December 20, Friday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Mr. Raja Pradhan

1. Japan’s Cabinet approved on Friday a planned record high government spending for fiscal 2020, which will start in April.

2. The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia have agreed to work on an agenda to be discussed in bilateral peace treaty negotiations.

3. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to explain the objectives of a planned Self-Defense Force dispatch to the Middle East in his meeting with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.