TOKYO: Japan’s total population marked the 15th straight year of decline, according to government data released Wednesday, dropping by more than a half-million people as the population ages and births remain low.
Births in Japan hit a record low of 730,000 last year. The 1.58 million deaths last year were also a record high. Japan’s population was 124.9 million as of Jan. 1.
The data released by the Internal Affairs Ministry also showed that the 11 percent increase in foreign residents helped their population surpass 3 million for the first time. They now make up nearly 3 percent of the total population and are mostly of working age from 15 to 64.
Surveys show that younger Japanese are increasingly reluctant to marry or have children, discouraged by bleak job prospects, the high cost of living — which rises at a faster pace than salaries — and a gender-biased corporate culture that adds a burden only on women and working mothers.
The government earmarked 5.3 trillion yen ($34 billion) as part of the 2024 budget to fund incentives for young couples to have more children, such as increasing subsidies for childcare and education, and is expected to spend 3.6 trillion yen ($23 billion) in tax money annually over the next three years.
Experts say the measures are largely meant for married couples who plan to have or who already have children, and don’t address the growing number of young people reluctant to get married.
Japan’s population is projected to fall by about 30 percent, to 87 million by 2070, when four out of every 10 people will be 65 years of age or older.
Japan’s population falls for the 15th year in a row. Births hit a record low, deaths a record high
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Japan’s population falls for the 15th year in a row. Births hit a record low, deaths a record high
- Births in Japan hit a record low of 730,000 last year, while deaths for the same period were a record high of 1.58 million
- Foreign residents surpassed 3 million for the first time, now making up nearly 3 percent of the total population
Somaliland opposition leader Cirro wins in presidential election, beating incumbent
NAIROBI: Somaliland opposition leader Abdirahman Cirro defeated incumbent president Muse Bihi Abdi in last week’s election, the electoral commission said on Tuesday, setting up a handover of power as the breakaway Somali region pushes for global recognition.
Somaliland has had de facto self-rule since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, but has not been recognized by any country, restricting access to international finance and the ability of its six million people to travel.
Cirro, leader of the opposition Waddani party, won 64 percent of the vote against Bihi’s 35 percent, said Musa Hassan, chairman of the Somaliland Electoral Commission.
“This election is not a win or loss for the candidates. It was an election of unity and fraternity and pushing ahead the Somaliland nation,” Cirro said in a televised address on Tuesday.
Occupying a strategic location at the juncture of the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Somaliland sees international recognition as being within reach after signing a preliminary deal with landlocked Ethiopia in January that would grant Addis Ababa a strip of land on its coast in exchange for recognition.
Somaliland is also hopeful that the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump will be favorable to its cause. Several leading Africa policy officials from Trump’s first term have voiced support for its recognition.
The breakaway region has enjoyed a comparative period of peace since achieving autonomy three decades ago, just as Somalia plunged into a civil war from which it has yet to emerge.
While Cirro has signalled broad support for the proposed pact with Ethiopia, his commitment to implementing it is not clear. Some analysts suspect he could be more open to dialogue with Somalia’s government, which opposes the agreement.
The deal has soured Somalia’s relations with Ethiopia, a major contributor toward a peacekeeping force in Somalia fighting Islamist militants, and drawn Somalia’s government closer to Ethiopia’s historic rivals, Egypt and Eritrea.
The presidents of Somalia and neighboring Djibouti, whose relations with Somaliland were also strained under Bihi, congratulated Cirro on his win.
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry also sent a congratulatory message to Cirro.
“Congratulations to the newly elected President of Somaliland... and to the brotherly people of Somaliland for their political maturity,” Djibouti’s president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, wrote on X.
In his message, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud committed to ongoing reconciliation talks, which he said were focused on preserving the unity of Somalia.
“While I think there are concerns that (Cirro) may opt for a radical departure from his predecessor, jettison the MOU (deal with Ethiopia), embrace dialogue with Somalia, there’s a big difference between campaigning and governing,” said Matt Bryden, a strategic adviser with the Sahan think tank.
Urban mosquito sparks malaria surge in East Africa
NAIROBI: The spread of a mosquito in East Africa that thrives in urban areas and is immune to insecticide is fueling a surge in malaria that could reverse decades of progress against the disease, experts say.
Africa accounted for about 95 percent of the 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 deaths worldwide in 2022, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization, which said children under five accounted for 80 percent of deaths in the region.
