Climate: Backlash Erupts Over Europe’s Anti-Deforestation Law
A recent European Union (E.U.) backed deforestation law received major amounts of pushback from countries around the world. While the bill would help to protect endangered forests, it would also hurt the economies of many countries. Austria, Sweden, Italy, the United States of America, and various countries within Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America have voiced their wishes for the United Nations (U.N.) to rescind the law. Some nations have gone as far as to call the U.N. punitive for attempting to pass it. Not only will large conglomerate businesses be affected, but it will also make it difficult for small businesses and farmers to earn a sufficient profit. According to “The New York Times,” “the uproar underscored the bruising difficulties of making progress on a problem that most everyone agrees is urgent: protecting the world’s population from devastating climate change.”
Politics: U.S. Presidential Candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Outline Housing Plans
According to “Aljazeera,” housing is “the second most common economic concern for American families in the lead-up to the presidential election.” One of Harris’s main policies to put into action is to give 25,000 USD to four million first-time homeowners. The only qualification that home-buyers would have to comply with is that the buyer would have to have paid their rent on time and in full for the previous two years. According to “Aljazeera,” “home prices have surged by roughly 50 percent” since the beginning of 2020, while hourly wages only increased by 23 percent. Harris also hopes to build three million new homes by the end of her first term. Trump’s proposed courses of action are to ban mortgages for undocumented migrants, to reduce regulatory obstacles to building new homes, and to place 100 percent tariffs on countries that are deciding to stop using dollars as currency for global trade. According to “NPR” news, Trump has “spoken out strongly against low-income housing. He says it brings down property values. He calls it an attack on the suburbs.”
Conflict: United Nations Accuses Israel of Violating of Child Rights Treaty in Gaza
Last Thursday, the United Nations (U.N.) accused Israel of breaching a global treaty that was put into place in order to protect children’s rights around the world. According to the U.N., the actions that Israel took in Gaza recently had a devastating impact on the children and were “among the worst violations in recent history.” According to “Reuters” news, of the 41,000 people that were killed in Gaza since October 7 of last year, at least 11,355 were children. Israel, who agreed to this global treaty in 1991, has responded by pointing out that the U.N. has a politically driven agenda. According to Israel, the treaty did not apply to Gaza or the West Bank. The U.N. has now mandated that Israel provides aid and care to thousands of children who have been subject to war violence. Israel is also now required to provide support to orphans and perform numerous medical evacuations of children from Gaza. Despite the new regulations, the U.N. “has no means of enforcing its recommendations,” “Aljazeera” noted.
Science: New Report Details Deep Links Between Alcohol and Cancer
A recent report released by the American Association for Cancer Research outlined a concerning trend between alcohol consumption and cancer risk. While the number of deaths caused by cancer continues to decline, the number of cases continues to increase. According to the “Health Policy Institute of Ohio,” the report outlined that more than 40 percent of all cancers are linked to modifiable risk factors — behaviors of a person that one can change to lower a person’s risk of chronic disease or cancer. In addition to reducing alcohol consumption, the report recommended avoiding tobacco, maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, reducing contact with ultraviolet radiation, and avoiding pollutants. In an interview with the “New York Times,” Jane Figueiredo, an epidemiologist and a member of the steering committee that prepared the report, stressed the need for greater public awareness about the connection between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer. “Fifty-one percent of people… do not know that alcohol increases your risk of cancer,” Figueiredo noted. “Just over one in 20 cancer diagnoses were attributed to alcohol consumption in 2019.”
Health: Mpox Spreads At An Alarming Rate Among Burundi Communities
The MPox virus (Orthopoxvirus monkeypox) continues to spread at an alarming rate in the Republic of Burundi. With children under 19 making up two-thirds of the 600 reported cases, Burundi follows the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the second most heavily infected country in Africa. According to “Medical Xpress,” the deadly, infectious virus is transmitted to humans by infected animals and physical contact with other infected humans. Some symptoms include fever, muscular aches, and boil-like skin lesions. Although vaccinations hold the potential to prevent the spread of mpox, “Voice of America” reported the struggle of implementing them in rural communities. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris emphasized that without access to materials, soap, clean bedding, and clean clothing, the transmission of the virus is near inevitable. With neighboring countries approaching 25,000 suspected cases and 723 deaths, the United Nations children’s agency continues to appeal for 58.8 million dollars in aid for their humanitarian response across the six infected African countries.
