Briefly

NORTHEAST ASIA

Three allies reaffirm cooperation on DPRK

The United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea are sending a clear message with their coordination on policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said a senior US official on Wednesday, despite some recent friction between the two Asian allies. "That close coordination sends a very critical message to North Korea (the DPRK) in that we are together and shoulder-to-shoulder in our approach to this policy," US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters after meeting the deputy foreign ministers of Japan and the ROK in Tokyo. The three-way talks were held despite frayed relations between Japan and the ROK, largely a result of recriminations by both sides stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

UNITED STATES

Life expectancy sees biggest postwar drop

Life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, said public health officials on Wednesday. The decrease for both black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse－three years. The drop spelled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which health officials said is responsible for close to 74 percent of the overall life expectancy decline. More than 3.3 million people died in the US last year, far more than any other year, with COVID-19 accounting for about 11 percent of those deaths. For decades, US life expectancy was on the upswing. But that trend stalled in 2015, before hitting 78 years, 10 months in 2019.

RUSSIA

Planes seed clouds to calm raging wildfires

Russian planes seeded clouds to bring down rain on huge wildfires raging in the Siberian region of Yakutia, said authorities on Monday. Fires have flared across Russia amid a heat wave, tearing through over 1.5 million hectares of land in Yakutia, the worst-hit region. In one part of Yakutia, the fires had even spread dangerously close to a hydroelectric power plant. On Sunday, officials told people to stay indoors and keep their windows shut due to the smoke. The regional capital Yakutsk, sometimes known as the planet's coldest city, was forced to suspend flights at its airport due to bad visibility.

IRAN

Police officer killed in protest over drought

A police officer was killed during unrest in the country's southwest amid ongoing demonstrations over water shortages, raising the death toll in the unrest to at least two people, reported state media on Wednesday. Gunfire killed the officer in Mahshar and another suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, the state-run IRNA news agency said. There have been six days of continuous protests in Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan Province. The country has faced rolling blackouts for weeks now, in part over a severe drought. Precipitation had decreased by almost 50 percent in the last year, leaving dams with dwindling water supplies.

Agencies - Xinhua