Published: 15 February 2023 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Tobias Weiß, GPIL
On 1 July 2022, Viet Nam began issuing new non-biometric passports with a dark blue cover and a serial number beginning with ‘P’. Unlike the previous green passports, the new document no longer included the place of birth of the holder. Instead, the place of birth was hidden in a twelve-digit personal numeric code that had to be deciphered using a seven-page list of tables. Contrary to international practice, Viet Nam had not informed the German Government in advance about the new passports. On 27 July 2022, Germany became the first country to stop recognising the new passports.
‘The plan included sabotage and militarily trained people disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions,’ according to Moldovan leader.
Maia Sandu’s remarks come after she nominated a new prime minister on Friday to keep her country on a pro-EU trajectory | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Russia wants to stage a coup d’état in Moldova, the country’s President Maia Sandu said Monday.
Sandu called for heightened security measures in Moldova after the pro-EU government resigned last week, following months of pressure from Moscow which is waging an all-out war on neighboring Ukraine.
“The plan included sabotage and militarily trained people disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings and taking hostages,” Sandu told reporters at a press conference Monday.
She added that citizens of Russia, Montenegro, Belarus and Serbia would be among those entering Moldova to try to spark protests in an attempt to “change the legitimate government to an illegitimate government, controlled by the Russian Federation to stop the EU integration process.”
There is currently no technique that could have helped Nepal predict when the recent earthquake would strike. AP/PA/Niranjan Shrestha
theconversation – Can earthquakes ever be predicted? This question is timely after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal recently. If authorities had more warning that the earthquake was coming, they may have been able to save more lives.
While Nepal is a documented area of previous seismic activity, at the moment there is no technique that provides predictions of sufficient clarity to allow for evacuations at short notice. So if we cannot predict these events now, are there avenues of research to provide useful predictions in the future?
The key word here is “useful”. It is possible to make long-term forecasts about future earthquake activity, partly by using the past record of earthquakes as a guide. There is no reason to believe that a region of the Earth is going to behave differently in the next few thousands of years from its pattern over the same range back in time. In the short term, seismologists can draw on data from recording stations, with records going back roughly 40 years on a global scale. Tiếp tục đọc “Why it is so hard to predict where and when earthquakes will strike”→
The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is likely to “more than double”, according to a United Nations emergency relief coordinator.
Martin Griffiths, speaking to Sky News on Saturday, said he expected tens of thousands more deaths.
At least 24,596 people have been confirmed dead after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and north-western Syria on Monday, with multiple aftershocks.
Griffiths said: “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double or more,” said Griffiths.
“That’s terrifying. This is nature striking back in a really harsh way.
“It’s deeply shocking … the idea that these mountains of rubble still hold people, some of them still alive.
“We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead.”
He said that a 72-hour period after a disaster was usually the “golden period” for rescues, which had now expired, but that survivors were still being pulled out of the rubble.
“It must be incredibly difficult to decide when to stop this rescue phase,” he said.
Griffiths said he was launching a three-month operation for Turkey and Syria to help pay for the costs of operations there.
Griffiths also told Reuters he hoped in Syria aid would go to both government and opposition-held areas, but that things with this regard were “not clear yet”.
Earlier on Saturday, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that negotiations were continuing to gain access to more areas in Syria and called for “solidarity” in the relief effort.
He said: “Our message is clear, it’s time to put all politics aside. Just focus on the men, women and children who desperately need help in Syria and in southern Turkey.
“Wherever we work, we have to work with the authorities in charge. That’s just the way that UN humanitarian aid is structured. So in the rebel-held territories, we work with the authorities there; in the government-held areas, we work with the government.”
Responding to criticism of the UN’s response to the urgent need in Syria after the earthquake, he added:
“I think if I was standing in the middle of devastation and my community had been hit, I would be unhappy and I would be critical because aid never comes quickly enough. But I can tell you that the UN stands with the people of Syria, whether they live in rebel territories, whether they live in government-held territories.”
A wave of recent closures of environment organizations in Vietnam, as well as the arrests of NGO leaders, reflects the difficult position that activists face in the one-party state.
Nonprofit organizations have an unclear legal status in the country, and are vulnerable to pressure from the state as well as from powerful private interests.
Though the communist-led government has at times recognized the value of NGOs as partners in implementing social and environmental programs, it has also attacked the concept of civil society as a threat to official ideology and morality.
