South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has officially declared a "demographic national emergency" in response to the country's alarmingly low birth rate and rapidly aging population, Korean Times reports.

In a decisive move to tackle the nation's ultralow fertility crisis, President Yoon announced, "Today, I officially declare a demographic national emergency. We will activate a pan-government comprehensive response system until the low birth rate issue is overcome."

A new low total fertility rate of 0.72 last year prompted urgent action from the government. Numerous factors contribute to South Korean couples' reluctance to start families, including steep housing costs, expensive education, and demanding work schedules.

Addressing these concerns, President Yoon has committed to implementing concrete measures. These include boosting parental leave allowances, extending paternity leave, introducing flexible work hours, and alleviating the educational burden on parents.

The demographic crisis in South Korea has far-reaching implications for the country's economic future and social structure. With an aging population and fewer young people entering the workforce, the nation faces potential labor shortages and increased pressure on its social welfare systems.

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New details have emerged about how Israel persuaded pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to supply it with the original shipments of its COVID-19 vaccine.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held some 30 phone conversations with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, in which former Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer also took part.

Dermer held separate talks with Bourla to convince the Pfizer CEO to pick Israel as a test case.

Netanyahu and Dermer pointed out that Israel had a computerized database of its population's medical histories that goes back 30 years, and stressed the comprehensive locations of community clinics that could administer the vaccines quickly and effectively. An additional point in Israel's favor was its small, but not too small, size.

Pfizer representatives countered with the claim that Estonia also met these criteria, but then Netanyahu and Dermer played two winning cards: Israel's experience with emergency situations, which would allow it to handle any situation that might arise as a result of the vaccination campaign; and Israel's demographic diversity, which eventually tipped the scales.

Netanyahu told Bourla, "You have here a population from 100 different countries. In the case of a negative reaction to the vaccine, there will be extensive and precise medical information about the links, if there are any, between a person's ethnicity and the effects of the vaccine."

Sources involved in the negotiations told Israel Hayom that the population diversity argument was what prompted Bourla to recommend to Pfizer's board of directors that Israel be picked as the first country to be vaccinated on a nationwide scale.

Meanwhile, Bourla has already spoken about how impressed he was by how intensely Netanyahu promoted the purchase of vaccines, even insisting that lawyers representing Pfizer and Israel join the phone conversation to prevent possible legal delays.

Israeli officials emphasized that the government's deal with Pfizer did not entail handing personal medical information about citizens who received the vaccination over to the company, and that Pfizer would receive only general data about recipients' background and other pertinent information.

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Lebanon has one of the world's highest public debts in the world, standing at 150% of gross domestic product. Growth has plummeted and the budget deficit reached 11% of GDP as economic activities slowed and remittances from Lebanese living abroad shrank.

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The government hopes to bring down the budget deficit to 7.6% of GDP this year and to 6.5% in 2020.

The meeting at the presidential palace discussed measures to be taken in the near future and as part of the 2020 draft budget.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri told reporters after the meeting that the leaders have agreed on "declaring an economic state of emergency" and the formation of a committee that will follow on the situation.

Hariri added that employment in the public sector will be frozen and work will begin for a new retirement system. He said officials will work on reducing the percentage of the debt through a partnership between the public and private sectors.

President Michel Aoun said in a speech at the opening of the one-day session that everyone should make "sacrifices" in order to get one of the world's most indebted countries out of its problems.

"We have to unite our efforts to come out with solutions to the economic crisis that is strangling the dreams and hopes of our people," Aoun said.

No official details about the expected measures have been made public but economists who took part in preparatory talks for Monday's meeting said they included raising taxes on gasoline, boosting the value-added tax from 11% to 15% on luxury items, as well as fighting tax evasion.

The meeting came 10 days after international ratings agency Fitch downgraded Lebanon's ratings and as tensions on the border with Israel increased in recent days. Hezbollah on Sunday fired a barrage of anti-tank missiles in retaliation for an airstrike that targeted the group in Syria and an alleged Israeli drone attack south of Beirut late last month.

The recent developments have led for the first time in years for the US dollar to reach 1,560 Lebanese pounds on the black market, compared with the 1,500 that has been fixed since 1997.

Hariri vowed that the peg of the Lebanese pound to the American currency will remain in place.

Corruption-plagued Lebanon suffers from one of the world's highest debt ratios, high unemployment and little growth.

In July, Lebanon's parliament ratified a controversial austerity budget that aims to save the indebted economy.

Last month, Standard & Poor's Global Ratings maintained its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings, saying the country's outlook remains negative. The agency is scheduled to issue new ratings within six months.

Hariri said Lebanon has a period of six months to act and it is better "that we not become like states that collapsed."

In January, Moody's downgraded Lebanon's issuer ratings to Caa1 from B3 while changing the outlook to stable from negative.

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Residents of Beit Shemesh and Mashhad who were ordered to evacuate were allowed to return home.

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Earlier Monday, 10 teams of firefighters from the Beit Shemesh fire station, as well as firefighting aircraft, were battling a wildfire that broke out on Hagefen Street in the city. Beit Shemesh residents living to the east of Hagolan Street were instructed to close their windows and remain indoors.

בית שמש - 5 צוותי כיבוי והצלה מתחנת בית שמש פועלים בשריפת חורש טבעי ברחוב הגפן בעיר. לוחמי האש נאבקים בחזית האש על מנות לעצור את התפשטותה. המשטרה ביצעה פינוי תושבים מקו בתים ראשון.
קרדיט: סטורי בית שמש pic.twitter.com/aNlNDUuCtb

— כבאות והצלה לישראל (@102_IL) August 26, 2019

Footage of the Beit Shemesh fire, courtesy of the Israel Fire and Rescue Services via Twitter

Two other major wildfires – one at Moshav Mata in the Jerusalem hills and the second in Mashhad, northeast of Nazareth – also broke out on Monday.

Firefighters from all over Israel were scrambled to the scene of the Moshav Mata fire, while eight firefighting teams and two aircraft were battling the Mashhad fire. Occupants of Mashhad living closest to the fire line were temporarily evacuated, but by 5:30 p.m. were allowed to return to their homes.

No injuries were reported as a result of any of the fires.

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