a week on from the alleged chemical attack in douma, one young resident describes her pain and distress. translation: we went down to the

basement and saw how they were bringing in the matter is. instead ofair, bringing in the matter is. instead of air, there was the smell of blood. i'm karin giannone in london. also in the programme: hundreds of australian firefighters battle a huge bushfire threatening southern sydney. police say it may have been started deliberately.