Thuý, who helped run environmental programs at a nonprofit based in Ho Chi Minh City, had for weeks pondered quitting her job to pursue an advanced degree. The 24-year-old, who like all NGO workers interviewed for this story used a pseudonym due to fear of reprisals, was at a loss as to how to communicate her hard decision to her supervisors. While she felt it was time to move on, Thuý was grateful for the open-minded and dynamic working environment that had allowed her to grow tremendously.
Much to Thuý’s surprise, it was her supervisors who initiated a conversation about her career, advising her to be prepared to leave soon, because their organization was being told “from above” to shut down.
Dù Ngân hàng Nhà nước đã cấm ép khách mua bảo hiểm, nhưng gần sáu tháng tìm hiểu và đồng hành cùng bạn đọc, phóng viên Tuổi Trẻ vẫn ghi nhận được hàng loạt góc khuất trong việc “gài” thế buộc phải… tự nguyện mua bảo hiểm nhân thọ khi vay vốn.
Tại tòa nhà Prudential Plaza, một khách hàng hoàn tất thủ tục hủy hợp đồng bảo hiểm nhân thọ, sau đó được hoàn 153,3 triệu đồng – Ảnh: BÔNG MAI
Theo quy định, trong vòng 21 ngày cân nhắc – kể từ ngày nhận được hợp đồng bảo hiểm, bên mua có quyền từ chối tiếp tục tham gia và được hoàn lại phí đã đóng, sau khi trừ chi phí hợp lý. Để tránh “đêm dài lắm mộng”, hàng loạt chiêu đã được người bán tung ra.
Sắp tới một số khoản chi của bảo hiểm cho ngân hàng sẽ được khống chế. Mục đích là hạn chế lợi nhuận trả cho ngân hàng khi tham gia hoạt động bán bảo hiểm.
Sông Thom do người Pháp đào năm 1905, dài 15km chảy cắt ngang cù lao Minh qua hai huyện Mỏ Cày Nam – Mỏ Cày Bắc, Bến Tre.
Một góc chợ dừa nổi sông Thom – Ảnh: H.A.
Trên thủy lộ trọng yếu nối liền sông Hàm Luông và Cổ Chiên này có một chợ nổi độc nhất vô nhị cả nước, bởi chợ chỉ mua bán duy nhất mặt hàng trái dừa khô mà giúp nhiều người trở thành tỉ phú…
Sông Thom mùa này nước đầy, chảy êm đềm. Anh Tám Hùng, tức Võ Văn Hùng, thương lái chuyên mua bán dừa khô ở chợ dừa nổi sông Thom, giải thích:
“Từ hồi tháng 7 khi dừa khô rớt giá còn 2.000 – 3.000 đồng/trái, các vựa làm cầm chừng để giữ mối nên chợ hơi thưa người. Dừa lên giá là lại mua bán đông nghịt, ngày đêm huyên náo tiếng người, tiếng máy ghe”.
Ultimately, “[t]he [BAYC NFT] series serves as a kind of fan club on
steroids that encourages owners of the NFTs to move through an ever-growing and
exclusive list of events and opportunities.”32 And the Company presents the Bored
Ape ecosystem as a brand that is organically beloved by some of the most famous
celebrities in the world. But the truth is that the Company’s entire business model
relies on using insidious marketing and promotional activities from A-list celebrities
that are highly compensated (without disclosing such), to increase demand of the
Yuga securities by convincing potential retail investors that the price of these digital
assets would appreciate and that, as members of “the club,” these investors would be
given exclusive access to additional financial products and benefits.
Sitting across from Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” Paris Hilton, wearing a sparkling neon green turtleneck dress and a high ponytail, looked at a picture of a glum cartoon ape and said it “reminds me of me.” The audience laughed. It did not look like her at all.
Hilton and Fallon were chatting about their NFTs – non-fungible tokens, typically digital art bought with cryptocurrency – from the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The camera zoomed in on framed printouts of the ape cartoons. “We’re both apes,” Fallon said. Hilton, with her signature vocal fry, replied, “Love it.”
