News headlines in June 2024, page 5

Over three million deaths per year were attributable to alcohol consumption and drug use, a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found. Of these deaths, 2.6 million were attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for nearly five per cent of all deaths, with the highest numbers in the WHO European Region and African Region.

Syria continues in a state of “grave crisis” with civilian suffering on the rise, the UN Security Council heard during a briefing on Tuesday.

A mother in the Philippines has explained how she feels “90 per cent stronger” after participating in a UN-supported programme which aims to build parenting skills and help children communicate more openly about difficult issues such as drugs.

While the situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, ongoing Israeli settlement expansion and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank is ratcheting up tension across the whole region, the UN’s Middle East envoy said on Tuesday.

The release of Julian Assange “is a very good outcome” to the long-running case, the UN independent expert on torture said on Tuesday after reports that the WikiLeaks founder had struck a plea deal with the United States.

Gaza remains on famine alert after food security experts warned on Tuesday that more than one in five households “go entire days without eating”.

NEW YORK, Jun 24 (IPS) - “Holy War” is how the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church referred to the Russian war on the Ukraine, and indeed, on “the West”¹ . “Holy War”, aka “jihad” is a foundational principle of “the Base” or “al-Qaeda”, which has grown into a non-state hydra with too many names and atrocities to list here (but if you are curious, one of the hydra faces is ISIS).

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 (IPS) - Perhaps two of the biggest misnomers in military jargon are “small arms” and “light weapons” which are the primary weapons of death and destruction in ongoing civil wars and military conflicts, mostly in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

In a statement last week, at the opening session of the Fourth Review Conference of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was dead on target when he said there is nothing “small” or “ight” about the damage these weapons cause.

Restoring the Iran nuclear deal to its full and effective implementation “remains elusive”, the UN’s top political affairs official said on Monday, adding that participating countries remain at odds with each other.

People who use drugs in the Philippines are being treated less as criminals and more as patients who need medical help and other interventions, as authorities there look to update the country’s former controversial policies.