Conversations on Vietnam Development
 The World This WeekMarch 31, 2023 |
| The Putin-Xi Summit Reinforces Anti-U.S. Partnership Thomas Graham Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony at the Kremlin on March 21, 2023. (Alexey Maishev/Sputnik)The meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Moscow helped both give the impression of a united front, but underlying tensions were also discernible. Get the quick take |
Thứ bảy, 1/4/2023, 00:00 (GMT+7)
HÀ NỘIĐang làm ăn ì ạch, Phạm Thanh Hải bỗng thu 2.700 tỷ đồng một năm nhờ quảng bá là tiến sĩ, mở lớp dạy làm giàu dụ 2.574 người góp vốn, trả lãi 50%/năm, VKS cáo buộc.
Ngày 29/3, TAND Hà Nội mở phiên xét xử bị cáo Phạm Thanh Hải, 57 tuổi, cựu Chủ tịch Công ty CP thương mại đầu tư và phát triển công nghệ quốc tế (IDT), về tội Lừa đảo chiếm đoạt tài sản. Do hàng trăm bị hại vắng mặt, HĐXX phải hoãn phiên toà tới 19/4.
Tám năm từ khi bị bắt, tháng 10/2015, vụ án “tiến sĩ dạy làm giàu” vẫn chưa đến hồi kết.
Tiếp tục đọc “Tiến sĩ ‘dạy làm giàu’ dụ tiền 2.500 người bằng cách nào?”MARCH 27, 2023 White House
Presidential Directive Will Serve as a Cornerstone Initiative During the Second Summit for Democracy
Today, President Biden signed an Executive Order that prohibits, for the first time, operational use by the United States Government of commercial spyware that poses risks to national security or has been misused by foreign actors to enable human rights abuses around the world.
Commercial spyware – sophisticated and invasive cyber surveillance tools sold by vendors to access electronic devices remotely, extract their content, and manipulate their components, all without the knowledge or consent of the devices’ users – has proliferated in recent years with few controls and high risk of abuse.
The proliferation of commercial spyware poses distinct and growing counterintelligence and security risks to the United States, including to the safety and security of U.S. Government personnel and their families. U.S. Government personnel overseas have been targeted by commercial spyware, and untrustworthy commercial vendors and tools can present significant risks to the security and integrity of U.S. Government information and information systems.
| Daily News Brief March 30, 2023 |
| Top of the Agenda EU Chief Calls for Europe to ‘De-Risk’ From China During a speech in Brussels today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the European Union (EU) to take a “bolder” stance (Politico) toward Beijing in response to China becoming “more repressive at home and more assertive abroad.” She said this would help Europe “de-risk” itself (Reuters) economically and diplomatically, but that economic decoupling from China is not possible. She also referred to the close relationship between China’s and Russia’s leaders and said China is responsible for advancing a “just peace” in Ukraine that includes the withdrawal of Russian forces. Von der Leyen will visit Beijing next week. European leaders have diverged in recent months (FT) over their views on China. While the United States has hardened its own China policy through controls on tech exports, trade officials at the European Commission have studied the possibility of controls on outbound European investment. |
30 March 2023 Brussels, European Commission
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a real pleasure to be here at this very special event co-hosted by two of Europe’s most knowledgeable and independent-minded think tanks. In a time when global affairs are becoming harder to decrypt – and in an era where facts are routinely challenged – the work that you do at these think tanks has never been more important for Europe. Because it is only by having a deeper understanding of the world as it really is – not as we may wish it to be – that we can develop better informed policies. This is why I believe think tanks are an essential part of our democracy. In just ten years, MERICS has developed a unique expertise in analysing the political, economic and social trends in China and how these impact Europe and the world. And we must preserve and uphold your right – and that of all think tanks –– to be analytical and to be critical. So I want to express my solidarity with you and all the other individuals and institutions who have been unfairly sanctioned by the Chinese government. I would also like to congratulate the European Policy Centre on its recent 25th anniversary. From the outset, you have been a truly European voice in the world of policy and academia. This spirit is very much in the image of one of your founders, and one of Europe’s most unheralded fathers – Max Kohnstamm. Max Kohnstamm lived through personal trauma and tragedy during World War II. This experience inspired him to dedicate his life to building a united Europe. One question always guided his work: ‘Do we believe that states are forever condemned to remain […] never to trust another state? Or do we believe in the possibility of change, of gradually changing men’s minds and their behaviour?’. This commitment to creating a better understanding between people lives on through Europe’s think-tank community.
Tiếp tục đọc “Speech by President von der Leyen on EU-China relations to the Mercator Institute for China Studies and the European Policy Centre”The first international agreement to protect the world’s oceans aims to create “international parks” in the high seas.
