According to a report published and subsequently censored in the state media, as many as 250,000 men who have returned from the front are struggling to find work in Russia. The website Veter contacted some of them and recounted their stories, which take us back to the period following the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan, a time marked by many unresolved social tensions.
This is the second night of relative quiet along the southern border since the war broke out on 2 March. The 14 June massacre of civilians has slowed down the return of the population. Some residents told AsiaNews that they hope for a return to "normal life”, amid uncertainty and fears about the future. A new round of talks between Lebanon and Israel is set for tomorrow in Washington.
According to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, transnational networks have built an economy capable of jointly making narcotics on an industrial scale, managing online fraud, laundering money, and infiltrating the lucrative markets of Japan and South Korea. Drug seizures reached an all-time high for the third consecutive year.
Leo XIV visited the Rome headquarters of the World Food Programme, calling for a return to the "essential” amid a complexity caused by an "unnecessary bureaucracy". He lamented that more is done to fuel conflicts than help starving people. He slammed the "quiet commodification of human life”, and urged “multilateral cooperation”.
Even though the legal age of marriage is 18, cultural traditions and poverty continue to encourage early marriages. In tribal areas it is one in two, with brides as young as 13. The war with Thailand has exacerbated the practice, but some government pilot projects and the experience of the Christian NGO Chab Dai show that education can change things.
At the heart of the dispute is a plan by a local company covering almost 4,500 hectares of the ancestral lands of the Bugkalot/Ilongot indigenous people. The Bishop of Bayombong, Monsignor Elmer Mangalinao, celebrated Mass at a barricade erected by local committees opposing the project. The bishop said: “Caring for the land means caring for the poor”.
