WORLD

Alcohol can have very dangerous long-term effects on a person’s health if abused Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | Alcohol-related deaths soared during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a recent study has revealed. Alcohol-related deaths spiked between 2019 and 2020 from 78,927 to 99,017, while deaths from other …

Forests act as natural filters, providing clean air and water, and they are havens of biological diversity United Nations | Xinhua | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for “tangible and credible” management of forests, which are “essential” for both human being and the planet. Forests “act as natural filters, …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began on Monday the first day of a series of hearings for the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, in opening statements, highlighted Jackson’s qualifications, as well as the historic nature …

United Nations | Xinhua | The UN General Assembly (UNGA) will vote Wednesday on a draft resolution on Ukraine, the second such resolution since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, a spokesperson said Monday. The 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly will be held after a …

Kiev, Ukraine | Xinhua | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev’s compromises at peace talks with Russia would be put to a nationwide referendum in Ukraine, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Monday. “I explained to all negotiating groups: when you talk about all these changes, and they can be …

Moscow, Russia | Xinhua | A Moscow court ruled on Monday to ban Facebook and Instagram in Russia, labeling the parent company of the two social networks Meta Platforms Inc. “extremist.” The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia said that the lawsuit was aimed at protecting Russians from “a violation of their …

Russia accounted for more than 40 percent of natural gas and 30 percent of crude oil imported by the EU in 2019 Brussels, Belgium | Xinhua | Oil prices in Europe have been surging since the start of the conflict in Ukraine amid fears that the European Union (EU) may ban …

Nanning, China | Xinhua | A passenger plane with 132 people aboard crashed in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Monday afternoon, said the regional emergency management department. The Boeing 737 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which took off from Kunming and was bound for Guangzhou, crashed at about 2:38 p.m. …

Tehran, Iran | Xinhua | Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday praised Iranians for their resistance against U.S. sanctions, saying the people managed to defeat Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign. They made the remarks in their congratulatory addresses to the Iranian nation on the occasion of …

Beijing, China | Xinhua |  A fan group of Serbian football club Red Star Belgrade on Thursday used banners in a game to list U.S.-led NATO interventions over the past decades. One of the banners read a line from Beatles songwriter John Lennon’s anti-war song: “All we are saying is …