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As if 2023 wasn’t hard enough, Americans are now drinking as much alcohol as they did during the Civil War days. A new report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has found that the average American drinks about the same amount of alcohol as people did in 1860. In 2021, Americans consumed 2.51 gallons of ethanol – the alcohol found in wine, beer, and spirits – compared to 2.53 gallons at the brink of the Civil War. That amount, which doesn’t include water or other ingredients found in alcoholic beverages, marks a 60 per cent increase in liquor consumption compared to the mid-1990s. Americans have also changed their taste for alcohol. The amount of beer consumed has dropped nearly 20 per cent since 1995, while wine has steadily become America’s drink of choice. Now, 50 per cent more Americans are drinking wine than they did in the mid-1990s. This isn’t the only time the United States has seen staggering levels of alcohol consumption. In 1934, following the repeal of the Prohibition Act, Americans were drinking one gallon of ethanol per person. At the end of World War II in 1945, Americans reached 2.3 gallons. This, compared to 2.8 gallons in 1980, when alcohol consumption was at its highest. The rise in alcohol consumption may also have to do with a key demographic: women. In March, it was revealed that women in the US are out-drinking men for the first time in history. Dr George Koob, director of the NIAAA, recently told the Washington Examiner that binge drinking among college students are to blame. “In 2021, there has been an uptick, particularly among women. Now it turns out on college campuses women are actually binge drinking more than men, for the first time in history,” he told the conservative media outlet. The Covid-19 pandemic also saw a dramatic shift in alcohol consumption, as most states declared liquor stores were considered “essential businesses”. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, sales of alcohol increased by 2.9 per cent, the biggest annual increase in more than 50 years, according to the NIAAA. Now, with college campuses back in session and local bars open again, Koob attributed the rising trend of women binge drinking to the “alcohol deprivation effect” – in which people “rebound in drinking” after a period of abstaining from alcohol. “A standard drink is 1.5 ounces of vodka, 12 ounces of beer, or five ounces of wine,” he said. “When you go past a standard drink, you really are getting to the point where alcohol ultimately becomes a toxin. You can easily overdose.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that it’s safe for women to drink no more than one standard alcoholic beverage a day, and no more than two for men. However, binge drinking usually corresponds to five or more drinks on a single occasion for men, while four or more drinks on a single occasion for women. Read More Moderate alcohol consumption may lower stress, reduce heart disease risk, study finds Man dies after eating raw oysters from Missouri seafood stand Hip surgery policies based on weight ‘worsen health inequality’, study warns TikToker cooks rack of ribs in hotel bathroom using only items from his room BBQ salad recipes without a soggy lettuce leaf in sight How to shop for and cook Japanese food at home like a pro

Under heavy security, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday visited and pledged to improve safety at a Naples suburb where drug traffickers operate largely with impunity, organized crime wields influence and two girls were allegedly raped repeatedly by local youths. Meloni spent a few hours at the invitation of the local parish priest in the Green Park neighborhood in the town of Caivano, where the girls, cousins ages 11 and 12, were allegedly assaulted. The trip was an occasion for Meloni to show that her nearly year-old right-wing government is tough on crime and attentive to people living in largely neglected areas of the country. After meeting with the Rev. Maurizio Patriciello, a school principal and other local figures, Meloni promised that an abandoned, rundown sports complex, the suspected site of some of the alleged rapes, would be repaired and operational by spring. She said 10 million euros ($11 million) have been allocated to repair and make operational the complex, which includes swimming pools and tennis courts. The work will be carried out by the Italian army's engineering corps, and that once the complex reopens, it will be run by police athletic organizations. Meloni decried the alleged rapes as “an inhuman act, an infamous crime that has really shocked everyone." She said there probably “are more stories like this than those that surface in crime news.” Still, “we won't limit ourselves to dutiful condemnation and dutiful solidarity,'' said Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party has been leading in opinion surveys since her election nearly a year ago. She said her visit to Green Park makes it clear that “no-man's lands cannot exist in Italy." Meloni pledged a crackdown against “criminality, illegality, drugs" and said the number of police and local justice officials will be increased. The Camorra crime syndicate, whose illicit businesses include drug trafficking, holds significant influence in Naples and its suburbs, which include some of Italy's most impoverished areas. “I believe she (Meloni) will keep her word," about the sports center's renaissance, Patriciello said. Residents have complained for years that drugs are openly sold in the neighborhood's squares and streets, even as children pass by on their way to school or play. After the alleged rapes came to the attention of authorities, the cousins were placed in the temporary custody of caregivers while investigators determine if their parents were aware of their whereabouts during the days of the attacks. In 2013, a 6-year-old girl was killed by being thrown from a terrace of one of Green Park's rundown apartment buildings, allegedly by a pedophile who had abused her. The suspect was the companion of her mother's friend, according to Italian news reports. A year earlier, a 3-year-old boy was killed in a fall from an upper-story window of the same building in unclear circumstances. Meloni cited both children's deaths. The Caivano area includes farmlands that were contaminated a decade ago by the Camorra's multibillion-dollar racket involving disposing toxic waste, mainly from industries in the wealthy north that asked no questions about where the garbage went, so long as it was disposed at a fraction of the costs of legal removal. Many parents then marched in protest, fearing that their children's health was compromised from eating local produce. Ahead of Meloni's arrival, there were fears of big protests over her government's drastic slashing of a minimum-income assistance program, which was begun several years ago by populist former Premier Giuseppe Conte. The protests didn't materialize. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Partner of Italy PM Meloni faces backlash over rape comments: ‘Avoid getting drunk’ Italian leader tones down divisive rhetoric but carries on with pursuit of far-right agenda Putin’s forces pushed back by Ukraine counteroffensive after ‘largest’ drone strike