Xi attends welcome ceremony held by Macron

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday attended a welcome ceremony held by French President Emmanuel Macron at Les Invalides in Paris on Monday.

The welcome ceremony came after a China-France-EU trilateral meeting attended by Xi, Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Elysee Palace on Monday morning.

Xi arrived in Paris on Sunday for a state visit to France at the invitation of President Macron.

This is the second state visit by China's head of state to France in five years and coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

An average of nearly six homeless people died every day on the streets of Los Angeles, the United States' most populous county in 2022, according to a latest report by the County's Public Health Department.

For a second year in a row, the county had more than 2,200 people on the streets die in a single year, said the report released in May.

The report also shows a sharp spike in the mortality rates within the unhoused population over the past decade. The county's homeless population rose by 70 percent over the last decade, and their mortality rate doubled. But the number of drug overdoses, which continues to be the leading cause of death, has not seen a significant increase.

"It's not unexpected when you consider that the homeless population overall, especially the folks who are chronically homeless, they do represent more of an aging cohort. And so one could expect to see these kind of high rates, you know, unfortunately, you see preventable deaths from drug overdose," said Ben Henwood, professor of social work, University of Southern California.

For the sixth year in a row, drug and alcohol overdose continued to be the leading cause of death among unhoused people, accounting for 37 percent of all deaths in 2022.

"Yes, they are dying of drug related complications, but they're also dying of things like heart disease, and cancer and things that we treat with primary care and preventative medicine. So it just continues to highlight the need for us to go to the streets, deliver care where the people are, in their environment, where they feel most comfortable," said Brett Feldman, director for USC Street Medicine.

Feldman leads the street medicine team at the University of Southern California, providing basic yet potentially life-saving health care to those who would not have any access otherwise.

"[There is] very few resources, comparatively, are dedicated to street medicine. You know, we have a study that's currently under review that's showing, less than 7 percent have been seen by street medicine. Only about 3 percent are engaged in care for mental health. And so, that's a small percentage to expect to have a much larger impact. A lot of the focus, very appropriately, has been on housing," said Feldman.

But the city is far behind in building affordable housing that can accommodate everyone in need at a time when their numbers continue to rise along with their mortality rate.