The Trump administration intends to expand a ban on use of U.S. tax dollars to pay for abortions abroad. Pictured: Pro-life activists cheer President Donald Trump as his image appears on a large screen during his speech Jan. 24 at the 47th annual March for Life in the nation’s capital. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
The Trump administration has proposed a rule to expand a ban on use of U.S. tax dollars to pay for abortions abroad so that it would include federal contracts and subcontracts that receive U.S. global health assistance.
File photo of Keith Krach, Under Secretary of State For Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, and the latest high-ranking US official to visit Taiwan. (Photo: AFP/Riccardo Savi)
US federal prosecutors say the hackers worked to steal identities and video game technology, plant ransomware, and spy on Hong Kong activists. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department on Wednesday (Sep 16) announced charges against five Chinese nationals and two Malaysians who ran global hacking operations for at least six years to steal identities and video game technology, plant ransomware, and spy on Hong Kong activists.
US military forces fire a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) rocket during the annual Philippines-US live fire amphibious landing exercise (PHIBLEX) at Crow Valley in Capas, Tarlac province, north of Manila, Philippines Oct 10, 2016. (Photo: REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco)
WASHINGTON: The United States plans to sell as many as seven major weapons systems, including mines, cruise missiles and drones to Taiwan, four people familiar with the discussions said, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on China.
TAIPEI: Two Chinese anti-submarine aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Wednesday (Sep 16) and were warned to leave by Taiwan’s air force, the island’s defence ministry said on Thursday, the day a senior US official is due to arrive.
WASHINGTON: Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced on Wednesday (Sep 16) an ambitious plan to expand the US Navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.
SYDNEY: Australia has named China in a court document as the foreign state under investigation by police in its first foreign interference investigation, though Beijing dismissed the allegation as an anti-China smear.
Pharos Energy said Friday it had received approval from the Prime Minister of Vietnam for the development plan of an offshore oil field in Vietnam.
Pharos, until recently known as Soco International, said that the approval of what is called the TGT Full Field Development Plan represented the “last stage of the required process.”
Pharos has previously said that the plan, which includes drilling of six producer wells, had been approved by all partners in the field, and was awaiting PM’s green light. The PM’s approval, announced Friday, follows the recently granted two-year TGT field license extension to December 7, 2026.
“Ordering of long-lead items can now proceed to enable the commencement of the drilling of six firm development wells contained in the FFDP in Q4 2021 as planned,” Pharos Energy said.
This infill-drilling program is targeted to increase gross production at TGT field off Vietnam from the current levels of around 15,000 boepd to around 20,000 boepd in 2022. Credit: Pharos EnergyEd Story, President, and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are pleased to have received approval from the Prime Minister of Vietnam for the TGT Full Field Development Plan. This final approval enables us to put plans in place to commence the drilling of the six new producer wells on TGT starting in Q4 2021, allowing us to realize further resources in the TGT field.” Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam Approves Pharos Energy’s Offshore Oil Project”→
Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to grow significantly by 2030, under an updated climate plan submitted to the UN.
The country’s large cement sector is factored into the plan for the first time, which experts welcomed. But they said the overall target was not substantially more ambitious than the previous version.
Under the new plan, Vietnam committed to cut its emissions growth by 9% or nearly 84 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030 compared with business as usual projections, using a 2014 baseline. Emissions are still expected to grow by 844 million tonnes of CO2 during that time.
My Khe beach in Da Nang City, July 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.
With Storm Noul set to make landfall in central provinces Friday afternoon, Vietnamese authorities are preparing to evacuate half a million to safety.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the eye of the tropical storm lay around 680 km to the southeast of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands off the central coast, packing winds of 70 kph.
On Wednesday, the storm is expected to move west-northwest at a speed of 15 kph and further intensify.
The launch of the Mekong-U.S. Partnership reflects the importance of the Mekong region to the United States. Our relationship with Mekong partner countries is an integral part of our Indo-Pacific vision and our strategic partnership with ASEAN. With more than $150 million in initial investments in regional programs, we will build on the good work of the Lower Mekong Initiative and the $3.5 billion in regional U.S. assistance during the last eleven years.
The Mekong-U.S. Partnership is committed to the autonomy, economic independence, good governance, and sustainable growth of Mekong partner countries. The United States has dedicated more than $52 million to fight COVID-19 in the region, building on more than twenty years of Mekong-U.S. cooperation on infectious diseases. We have supported economic growth with more than $1 billion to develop infrastructure in ASEAN countries through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and plan to invest billions more in the coming years.
The Mekong-U.S. Partnership will also continue to strengthen water security and the work of the Mekong River Commission. It will include $55 million in planned new investments to help our Mekong partners combat transnational crime, including narcotrafficking and trafficking in persons, arms, and wildlife. It will also increase support for energy security and electricity sector development through Asia EDGE (Enhancing Development and Growth), the Japan-U.S.-Mekong Power Partnership (JUMMP), and the Japan-U.S. Strategic Energy Partnership (JUSEP). In all our efforts, the United States intends to work closely with partners like Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, and other good friends of the Mekong.
We need to be candid, however, about the challenges we face, including those from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which increasingly threatens the Mekong’s natural environments and economic autonomy.
The CCP’s unilateral decisions to withhold water upstream have exacerbated an historic drought. The United States stands with the region and the Mekong River Commission in calling for transparent data sharing. We encourage countries of the Mekong region to hold the CCP accountable to its pledge to share its water data. That data should be public. It should be released year-round. It should include water and water-related data, as well as land use, and dam construction and operation data. And it should be shared through the Mekong River Commission, the organization that serves the interests of Mekong-region countries, not those of Beijing.
We are also concerned about infrastructure-linked debt and the predatory and opaque business practices of Beijing’s state-owned actors, such as China Communications Construction Company. Concerning also is the boom in trafficking of persons, drugs, and wildlife, much of which emanates from organizations, companies, and special economic zones linked to the CCP.
Countries of the Mekong region have undergone an amazing journey in the last few decades. They deserve good partners. Through the Mekong-U.S. Partnership, we look forward to many more years of collaboration to ensure a peaceful, secure, and prosperous Mekong region.
Phiên tòa xơ thẩm xử 29 người Đồng Tâm tháng 9/2020
Ngay sau khi Tòa án Nhân dân Tối cao TP Hà Nội tuyên án với 29 bị cáo Đồng Tâm trong phiên sơ thẩm ngày 14/9, Ân xá Quốc tế (Amnesty) và Tổ chức Theo dõi Nhân quyền (Human Rights Watch) đã lên tiếng bày tỏ quan điểm về sự việc.
Trong một văn bản gửi cho BBC News Tiếng Việt, tổ chức Ân xá Quốc tế nhận định rằng “Đây là một bản án vô nhân đạo sau một phiên tòa bất công trắng trợn”.
Vietnamese American author Nguyen Thanh Viet is seen in a photo uploaded to his personal website vietnguyen.info.
Vietnamese American 2016 Pulitzer winner Nguyen Thanh Viet has been selected as the newest member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, according to an announcement on the award’s official website.
The selection was announced on September 8.
“It’s an honor to join the #Pulitzer Board, especially as its first Vietnamese American and Asian American member,” Viet wrote in a tweet on September 9.
“As someone fortunate enough to be a recipient of the prize, I know the impact that the prize has on a writer’s career and on the perceptions of readers. I’m delighted to join in the Board’s crucial work,” Viet told the Pulitzer.
CVD 