Azerbaijan-Armenia, Libya, Japan.

Today's three stories you should know.

Sep 19, 2023

Azerbaijan-Armenia

Azerbaijan today launched artillery strikes on the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in a move that could drive it back to all-out war with neighboring Armenia. The enclave is internationally-recognized as part of Azerbaijan but the overwhelming majority of its 120,000 inhabitants are ethnically Armenian, and the two countries have gone to war over the territory twice in the last 30 years. Russia, which has had peacekeepers in the region since a ceasefire halted the most recent conflict in 2020, called for an end to hostilities but its troops seemed powerless to intervene.

More from Reuters here. And an explainer from Al Jazeera here.

Libya

Protestors in the Libyan city of Derna have burned down the mayor’s house as anger spread over flooding that destroyed much of the city and left thousands dead and missing. Residents criticized authorities for failing to maintain two dilapidated dams that collapsed and for not giving adequate warning that heavy rainfall was coming. As tension grows, internet and telephone services have been shut down and some journalists ordered to leave. Libya has been in chaos since the toppling of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and currently has two competing governments.

Japan

Big milestone in Japan today as figures showed more than one in 10 people are aged 80 or older for the first time. The country’s population has been shrinking for decades and, in February, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned it was “on the brink” of a population crisis. The data also showed the percentage of the population aged 65 or older has reached a record 29.1 percent, making it the highest percentage in the world with Italy in second place on 24.5 percent followed by Finland on 23.6 percent.