Overview
- The U.S. government approved and notified Congress of support for upgrading Japan’s Aegis destroyers, a roughly $100 million package covering software updates, system modifications, technical assistance, and post-upgrade testing.
- The Council of Europe agreed to establish an international claims commission in The Hague to pursue reparations for damage from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Australia’s federal police chief said the two Bondi Beach shooting suspects were believed to be inspired by IS, and ABC reported via security sources that they traveled to the Philippines before the attack and received “military-style” training; the father was killed by police and the son is hospitalized.
- Following the Hokkaido governor’s consent to restart the Tomari-3 reactor, Sapporo’s mayor said he respects the decision and asked the prefecture to detail evacuation reception and related measures.
- Other domestic developments included the defeat of former Ito mayor Maki Takubo after a months-long credentials controversy, Noboribetsu seeking to freeze a joint school-lunch center with Muroran for about five years, and business group Doyukai selecting Japan IBM’s Akio Yamaguchi to take over as representative secretary on January 1.