But the emergence of an invasive species of mosquito on the continent could massively increase those numbers. Anopheles stephensi is native to parts of South Asia and the Middle East but was spotted for the first time in the tiny Horn of Africa state of Djibouti in 2012.
Djibouti had all but eradicated malaria only to see it make a slow but steady return over the following years, hitting more than 70,000 cases in 2020.
Then stephensi arrived in neighboring Ethiopia and WHO says it is key to an “unprecedented surge,” from 4.1 million malaria cases and 527 deaths last year to 7.3 million cases and 1,157 deaths between January 1 and October 20, 2024. Unlike other species which are seasonal and prefer rural areas, stephensi thrives year-round in urban settings, breeding in man-made water storage tanks.
US will send Ukraine at least $275m in new weapons in push to bolster Kyiv before Trump
- One American official said the US is seeing no indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine
- The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not yet been made public
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon will send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons, US officials said Tuesday, as the Biden administration rushes to do as much as it can to help Kyiv fight back against Russia in the remaining two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The latest tranche of weapons comes as worries grow about an escalation in the conflict, with both sides pushing to gain any advantage that they can exploit if Trump demands a quick end to the war — as he has vowed to do.
In rapid succession this week, President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the authority to fire longer-range missiles deeper into Russia and then Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.
US officials contend that Russia’s change in nuclear doctrine was expected, but Moscow is warning that Ukraine’s new use of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, inside Russia on Tuesday could trigger a strong response.
One American official said the US is seeing no indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package has not yet been made public.
Asked Tuesday if a Ukrainian attack with longer-range US missiles could potentially trigger use of nuclear weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered affirmatively. He pointed to the doctrine’s provision that holds the door open for it after a conventional strike that raises critical threats for the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Russia and its ally Belarus.
A US official said Ukraine fired about eight ATACM missiles into Russia on Tuesday, and just two were intercepted. The official said the US is still assessing the damage but that the missiles struck an ammunition supply location in Karachev, in the Bryansk region.
The weapons in the new package of aid for Ukraine include an infusion of air defense, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, Javelin anti-armor munitions and other equipment and spare parts, US officials say.
The weapons will be provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon quickly to pull supplies from its shelves to speed them to Ukraine’s front line.
Trump’s upcoming move to the White House has triggered a scramble by the Biden administration to ensure all the congressionally approved funding for Ukraine gets delivered and that Kyiv is in a strong position going into the winter.
The Biden administration would have to rush $7.1 billion in weapons from the Pentagon’s stockpiles to spend all of those funds before Trump is sworn in. That includes $4.3 billion from a foreign aid bill passed by Congress earlier this year and $2.8 billion still on the books in savings due to the Pentagon recalculating the value of systems sent.
As part of the wider effort, the administration also is on track to disperse its portion of a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets, before Biden leaves the White House, according to two senior administration officials.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly, said the US and Ukraine are now in “advanced stages” in discussing terms of the loan and are looking to complete the process for the $20 billion portion of the mammoth loan that the US is backing.
The goal is to get it done before the end of the year, one official said.
Trump has criticized US support for Ukraine and derided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “salesman” while also having praised Putin and touting his good relationship with him. The president-elect has claimed — without explaining how — that he will end the war in in Ukraine before his inauguration on Jan. 20, saying he will “get it resolved very quickly.”
Last week, when he addressed supporters from a golden ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump returned to that pledge but again offered little information before changing the subject.
“We’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It’s got to stop. Russia and Ukraine’s gotta stop,” he said.
He has suggested that Ukraine give up at least some of its Russian-occupied territory to settle the war, saying at a rally in late September that “if they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”
Earlier this year, the leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies agreed to engineer the mammoth loan to help Ukraine. Interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral.
Once terms are finalized, the US will send the $20 billion to the World Bank, which will in turn disperse the money to Ukraine. The remaining $30 billion will come from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, among others.
Pakistan PM approves military operation against separatists following surge in violence in southwest
Pakistan PM approves military operation against separatists following surge in violence in southwest
- Announcement by Shehbaz Sharif to launch the operation ‘against terrorist organizations’ operating in Balochistan came after a meeting of the government’s security committee
- BLA wants a halt to all Chinese-funded projects and for Chinese workers to leave Pakistan to avoid further attacks
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister on Tuesday approved a long-awaited “comprehensive military operation” against separatist groups in the restive southwest, more than a week after an outlawed group killed 26 people in a suicide bombing at a train station, officials said.