“The Tonight Show” episode from January 2022 is a YouTube time capsule showing the temporary alliance between celebrity marketing and the crypto industry. Bored Ape Yacht Club was not the biggest crypto phenomenon, but it was one of the top beneficiaries of celebrity hype. That celebrity hype, in turn, helped draw new consumers to crypto — an industry rife with manipulation and fraud, and one that US regulators are now giving more scrutiny in the wake of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. But for a time, when crypto’s prices seemed to have no limit, the money appeared too good for some to ask questions — questions like: Why are some of those apes wearing prison clothes?
In European cities, young people of Arab descent often see themselves as socially, economically and culturally excluded from their immediate environment. In some cases, they are also vulnerable to radicalisation. Tiếp tục đọc “The Other Face of Europe”→
Khó khăn lớn nhất trong công tác dân số của thành phố Hà Nội chính là việc phải hạ thấp tỷ lệ chênh lệch giới tính khi sinh.
Hà Nội là thành phố đông dân thứ hai của cả nước và cũng có mật độ dân số cao thứ hai trong 63 tỉnh, thành phố. Quy mô dân số đông, địa bàn rộng, có sự chênh lệch khá lớn tình hình thực hiện các chỉ tiêu công tác dân số giữa 12 quận và 18 huyện, thị xã.
Tính riêng trong 6 tháng đầu năm 2022, số trẻ chào đời trên địa bàn thành phố là 42.868 trẻ, giảm 1.978 trẻ so với cùng kỳ năm 2021. Trong đó, tỷ lệ sàng lọc trước sinh đạt 84,24% (tăng 0,31% so với cùng kỳ năm 2021); sàng lọc sơ sinh là 89,17% (tăng 1,02% so với cùng kỳ năm 2021).
Đặc biệt, tình trạng mất cân bằng giới tính khi sinh vẫn ở mức cao (6 tháng đầu năm 2022 là 112,7 trẻ trai/100 trẻ gái), trong đó có một số huyện ở mức rất cao trên 120 trẻ trai/100 trẻ gái, như: Quốc Oai, Thanh Oai, Thường Tín.
TTCT – Dù là đồng minh có hiệp ước của nhau và vừa thắt chặt thêm tình hữu nghị về quân sự, quan hệ Mỹ – Philippines thật ra không phải lúc nào cũng bằng phẳng.
Khi tôi đến thăm Subic Bay năm 1998, khu chế xuất vừa hoạt động và hãng xưởng còn lưa thưa. Đây là khu miễn thuế, ra vào phải qua kiểm soát hải quan, chỗ mua sắm chỉ có vài hàng quán mới mở và loãng khách với một khu phức hợp và ba rạp phim.
Cả khu còn do quân đội Philippines quản lý, hoang vắng với những nhà kho tiền chế và bungalow quân đội Mỹ bỏ lại nằm bắt bụi từ 1992.
Lễ hạ cờ Mỹ và thượng cờ Philippines ở căn cứ Subic Bay ngày 24-11-1992. Ảnh: Wikipedia
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges in education today, innovate teaching and learning practices, and ultimately accelerate the progress towards SDG 4. However, these rapid technological developments inevitably bring multiple risks and challenges, which have so far outpaced policy debates and regulatory frameworks. This publication offers guidance for policy-makers on how best to leverage the opportunities and address the risks, presented by the growing connection between AI and education. It starts with the essentials of AI: definitions, techniques and technologies. It continues with a detailed analysis of the emerging trends and implications of AI for teaching and learning, including how we can ensure the ethical, inclusive and equitable use of AI in education, how education can prepare humans to live and work with AI, and how AI can be applied to enhance education. It finally introduces the challenges of harnessing AI to achieve SDG 4 and offers concrete actionable recommendations for policy-makers to plan policies and programmes for local contexts.
Neither the United States nor China is prepared for a serious crisis.
The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023. Randall Hill/Reuters
On Saturday afternoon, a U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jet fired one missile into a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon, sending it plunging into the Atlantic Ocean and capping a stretch where the world’s most important bilateral relationship was dominated by a slowly moving object crossing the United States.
The incident raises questions about the extent to which China has been employing these balloons – and in the process violating U.S. territorial airspace and sovereignty – and why it has been doing so when its satellites could glean this information. Far more important, however, is what this says about the ability, or more accurately inability, of Washington and Beijing to manage a future crisis.
Why is earthquake aid to Syria so slow? | Start Here
Al Jazeera English – 10 thg 2, 2023
The earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria have left millions of people in desperate need of help. But getting aid to people in Syria is particularly complicated. #AJStartHere explains why.
CVD 