South Korea’s fertility rate rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, supported by an increase in marriages, preliminary data showed on Wednesday, in a sign that the country’s demographic crisis might have turned a corner.

The country’s fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have during her reproductive life, stood at 0.75 in 2024, according to Statistics Korea.

In 2023, the birthrate fell for the eighth consecutive year to 0.72, the lowest in the world, from 1.24 in 2015, raising concerns over the economic shock to society from such a rapid pace.

Since 2018, South Korea has been the only member of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) with a rate below 1.

South Korea has rolled out various measures to encourage young people to get married and have children, after now impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a “national demographic crisis” and a plan to create a new ministry devoted to tackling low birth rates.

“There was a change in social value, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth,” Park Hyun-jung, an official at Statistics Korea, told a briefing, also citing the impact of a rise in the number of people in their early 30s and pandemic delays.

“It is difficult to measure how much each factor contributed to the rise in new births, but they themselves had an impact on each other too,” Park said.

Marriages, a leading indicator of new births, jumped 14.9% in 2024, the biggest spike since the data started being released in 1970. Marriages turned up for the first time in 11 years in 2023 with a 1.0% increase powered by a post-pandemic boost.

In the Asian country, there is a high correlation between marriages and births, with a time lag of one or two years, as marriage is often seen as a prerequisite to having children.

Across the country, the birthrate last year was the lowest in the capital, Seoul, at 0.58.

The latest data showed there were 120,000 more people who died last year than those who were newly born, marking the fifth consecutive year of the population naturally shrinking. The administrative city of Sejong was the only major centre where population grew.

South Korea’s population, which hit a peak of 51.83 million in 2020, is expected to shrink to 36.22 million by 2072, according to the latest projection by the statistics agency.

Six babies have died from hypothermia in Gaza since Sunday, according to health care officials in the strip, who warn there will be more such deaths unless more aid enters the enclave.

Dr. Saeed Salah, the medical director of the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital (PFBS), northern Gaza, warned of a “disaster” in the rising number of babies suffering from hypothermia, as they try to survive winter conditions in the strip.

In the past two weeks, eight babies with hypothermia were admitted to the medical facility in Gaza City, said Dr. Salah. Of those, three were admitted to the intensive care unit, and three others died “within hours” of arrival.

Then on Tuesday, a fourth baby who was just 69 days old died overnight, Dr. Salah added. Further south, two other babies died with hypothermia symptoms in Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis, health workers there told journalists.

Dr. Salah said more caravans, tents and fuel were needed to “bring warmth to the people.” He added that such provisions would stop this kind of “catastrophe from repeating itself” and “prevent the death of neonatal babies from hypothermia and frostbite.”

A fragile ceasefire has offered a moment of reprieve for people in Gaza from Israel’s months-long military campaign that it launched in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.

At least 48,348 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and another 111,761 people injured, the Ministry of Health there reported on Tuesday.

Survivors say they are struggling to rebuild communities and reconcile the destruction wrought – which gutted the medical system, and spawned a crisis of starvation, displacement and disease. Just 20 out of 35 hospitals are partially functional, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into the strip in violation of the ceasefire agreement – accusations that Israel has denied.

On February 14, COGAT said that 4,200 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip that week, carrying food, fuel, medical supplies, tents and shelter equipment, in compliance with the ceasefire and hostage deal. Since the start of the ceasefire on January 19, 16,800 trucks of aid had entered Gaza, COGAT added.

‘Man-made crisis’

In Nasser Hospital, a Palestinian mother gently stroked her tiny, pale baby, who was swaddled in blankets. Two-month-old Yousaf Al-Najjar is one of many neonatal patients being treated for hypothermia there.

“We don’t have covers or anything,” she added. “I see death in my son.”

“Every day we are dealing with children (suffering) hypothermia, many of them die,” she said on Tuesday. “The problem is not the hospital; it’s the conditions where the children are living, either in tents or destroyed homes.”

Israel’s war in Gaza has pushed many Palestinians into tent camps. At least 1.9 million people have been displaced, according to the UN. Many have sought refuge in sprawling outdoor areas, living for months in makeshift tents made of cloth and nylon – with little access to warmth, electricity or heating. In cold weather conditions, newborns and children up to three months are among those most at risk of respiratory infections, lack of blood supply, and infections, Dr Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the health ministry in the enclave, said on February 19.

Fikr Shalltoot, the Gaza director for the UK-based NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians, said the deaths of those six Palestinian babies “is the direct result of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid.”

Israel had delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since Saturday in protest of what it said is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release by Hamas and demanding guarantees that future hostage releases would take place without “humiliating ceremonies.”

Hamas released six Israeli hostages from Gaza on Saturday in two public ceremonies and one private transfer, in what was the final return of living hostages in the first phase of a ceasefire deal that began last month.

Israel was expected to free 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including 23 children and one woman — but Israeli officials delayed that release.

Hamas accused Israel of violating the truce with the delay, casting some uncertainty over the precarious ceasefire deal, and said talks on a second phase would not be possible until they are freed.

