Source: Reuters
Security & Justice
Captured Hezbollah Operative May Have Been Israeli Double Agent, Report Suggests
The alleged senior Hezbollah operative abducted by Israeli special forces last week in Batroun may have been operating as a double agent, according to a report by The Telegraph.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Lebanon’s Probe into Israeli Raid Expected to Take Days as Security Officials Weigh Theories
Lebanese authorities are ramping up investigations into an Israeli commando raid last week in the northern coastal city of Batroun, during which Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official, was snatched.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Thursday 12 September 2024 23:04:24
Greece Offers Cash Benefits, Tax Breaks to Reverse Falling Birthrate
Greece outlined measures to boost its lagging birthrate on Thursday, from vouchers and childcare benefits to tax breaks for new parents, although experts questioned the plan’s effectiveness.
Greece has one of Europe’s lowest fertility rates, a dire demographic state driven by a decade-long economic crisis, emigration and changed attitudes among the young. The prime minister has called it a national threat and a “ticking time bomb” for pensions.
It currently spends around one billion euros a year on pro-child measures. Yet it recorded its lowest ever number of births in 2022.
The measures outlined on Thursday by the family, interior, finance and health ministries include tax relief for new parents, daycare vouchers, a rise in the minimum wage from 2025, pension increases and social contribution reductions.
But demography experts and even government officials acknowledge the long road ahead.
“It is a given that the demographic problem ... cannot simply be solved by benefits and cash incentives,” deputy finance minister Thanos Petralias told journalists on Thursday.
Petralias said fixing the problem also required improving the education and health systems, boosting incomes and better work-life balance conditions.
Tumbling birthrates are a problem for governments across Europe, where countries including France, Italy, Norway and Spain have spent billions of euros on pro-child measures, to little effect.
The measures are part of a broader plan aimed at reversing the downward trend of Greece’s birthrate, which officials had told Reuters would be unveiled in May but has been pushed back to later this year.
The plan includes affordable housing for young people, financial incentives for assisted reproduction, and incorporating migrants into the workforce.
“They (these measures) will have no dramatic impact on births,” said Byron Kotzamanis, a leading demography expect in Greece.
“There needs to be a different policy to tackle the problem at its core,” he said, adding this included giving young people incentives to remain in Greece and attracting back those who left.
