MYANMAR: A Japanese reporter arrested by the junta for covering protests was released and allowed to go home yesterday.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Yuki Kitazumi was released after efforts by Japanese diplomats and others.
Mr Kitazumi said: “As a journalist I wanted to stay in Yangon and keep reporting, but I had to come back, and that is my regret.”

RUSSIA: Northern Fleet commander Admiral Alexander Moiseyev has warned that Nato’s naval presence in the Barents and Norwegian seas is reaching levels not seen in history.
Naval drills come ever closer to the Russian coast and US nuclear-capable strategic bombers are doing more and more frequent fly-bys, he said.
“Such actions are provocative and have a negative impact on regional security.”

ITALY: The Pope has followed Prime Minister Mario Draghi in warning that Italy’s birth rate is so low it may “cease to exist.”
At 1.27 per couple, Italy’s birth rate is the lowest in the EU. With Covid deaths last year seeing the death rate spike, the country lost the equivalent of the entire population of Florence last year.
Pope Francis praised a new bonus for having children but added that the government should pursue economic policies to give young people “guarantees of a stable job, security of having a home.”

UNITED STATES: Scientists are urging the Biden administration to restore legal protection for wolves.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service dropped wolves from endangered species lists in January, part of a policy blitz by outgoing president Donald Trump to remove environmental protections and many states have seen wolf-hunting soar since.
Since January “we’ve been shocked by the way states have been willing to go to all-out war against wolves,” wildlife conservation professor John Vucetich said.