By Jackie Gu, Reuters
PUBLISHED MARCH 30, 2023
After almost 20 years of negotiations, United Nations member countries have agreed upon an international treaty to protect oceans of the world that lie outside national borders.
These waters, known as “high seas,” occupy nearly two-thirds of the world’s oceans. Because they are considered international waters, they lie outside the jurisdiction of any state and have until now never been legally protected, meaning that the marine life in these areas has been under threat from a free-for-all of unregulated exploitation – including overfishing, pollution from ships and human-induced climate change.
Tiếp tục đọc “Changing Tides”The Conversation, Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Published: March 29, 2023 10.26am BST
Agnes Erzse is supported by the SAMRC/ Wits Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science, PRICELESS, University of Witwatersrand School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Johannesburg South Africa (23108).
University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA.
We believe in the free flow of informationIt is almost impossible nowadays to listen to the radio, watch TV or scroll through social media without being exposed to an advertisement telling us that all we need for a little happiness and love is a sugary drink or a fast-food snack. There’s nothing that a tasty, affordable, ready-made meal cannot fix, we are asked to believe.
Over many decades our food environments have relentlessly been encouraging us to make choices that are harmful to our health, through pricing, marketing and availability. This rise in advertising has contributed to a growing global obesity crisis as well as nutrition deficiencies as more and more people opt to eat unhealthy food.
We each have the right to buy whatever we can afford. But commercial forces limit our freedom of choice more than we think. New evidence published in The Lancet shows that key causes of ill health – such as obesity and related noncommunicable diseases – are linked to commercial entities with deep pockets and the power to shape the choices people make. They do this by influencing the political and economic system, and its underlying regulatory approaches and policies.
Tiếp tục đọc “The world is hooked on junk food: how big companies pull it off”MARCH 29, 2023 White House
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of Vietnam. President Biden reinforced the United States’ commitment to a strong, prosperous, resilient, and independent Vietnam, noting that 2023 is the 10thanniversary of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. The two leaders discussed the importance of strengthening and expanding the bilateral relationship, while working together to address regional challenges such as climate change, ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the deteriorating environmental and security situation along the Mekong. President Biden also emphasized the United States’ commitment to ASEAN centrality, respect for human rights, and cooperating with Vietnam on its ambitious climate goals.
20th March 2023 The International Institute for Strategic Studies
Vietnam faces a serious long-term security challenge from China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, and its response has included efforts to strengthen its military capability, particularly in the maritime sphere. This report assesses the extent of these efforts and looks at how Hanoi has used a widened array of international security relationships to diversify Vietnam’s procurement for its armed forces and coastguard, while also developing its national defence industry. The report argues that international sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the war in Ukraine seem likely to amplify these trends.
Vietnam faces a major long-term security challenge from China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, despite the two countries’ close economic ties. While bilateral tensions have manifested as a maritime grey-zone conflict, Hanoi is determined to strengthen Vietnam’s military capability to deter Chinese escalation, particularly through what appears to be a maritime anti-access/area denial strategy. It is doing this cautiously and incrementally and, since 2016, equipment procurement has slowed, most probably because of budgetary constraints. Although the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) is likely to depend on equipment originally supplied by Russia for years to come, for multiple reasons Hanoi has begun to diversify its military procurement and to rely less on Russia. It has already made some limited equipment purchases for its armed forces and coastguard from a range of other international sources, most of them small and medium powers, including Israel, which is now Vietnam’s second-most important defence supplier. Hanoi has also tentatively developed security relations with India, Japan and the United States, but, so far, these larger powers have not supplied Vietnam with strategically important equipment. Vietnam is continuing to develop its indigenous defence industry, often through partnerships with international suppliers. This will allow it to strengthen its capacity to maintain, repair, overhaul and modify major defence equipment and to produce systems for specific VPA requirements. Sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent war seem highly likely to amplify these trends. Consequently, integrating military equipment from diverse sources to maximise Vietnam’s capability to deter escalation and contend with grey-zone pressure may become an increasingly important task for the country’s defence industry.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – confirmed that humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years.
The IPCC report shows that limiting temperature rise to 1.5-degree is achievable, but time is running out.
The window is rapidly closing to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
Tiếp tục đọc “Secretary-General’s remarks to the General Assembly on the request of an Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change [as delivered]”
Waterfalls pour off a Nordaustlandet ice cap in Svalbard, Norway, during an unusually warm summer in 2014.Courtesy of Paul Nicklen
By Nell Lewis, CNN
Published 4:34 AM EDT, Wed March 29, 2023
Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.CNN —
Water cascading from a wall of ice with gray brushstrokes of clouds overhead makes for a beautiful image – but the story behind it is one of destruction; Earth’s glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate due to human-caused climate change.
