“Bệnh thành tích làm khổ hai cuộc đời” của hai đứa trẻ. “Còn những người bày đặt chuyện đó vẫn nhởn nhơ, thậm chí còn lên chức vì cả một bộ máy quản lý thể thao đồng loạt bao che nhau.” (Trích trong bài).
Stepping onto the Laos-China Railway (LCR) in Luang Prabang, the picturesque former royal capital in Northern Laos, brings a rush of aesthetic familiarity to anyone who has ridden the high-speed rail in China. From the train station massage chairs to the voice over the loudspeaker and the advertisements on seatbacks, the experience is decidedly Chinese. The result is both comforting and disorienting: riders feel they are not quite in China, but not quite all the way out of it either. China’s borderlands strategy of integration through connectivity results in borders that are blurred and shifted. The LCR is a physical manifestation of this new kind of borderland.
Opened in December 2021, the LCR is celebrated by China and Laos as a major accomplishment. President Xi Jinping called the LCR a “landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.”1 The railway connects the Yunnan provincial capital of Kunming to Laos’s national capital of Vientiane, covering one thousand kilometers in less than ten hours—a trip that previously took days.2 It is a marvel of modern engineering, traversing the mountain jungle terrain of southern Yunnan and northern Laos with a long series of tunnels and bridges. It is the first leg constructed of China’s vision for a pan-Asia railway system connecting Kunming to Singapore via three trunks: Myanmar in the west, Laos and Thailand in the center, and Vietnam and Cambodia in the east.
The Laos-China Railway in Luang Prabang, Laos. By author, September 2025.
It turns out that China does have some serious heft to retaliate against Panama. And the best thing is, the Panamanians can do practically nothing to retaliate against this. Anything they try is likely to cause more problems for themselves.
Those who have followed me should know that I posted about Panama’s actions having consequences. When they screwed over the biggest Chinese player, the port operator itself, it sent a chilling feeling down other Chinese players in the trade.
CK Hutchinson is a highly professional and respected port operator. Decades in the trade. Operates 53 ports across 24 countries. Decades of experience in Panama with billions invested.
At first, China was very interested in Vietnam’s ‘North-South High-Speed Rail’ project, but many things happened along the way, causing Chinese companies to have concerns and be unwilling to invest further.
In 2011, China Railway Sixth Group undertook the Hanoi Jileng – Ha Dong Light Rail Project. It was originally planned to be completed in 3-4 years, but upon the completion of the project, the Vietnamese side demanded an additional 50 million USD from the Chinese side as a ‘service testing fee.’ When the Chinese side refused, the Vietnamese side withheld the final payment. In order to avoid settling the final payment, the Vietnamese side hired the French consulting company ACT to assess the entire plant. The results showed that the project met quality standards. Ultimately, after the construction period was extended to 10 years, the project was only completed for acceptance and final payment settlement in 2021, and the disputed 50 million USD was never paid.
On March 19, 2026, the Prime Minister’s Office of the Lao PDR issued Notice No. 366/PMO mandating nationwide adjustments to school operations, as part of emergency measures to ease the financial strain on families amid continued fuel price volatility.
The directive, addressed to the Ministry of Education and Sports, introduces immediate changes to learning schedules while preserving academic standards and signaling further contingency steps if economic conditions worsen.
Under the order, all general education institutions—public and private—are required to scale back in-person instruction from five days to three days per week. Schools must continue delivering the full curriculum, with the academic calendar extended to compensate for reduced classroom time.
For teacher training institutes, vocational schools, and higher education institutions, schedules will be restructured into full-day sessions, combining morning and afternoon classes, while similarly reducing attendance to three days per week. Teaching personnel without assigned classes are instructed to report for duty on a rotating basis.
Officials said the policy is aimed at lowering transportation-related expenses for households while ensuring continuity in education delivery.
The government also outlined escalation measures should fuel-related pressures persist. Institutions with adequate digital infrastructure will transition to remote learning, while those lacking technical readiness may be required to temporarily suspend operations.
