The number of babies born in Japan fell to a record low of 720,988 in 2024 for a ninth consecutive year of decline, the health ministry said Thursday, underscoring the rapid aging and dwindling of the population. Births were down 5% on the year, despite measures in 2023 by former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government to encourage child-bearing, while a record number of 1.62 million deaths meant that more than two people died for every new baby born. Although the fertility rate in neighboring South Korea rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, thanks to measures to spur young people to marry and have...
Hollywood Mourn Michelle Trachtenberg, ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ At 39
Michelle Trachtenberg was found “unconscious and unresponsive” in her New York apartment, pronounced dead at scene according to police statement. The 39 year old was a former child star who appeared in the 1996 “Harriet the Spy” hit movie and went on to co-star in two buzzy millennial-era TV shows, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gossip Girl”. According to report, no foul play was suspected and the New York Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death. Gary Mantoosh, the deceased representative on Wednesday shared that: “The family requests privacy for their loss.” Trachtenberg was 8-year-old when she began playing Nona...
Woman Denies Knowing About Her Ex-Husband’s History Of Child Abuse In Sex Abuse Trial
The ex-wife of a former surgeon at the center of France’s largest ever child sexual abuse case told a court Wednesday she knew “nothing” of her husband’s near 30-year history of abusing children, including members of their family, until his arrest in 2017. Marie-France Lhermite, 71, testified as her ex-husband, Joël Le Scouarnec, slouched a few feet away in the Palais de Justice in Vannes, a town in Brittany, northwestern France, where most of the alleged assaults took place. “I never had doubts about my husband,” Lhermitte said, speaking in a stuttering voice, at times barely above a whisper. Le Scouarnec,...
Washington Post Owner Jeff Bezos Says Opinion Pages Will Defend Free Market And ‘Personal Liberties’
The billionaire owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, narrowed the topics covered by its opinion section Wednesday to defending personal liberties and the free market, a pivot away from its traditional broad focus and prompting the news outlet’s opinion editor to resign. Bezos, who also is the founder and largest individual shareholder of Amazon, said on X that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” The move was received by some as an indication that Bezos is making decisions for the storied news outlet with an eye toward avoiding retaliation by President Donald Trump. Bezos, though, cast the...
Hamas Calls For Talks On Next Phase Of Ceasefire, Warns Israel To Adhere To Agreement
Hamas said Thursday it was ready to negotiate the next phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after a swap in which it handed over what it said were the remains of four hostages in exchange for the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. It was the final such exchange the two sides agreed to as part of a truce that’s set to end this weekend. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more prisoners and a lasting ceasefire, have not yet begun. An Israeli group representing...
Hama Release Four More Deceased Israeli Hostages To Red Cross
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday confirmed that Israel has received the bodies of four more dead hostages from Hamas and identification process is ongoing. The four bodies of Tsachi Idan, 49; Shlomo Mantzur, 85; Itzhak Elgarat, 68; and Ohad Yahalomi, 49, are expected to be the final Israeli hostages released as part of the first phase of the five-week-old ceasefire, with 29 hostages returned so far out of an agreed 33. Hostages released last week were also deceased with a mixed up of one Gaza woman in place of 32n-year-old Shiri Bibas, which threatened the ceasefire deal. Around...
Myanmar Villagers Reveal ‘Desperate’ Illegal Kidney Sales
“I just wanted to own a house and pay off my debts – that’s why I decided to sell my kidney,” says Zeya, a farm worker in Myanmar. Prices had soared after a military coup in 2021 triggered civil war. He could barely feed his young family and was badly in debt. They all lived in his mother-in-law’s house, in a village where thatched houses lined dirt roads, a few hours’ drive from the country’s largest city, Yangon. Zeya, whose name has been changed to conceal his identity, knew of local people who had sold one of their kidneys. “They looked healthy...
Argentina’s Milei Skirts Congress, To Seat A Divisive Judge In The Supreme Court
Argentina’s President Javier Milei temporarily appointed two Supreme Court judges by decree Tuesday, bypassing Congress during its summer recess to push through a particularly controversial candidate in a move criticized as an overreach of executive power. The president’s office said it was within Milei’s constitutional right to fill the two vacancies on the five-member panel as a matter of convenience and expediency. Argentina’s top court “cannot carry out its normal role with only three justices,” the statement added. Milei nominated federal judge Ariel Lijo and lawyer Manuel García-Mansilla last year but struggled to get approval in the Senate, where his...
18 Killed, 23 Injure In Thailand As Tour Bus Rolled Upside Down
At least 18 people were killed and 23 injured in eastern Thailand on Wednesday after the brakes failed on a tour bus and it rolled upside down into a ditch, police said. “It was a downhill road and the brakes failed, and the driver lost control of the vehicle before it overturned,” said Col. Sophon Phramaneehe, adding that those who died were adults on a study trip. There were 49 people on the bus, all Thai, including the driver, the police official told Reuters. Social media posts showed rescue and medical workers at the scene in Prachinburi province, 96 miles east of...