On Wednesday, an Israeli source familiar with the talks said a new agreement had been reached to transfer the remains of four hostages held in Gaza in exchange for the release of the 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Hamas confirmed that an agreement with Israel had been made through Egyptian mediators, but did not specify how many Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees would be released.

Hamas and its allies continue to hold 63 Israeli hostages in Gaza. At least 32 of those are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli government – one of whom, the soldier Hadar Goldin, has been held since 2014.

The 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is set to expire this weekend unless an agreement is struck to extend it. The two sides were meant to begin talks on a permanent end to the war in early February, but those discussions have not begun yet.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The parents of an 8-year-old girl who died after they withheld her insulin, encouraged by members of a small Christian sect who believed God would save her, have been sentenced to at least 14 years in prison.

Elizabeth Struhs died in January 2022 on a mattress on the floor of her home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, five days after her father Jason Struhs, 53, declared that she no longer needed medication for Type 1 diabetes.

Her mother, Kerrie Struhs, 49, encouraged Elizabeth’s father to withhold her insulin, as did 12 other members of a Bible-based sect known as “The Saints,” who were also found guilty of manslaughter.

Sect leader Brendan Stevens, 63, was handed a prison sentence of 13 years by Justice Martin Burns in the Queensland Supreme Court on Wednesday. Eleven other members of the sect, who sang and prayed while Elizabeth died, were also due to be sentenced.

It’s not the first time Jason and Kerrie Struhs have been prosecuted for failing to give Elizabeth medical care.

In 2019, Elizabeth, then 6, was hospitalized for a month after becoming gravely ill from undiagnosed and untreated diabetes. At the time, her father rejected the sect’s insistence that God would heal her and eventually took his daughter to hospital.

That time, Jason Struhs pleaded guilty to “failing to provide the necessaries of life to Elizabeth” and was given a suspended sentence after testifying against his wife. Kerrie Struhs pleaded not guilty and was given an 18-month sentence.

What happened next all but sealed Elizabeth’s fate.

While Kerrie Struhs was in prison, her husband’s 17-year opposition to the sect crumbled, the trial heard, and he became “baptized” as its newest member.

Elizabeth died just three weeks after her mother was released from prison on parole, telling her parole officer that she’d withhold her daughter’s treatment again, if given the choice. She also said she wouldn’t intervene if anyone tried to help Elizabeth – but no one did.

A ‘miracle’ recruit

The couple at the center of the case had a long and often combative relationship.

Jason Struhs told police that his wife wasn’t very religious during the first few years of their marriage, but that changed when she met sect leader Brendan Stevens and his wife Loretta in 2004.

As Kerrie Struhs grew closer to the Stevens family, she began to reject medical treatment. Jason Struhs remained a staunch non-believer, who insisted that their eight children be vaccinated.

The couple’s conflicting beliefs caused friction in the household, and for a time Jason moved to the garage to “escape the tension.” He worked night shifts and preferred to stay away from the house, either working or playing golf, he told police, according to court documents.

Kerrie Struhs told police her husband was an “angry man” who didn’t believe in God, and that she was planning to leave him after her release from prison in December 2021.

But she changed her mind after she discovered that Jason had joined the church, describing him as much calmer, like a “new person.”

“The change in him has been unbelievable,” she told police.

Jason Struhs told police he had a “mental breakdown” after Kerrie went to prison and sought support from sect members.

To the church, the conversion of someone once vehemently opposed to their teachings was something of a “miracle” – proof that God had cured his anger.

A small home-based sect

When Jason Struhs declared in early January 2022 – just five months after joining the sect – that Elizabeth no longer needed insulin, church members were elated.

Their campaign to convince him that Elizabeth could be cured by God had worked.

Within days her condition deteriorated, and even as she lay dying with the insulin in the cupboard, no one gave it to her or suggested they seek medical help.

As Elizabeth became sicker, vomiting then unresponsive, Jason Struhs seemed to waver in his conviction, but church members rallied around him, encouraging him to follow God’s will.

They sat at Elizabeth’s bedside, singing and praying. “Whatever the Lord’s plan is for us, we will follow it,” Stevens later told police.

Elizabeth died on January 7, 2022, of diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication caused by a lack of insulin and medical treatment for diabetes – the same condition she had in 2019.

The sect continued to sing, dance and pray around her body for 36 hours before Jason Struhs said it was time to phone police.

For years, the sect’s beliefs were reinforced by their leader, Brendan Stevens, who taught his followers to reject modern medicine but denied any responsibility for Elizabeth’s death.

In 2022, as Elizabeth’s condition deteriorated, Stevens told her parents, “This is just a little trial to prove that you all are truly faithful to our faithful God,” according to court documents.

Stevens’ wife Loretta, 67, and six of their adult children – Therese, Andrea, Acacia, Camellia, Alexander and Sebastian Stevens, ages 24 to 35, were also convicted, along with Elizabeth’s older brother Zachary Struhs, 22.