The announcement by Shehbaz Sharif to launch the operation “against terrorist organizations” operating in Balochistan came after a meeting of the government’s security committee in Islamabad, the capital. On Nov. 9, a suicide bomber with the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army group blew himself up at a train station in Quetta, killing 26 people, most of them soldiers.
In a statement, Sharif’s office said the BLA and other groups will be targeted buit didn’t say when the operation would begin. The office blamed the groups for “targeting innocent civilians and foreign nationals to scuttle Pakistan’s economic progress by creating insecurity at the behest of hostile external powers.”
In recent months, Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have witnessed a surge in militant violence, most blamed on the outlawed BLA and TTP groups. The train station attack in Quetta was the deadliest since August, when separatists killed more than 50 people in multiple coordinated attacks on passengers buses, police and security forces across Balochistan.
Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but also least populated province. It is a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
The BLA mostly targets security forces and foreigners, especially Chinese nationals who are in Pakistan as part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. The BLA wants a halt to all Chinese-funded projects and for Chinese workers to leave Pakistan to avoid further attacks.
Also Tuesday, a suicide car bomber targeted a security post in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Irfan Kahn, a local police official. Kahn said gunshots were heard and and ambulances had arrived at the scene of the attack. He provided no further details, and it was not immediately clear how many people were killed or wounded in the attack.
The attack came a day after Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern district of Tirah, sparking a shootout in which at least 10 insurgents were killed and several others were wounded.
Woman faces hate crime charges after confronting Palestinian man wearing `Palestine’ shirt
- Waseem Zahran told the Chicago Sun-Times it was not the first time he has been harassed for wearing the sweatshirt, and he expects it won’t be the last time
DOWNERS GROVE, Illinois: A suburban Chicago woman faces hate crime charges for allegedly confronting a Palestinian man wearing a sweatshirt with “Palestine” written on it and trying to knock a cellphone out of his pregnant wife’s hands as she recorded the encounter, authorities and the man said.
Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, appeared in court Monday for her arraignment on two felony hate crime counts and a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. A DuPage County judge ordered the Darien, Illinois, woman to have no contact with the victims and to stay away from the restaurant where police said the confrontation occurred Saturday. Szustakiewicz’s next court hearing is set for Dec. 16.
A message left Tuesday for her public defender, Kendall Pietrzak, seeking comment on the charges was not immediately returned.
Szustakiewicz was at a Panera Bread restaurant in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove on Saturday “when she confronted and yelled expletives at a man regarding a sweatshirt he was wearing with the word Palestine written on it,” according to a news release sent Monday by the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office and Downers Grove police.
She also allegedly “attempted to hit a cell phone out of the hands of a woman who was with the man when the woman began videotaping the incident,” it adds.
A complaint filed against Szustakiewicz, who was arrested Sunday, alleges that she “committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin” of the two victims.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement that “this type of behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a civilized society.”
The Palestinian man Szustakiewicz is accused of confronting said he was wearing a hoodie with the word “Palestine” on it when she approached him and yelled expletives at him while trying to hit his pregnant wife, whom he shielded as she filmed Szustakiewicz with her cellphone.
Waseem Zahran told the Chicago Sun-Times it was not the first time he has been harassed for wearing the sweatshirt, and he expects it won’t be the last time. He said his family has long faced harassment and threats for being Palestinian.
“Since I was a child, I’ve seen my mom threatened, parents screamed at, cousins yelled at. But it was a first for me to be attacked,” Zahran told the newspaper.
He said he tried to deescalate the situation multiple times, even after Szustakiewicz allegedly hit him in the face and attempted to throw hot coffee on his wife before and after swinging at her multiple times.
Zahran said Szustakiewicz continued swinging at his wife even after he told her she was pregnant.
“I don’t care,” he said she replied.
He said in a statement sent Monday by the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that he is “a born and raised American who took his wife out for lunch. I was not able to do that simply because I was Palestinian.”
CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab condemned the attack in the statement.
“We have long seen how European migrants like this woman feel a bizarre sense of entitlement to regularly harass and accost native Palestinians in their ancestral homeland, knowing they enjoy full impunity and knowing their victims have no recourse,” Rehab said.
“Now, shockingly but not surprisingly, that same anti-Palestinian hatred has followed them into their new homeland, here in America, where they were born and raised.”