To support potential online learning, the Ministry of Technology and Communications has been tasked with verifying internet reliability nationwide and assessing the availability of essential equipment.
Authorities stressed that parents, teachers, and students must prepare for immediate implementation, highlighting the government’s broader effort to balance economic relief with uninterrupted access to education during a period of heightened cost pressures.
China’s high-speed rail network is reshaping regional air travel, challenging short-haul aviation and redefining how passengers move across the country. Yuanfei Zhao (Scott) explores the co-evolution of rail and air, and examines the implications for airline strategy, fleet demand and the future of China’s regional aviation market.
China’s transportation landscape has undergone a quiet but profound transformation, one that is redefining how people move across the country and recalibrating the roles of air and rail in the national mobility ecosystem. At the heart of this shift is the rapid rise of high-speed rail (HSR), which has not only captured market share from short-haul aviation but has fundamentally altered traveller behaviour, airline network strategies, and urban connectivity.
Tại VN, trường hợp nhận tiền chuyển khoản nhầm mà không chịu trả lại ngày càng trở nên phổ biến. Dù pháp luật đã có quy định xử lý hành vi này nhưng trên thực tế, người nhận tiền mà không hoàn trả rất ít khi bị xử phạt còn người chuyển khoản nhầm lại gặp nhiều khó khăn khi muốn lấy lại tiền.Tiếp tục đọc “Gian nan đòi lại tiền chuyển khoản nhầm”→
Richard Wilson · Studied International Relations and International Law7y
China invaded Vietnam to punish it for its offensive on Cambodia. They made this very clear at the time. The Chinese ended up withdrawing after 4 weeks, sustaining heavier than expected casualties, while Vietnam stayed in Cambodia for another 10 years to keep them in check. That is hard to sell as a victory for them.
Casualties on both sides appeared to be roughy even in the end (but who would ever really know). The Chinese thought they would attack the Northern border of Vietnam while the core Vietnamese army were occupied in the South with Cambodia.
They appear to have miscalculated on 150,000 odd strong local militias in the area willing to band together, who were well trained and experienced from decades of war.
Question: Do Khmers who live in Vietnam consider themselves Vietnamese or Cambodians? And do Khmers in Thailand think of themselves as Thai or Cambodians, too?
Answer: I think that it depends on the person but you should distinguish the different concepts between nationality and ethnicity.
Quá tải du lịch vào các dịp nghỉ lễ, Tết vẫn là điểm nghẽn lớn của du lịch VN. Vì vậy, ngành Du lịch Việt cần sớm có giải pháp điều tiết lưu lượng khách trong mùa cao điểm, đồng thời minh bạch thông tin về sức chứa tại các điểm đến để giúp du khách lựa chọn chuyến đi phù hợp.Tiếp tục đọc “Du lịch Việt Nam đang chịu áp lực quá tải”→
Sau sáp nhập hành chính, hệ thống biển báo giao thông chưa được cập nhật kịp thời, còn sử dụng địa danh cũ, thiếu thống nhất và đôi khi sai lệch thông tin, đặc biệt trên các tuyến quốc lộ khu vực miền Trung – Tây Nguyên. Tình trạng này gây nhầm lẫn, khó khăn cho người tham gia giao thông, làm tăng nguy cơ mất an toàn và ảnh hưởng đến công tác quản lý, cứu hộ, vận chuyển. Nguyên nhân chủ yếu do việc triển khai còn chậm, liên quan nhiều cơ quan và thiếu sự phối hợp đồng bộ.
Giải pháp đặt ra là cần xây dựng lộ trình cụ thể, ưu tiên điều chỉnh tại các tuyến đường trọng điểm, tăng cường tuyên truyền để người dân nắm rõ thay đổi; đồng thời có thể tạm thời sử dụng song song địa danh cũ – mới, hoàn thiện quy chuẩn và nâng cao phối hợp giữa các cơ quan liên quan.
It is more about the US’s decline rapidly accelerating and going out of control.
China made a lot of right moves, and the US made all the wrong moves because China made llong-term decisions, while the US always chose short-term expediencies.
Short-term expediencies eventually led to the US running out of road.