Briefly

SOUTH KOREA

World's lowest fertility rate drops further

South Korea's fertility rate fell last year to a record low, data showed Wednesday, yet another grim milestone for the country. The average number of expected babies per South Korean woman over reproductive life fell to 0.78 last year, compared with 0.81 a year earlier, official data from Statistics Korea show. It is the lowest among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which had an average rate of 1.59 in 2020, and far below 1.64 in the United States and 1.33 in Japan the same year. The government has failed to reverse the falling birthrate despite spending billions of dollars each year on childcare subsidies. As of 2020, South Korea was the only country among the OECD members to have a rate below 1, giving it a shrinking population.

FRANCE

Macron champions pensions reform plan

French President Emmanuel Macron has defended his government's hotly contested pensions overhaul in rare comments on the topic. "People know that, yes, on average, you have to work a little longer, all of them, because otherwise we won't be able to finance our pensions properly," he said on Tuesday. Macron made the pension plan a key priority of his second term when he campaigned for reelection last year. Hundreds of thousands of people have gone on strike or taken to the streets on five separate occasions in recent weeks to protest the proposed changes. They include increasing the age of retirement from 62 to 64 and raising the number of years of contributions required to receive a full pension.

IRAN

Tit-for-tat sanctions slapped on EU, UK

Iran imposed sanctions on 36 individuals and entities from the European Union and the United Kingdom on Tuesday in response to similar measures against Teheran after months of unrest. Teheran placed the names on its "sanction list for supporting terrorism and terrorist groups" and for "interference in domestic affairs ... fomenting violence and unrest", the Iranian Foreign Ministry said. Sanctions were imposed on several military companies, as well as ministers and lawmakers from various European countries, both at a national level and in the European Parliament.

EUROPEAN UNION

1M asylum requests received in 2022

Nearly 1 million people applied for international protection in the European Union last year, according to data published Wednesday, bringing the number of asylum requests to a level not seen since the refugee crisis of 2015-16. The EU agency for asylum said 966,000 asylum applications were made in the 27 EU countries and in Norway and Switzerland, up 50 percent from 2021. It linked the increase to continuing easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions, increasing food insecurity and conflicts in many parts of the world. Though most asylum-seekers entered the EU legally, mainly by plane with travel visas, some also crossed the EU's land and sea borders without permission, mainly through the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean.

Agencies Via Xinhua