Canadian photographer Paul Nicklen remembers taking the photograph. It was August 2014, and temperatures in Svalbard, Norway, were unusually warm – hovering above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius). As he came around the corner of an ice cap on Nordaustlandet island, he saw more than a dozen waterfalls pouring off its face.
“It was the most poetic, beautiful scene I’d ever seen, but it was also haunting and scary,” he recalls. The picture came to symbolize the realities of climate change and became Nicklen’s best-selling fine art image. It appeared multiple times in National Geographic, was used by Al Gore in his climate talks, and graced the cover of Pearl Jam’s 2020 album “Gigaton,” the title of which refers to the unit used to calculate ice mass.
Its beauty is central to its impact, believes Nicklen. “When you take a photograph that is in focus, properly exposed, moody and powerful, it creates a visceral reaction,” he says. “It has to be beautiful and engaging, it has to invite you in … and it has to have a conservation message.”
In 2014, Nicklen, along with his wife Cristina Mittermeier, and later joined by Andy Mann (both also award-winning photographers), co-founded the nonprofit organization SeaLegacy, which uses film and photography to raise awareness of climate issues and help protect the planet.
“Photography is one of the most effective and powerful tools we have to tell complex stories, like the story of climate change,” says Mittermeier.
An emaciated polar bear staggers on the search for food. The photograph, taken in 2017, received widespread attention, sparking a conversation around climate change.Courtesy of Cristina Mittermeier
Tiếp tục đọc “Ten photographs that made the world wake up to climate change”| Daily News Brief March 28, 2023 |
| Top of the Agenda British, German Tanks Reach Kyiv as Ukraine Prepares for Spring Offensive The first deliveries of British Challenger tanks and German Leopard 2 tanks reached the Ukrainian capital (FT), German and Ukrainian officials confirmed. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces completed training (The Guardian) in the United Kingdom on how to use the Challenger tanks. Poland sent tanks to Ukraine late last month, and Spain is expected to do so by the end of the week. Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive against invading Russian forces will depend (BBC) on continued weapons support from the West, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. He will give a virtual address today (AFP) to kick off U.S. President Joe Biden’s second annual Summit for Democracy. |
Xi Jinping used the annual legislative session to lock in his tenure as president and reinforce China’s assertive foreign policy and the reemergence of its economy.
Article by Ian Johnson
March 17, 2023 4:05 pm (EST)
This month saw the Chinese rite of spring known as the lianghui, or “two sessions”: the annual meetings of the national advisory committee and the country’s parliament. Neither body holds much power, and it’s easy to write the whole exercise off as empty theater. Yet, public rituals are meant to deliver messages, and this year’s lianghui offered two important points: President Xi Jinping and his muscular foreign policy are here to stay, and China is back open for business after three years of fighting COVID-19—even if its return to growth is bolstered through unsustainable deficit spending.
Tiếp tục đọc “How to Read Xi’s Muscular Message on China’s Global Role”| March 24, 2023, The New York Times, Good Morning |
 Stanford University.Ben Margot/Associated Press |
| A heckler’s veto |
| Stuart Kyle Duncan — a federal appeals court judge appointed by Donald Trump — visited Stanford Law School this month to give a talk. It didn’t go well. |
| Students frequently interrupted him with heckling. One protester called for his daughters to be raped, Duncan said. When he asked Stanford administrators to calm the crowd, the associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion walked to the lectern and instead began her remarks by criticizing him. “For many people here, your work has caused harm,” she told him. |
By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN
Updated 5:12 PM EDT, Thu March 23, 2023
03:15New YorkCNN —
In his first appearance before Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was grilled by lawmakers who expressed deep skepticism about his company’s attempts to protect US user data and ease concerns about its ties to China.
It was a rare chance for the public to hear from the Chew, who offers very few interviews. Yet his company’s app is among the most popular in America, with more than 150 million active users.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Thursday’s hearing.
The hearing, which lasted for more than five hours, kicked off with calls from a lawmaker to ban the app in the United States and remained combative throughout. It offered a vivid display of the bipartisan push to crack down on the popular short-form video app and the company’s uphill battle to improve relations with Washington.
Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, opened Thursday’s hearing by telling Shou: “Your platform should be banned.”
The US government is once again threatening to ban TikTok. What you should know
Chew used his testimony to stress TikTok’s independence from China and play up its US ties. “TikTok itself is not available in mainland China, we’re headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we have 7,000 employees in the U.S. today,” he said in his opening remarks.
“Still, we have heard important concerns about the potential for unwanted foreign access to US data and potential manipulation of the TikTok US ecosystem,” Chew said. “Our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. We have addressed them with real action.”
Tiếp tục đọc “TikTok CEO in the hot seat: 5 takeaways from his first appearance before US Congress”
CVD 