The others included Lachlan and Samantha Schoenfisch, a married couple aged 34 and 26, and Keita Martin, 24, who went to school with the Stevens children and moved in with the family when she was 17. During the trial, their family members told the court they’d become increasingly concerned about their extreme religious beliefs.

But not all were taken in by Brendan Stevens.

Jayde Struhs, Jason and Kerrie Struhs’ eldest daughter, gave evidence against her parents. She left their home at age 16 for fear she’d never be accepted as gay.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Jayde Struhs said: “These people only wanted to control my family and everything they did. All for the sense of power … so they could play God.”

All 14 defendants represented themselves during a 9-week judge-only trial in 2024, however none gave or called any evidence. Speaking on their behalf, Brendan Stevens called the trial a “religious persecution.”

Jayde Struhs told Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, that Stevens instilled an Armageddon-style fear in his followers.

“The main … messaging that Brendan puts out there is that the world’s going to end and Jesus is going to come back and save us … if you’re not absolute in the walk of God, you’ll go to hell forever,” she said.

Cult expert Raphael Aron, director of Cult Consulting Australia, says Jason Struhs would have been under “immense” pressure to join the group and follow their beliefs.

He said prison is unlikely to change the beliefs of “The Saints,” and if members are allowed further contact with each other, it could further entrench their ideology.

“I don’t know if any group has fallen apart because the leader went to jail; he’s just seen as a martyr, basically a replica of Jesus on the cross,” said Aron. “There’s all sorts of other ways of justifying it, and they keep going.”

He said he hopes Elizabeth’s death acts as a “wake up call” to anyone who may be questioning the legitimacy of people influencing themselves or a loved one.

A major red flag is the rejection of conventional medicine, Aron said, as it allows the group to conceal abusive behavior.

“The one area in life where the groups can actually be held accountable will be through the medical world, because that practitioner has a responsibility to do something about what’s going on,” said Aron.

Sect leaders also often ban members from accessing the internet because if they did, they might find damning testimony from former members, he added.

Small groups with extreme beliefs are all but impossible to detect unless people come forward, Aron said – but in Australia, unlike the United States, there are few avenues to report them.

He’s advocating for a regulatory body with the power to investigate complaints.

“The problem is, if you go to the police and no crime has been committed, they can’t do anything, and by the time the crime has been committed, it’s too late.”

China’s military has set up a zone for “live-fire training” about 46 miles (74 kilometers) off the southwestern coast of Taiwan without advance notice, the island’s defense ministry said on Wednesday.

It comes a day after Taiwan’s coast guard detained a Chinese-crewed cargo ship suspected of cutting an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 32 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait starting shortly before 9am on Wednesday (7.42 p.m. Tuesday ET). It added that 22 of those aircraft flew near the north and southwest of the island and carried out a “joint combat readiness patrol” with Chinese warships, according to the statement.

“During this period, (China) blatantly violated international norms by unilaterally designating a drill zone approximately 40 nautical miles off the coast of Kaohsiung and Pingtung without prior warning, claiming it would conduct ‘live-fire training,’” the ministry said.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the Taiwan statement. China’s Foreign Ministry did not comment on it when asked at a regular news conference Wednesday, saying it’s “not a diplomatic issue.”

China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory, despite having never controlled it, and has vowed to take the self-governing democracy by force if necessary. Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing has significantly ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan.

Kaohsiung, a strategic commercial hub for Taiwan, is home to the island’s largest and busiest port.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said China declared the drill zone within international shipping lanes via temporary radio broadcasts, posing “a severe threat to the safety of international aviation and maritime navigation.”

“This is a blatant provocation against regional security and stability,” the ministry added.

An airline traveler has spoken of his shock after cabin crew sat him next to the body of a fellow passenger who had died during the flight.

Ring recalled watching the crew try to revive the woman.

“Unfortunately, the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heartbreaking to watch,” he told Nine.

The crew then tried to wheel the body toward the business class section but were unable to maneuver it through the narrow aisle, Ring said.

“So they looked a bit frustrated and then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me… and they just said to me, can you move over please?” he said. “And I just said, ‘yes, no problem,’ and then they placed the lady in the chair that I was in.”

Ring then sat next to the body for the roughly four remaining hours of the flight, he said, despite there being other empty seats on the plane.

Another passenger offered Colin an empty seat across the aisle from Ring, where she sat for the rest of the flight.

“I was really shocked,” Colin told Nine, calling the experience “traumatic.”

“We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol then to look after the customers that are on board,” she said.

After the flight landed, Ring said passengers in his area were told to stay put until ambulance workers and police officers arrived to remove the body.

“I can’t believe they told us to stay,” he said, adding he was present when ambulance officers pulled away the blanket.

The couple said they weren’t immediately contacted by the airline, which they said owes them “a duty of care.”

Ring said he expected the airline to offer counseling support.

Qantas Airways, through which the couple bought their tickets, said they were in touch with Colin and have followed up with Qatar Airways.

“The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ring and Colin are trying to process the tragedy.

“I don’t really know how I feel,” Ring told Nine.

“And would like… to talk to somebody and to make sure I’m alright.”