TOKYO, 24 January 2023, (TON): Japanese Prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Monday to take urgent steps to tackle the country’s declining birth rate, saying it was “now or never” for one of the world’s oldest societies.

Japan has in recent years been trying to encourage its people to have more children with promises of cash bonuses and better benefits, but it remains one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, according to surveys.

Births plunged to a new record low last year, according to official estimates, dropping below 800,000 for the first time – a watershed moment that came eight years earlier than the government had expected.

That most likely precipitated a further population decline in a country where the median age is 49, the highest in the world behind only the tiny city-state of Monaco.

WASHINGTON, 24 January 2023, (TON): Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to urge an immediate reopening of the Lachin corridor to commercial traffic. 

He underscored that the risk of a humanitarian crisis in the Lachin corridor undermined prospects for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Secretary encouraged President Aliyev to redouble efforts in bilateral peace discussions with Armenia.  He also raised human rights concerns in Azerbaijan.

WASHINGTON, 24 January 2023, (TON): Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas Christopher J. Dodd will travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 23-25, to attend the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States as an observer on behalf of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.  SPA Dodd will meet with several heads of state and cabinet-level officials attending the summit, as well as the host, President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina.

This visit reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to engaging with our neighbors as we work together to encourage inclusive economic growth, confront shared challenges, and promote democracy, human rights, and rule of law in our hemisphere.

Consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s engagement with relevant regional mechanisms on these critical goals, the U.S. government reaffirms the value of strengthening regional collaboration through the Organization of American States, the premier multilateral forum in the Western Hemisphere.

BEIRUT, 24 January 2023, (TON): The judge investigating the August 2020 Beirut port explosion has resumed his work after the probe was frozen for more than one year, Lebanese media reported and a judicial source said.

The investigation into the explosion that killed 220 people and shattered Beirut has been derailed by political resistance from ruling factions and legal challenges against the lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

The judicial source told Reuters Bitar had resumed his work based on a legal study that challenged the basis upon which it was frozen. It was not immediately clear who had prepared the study.

The explosion, one of the most powerful non-nuclear blasts on record, was caused by hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been unloaded at the port in 2013.

BEIRUT, 24 January 2023, (TON): US military’s Central Command said “US forces have captured three Daesh group members during a helicopter and ground raid in eastern Syria.”

The raid happened on Saturday, according to Col. Joe Buccino, a Central Command spokesperson, adding that one civilian received “minor injuries” during the attack and was treated at a nearby medical facility before being released back to his family.

A Central Command statement described the militants as facilitators, a logistician, and an “associate” of the jihadist group.

Few other details of the raid were disclosed. Central Command alluded to the presence of “partner forces” language which in the past has been used to refer to the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Syrian Kurdish armed group that helped the US and its allies defeat the Daesh group, which sought to establish as Islamic caliphate.

WELLINGTON, 22 January 2023, (TON): Chris Hipkins is set to replace Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand’s next prime minister after emerging as the only candidate nominated to lead the Labour Party, the party said.

Hipkins is expected to be confirmed as the new leader at a meeting of Labour’s 64 lawmakers, or Caucus.

In a surprise announcement, Ardern said she had “no more in the tank” to lead the country and would step down and not seek re-election.

First elected to parliament for the Labour Party in 2008, the 44-year-old Hipkins became a household name fronting the government’s response to the pandemic after being appointed minister for COVID-19 in November 2020.

JERUSALEM, 22 January 2023, (TON): An Israeli civilian shot dead a Palestinian Saturday at a settler farm in the occupied West Bank after an attempted stabbing, the military said, the latest incident as violence surges in the territory.

An assailant tried to knife an Israeli civilian during the “attempted stabbing attack” at Sde Efraim farm northwest of Ramallah, it said.

“The terrorist was neutralized,” the army added, confirming to AFP that a civilian shot dead the Palestinian.

No one else was wounded in the incident, the army statement said.

ISTANBUL, 22 January 2023, (TON): Turkiye said on Saturday that it had called off a visit by Sweden’s defense minister over a planned anti-Turkiye protest in Stockholm.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said “at this point, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson’s visit to Turkiye on January 27 has lost its significance and meaning, so we canceled the visit.”

The Swedish minister visit was aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance.

Turkiye has been angered by permission obtained by a right-wing extremist to demonstrate later on Saturday in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital.

MONTREAL, 22 January 2023, (TON): Canada will repatriate six women and 13 infants who have been detained in northeast Syria in camps for family members of Daesh Group fighters, Ottawa announced.

It is the largest such repatriation of Daesh family members yet for Canada, and comes after the women went to court to force the government to bring them home, saying it was obliged to under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The country’s foreign ministry said it had reached a “mutually acceptable resolution” of the case over their application to return.

The agreement resolved the case for the 19 Canadian women and children, but left four men who are also seeking repatriation as part of the case to be decided on in the coming weeks.

AL-MUKALLA, 22 January 2023, (TON): Two Yemenis kidnapped by the Houthis died after being brutally tortured inside militia prisons, Yemeni human rights advocates and local media said.

The deaths have sparked outrage, with demands for an inquiry to bring the killers to justice, and an acceleration of prisoner-exchange negotiations.

One of the victims, Munaser Al-Rasas, a Yemeni expatriate working in Saudi Arabia, is believed to have been abducted while returning to his family home in the central province of Al-Bayda to celebrate Eid Al-Adha last July.

A Houthi representative on Friday notified the family of his death, but gave no further details.