The New Year has begun with our world in turmoil.
My message is clear:
Stop escalation.
Exercise maximum restraint.
Re-start dialogue.
Renew international cooperation.
Let us not forget the terrible human suffering caused by war. It is our common duty to avoid it. pic.twitter.com/iB1pOu8fia
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 6, 2020
Using US map to examine scale of massive Australia wildfires
The size of the wildfires would cover a large portion of the United States.
Australia’s Deadly Wildfires in Photos: The View from Space
Wildfires devastated southeastern Australia in the final months of 2019 and in January 2020. See photos of those wildfires from space as NASA tracks them with satellites. (Image: © NASA EOSDIS)
Fueled by a lengthy and intensifying drought, an early kickoff to fire season in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales began in September 2019 and continued into early 2020. Upwards of 100 wildfires have devastated Australia’s southeast coast, killing at least 17 people. Tiếp tục đọc “Australia’s Deadly Wildfires in Photos: The View from Space”
Restaurants lack customers after drink driving law tightened
Mười sự kiện nổi bật của ngành Năng lượng Việt Nam năm 2019
09:13 |31/12/2019
Song hành với những thành tựu phát triển kinh tế ngoạn mục, trong năm qua ngành Năng lượng Việt Nam cũng có những điểm nổi bật cả về chính sách mới của Chính phủ, những thành công đáng ghi nhận ở tầm khu vực và cả những mối quan tâm lớn về đảm bảo an ninh cung cấp năng lượng trong dài hạn, khi mà lượng nhập khẩu than, dầu thô cùng tăng cao. Hành trình bước vào năm mới – 2020, sau khi phân tích, cân nhắc dữ liệu từ các chuyên ngành (điện, than, dầu khí, năng lượng tái tạo…), các chuyên gia Tạp chí Năng lượng Việt Nam đã bình chọn 10 sự kiện nổi bật, quan trọng của ngành Năng lượng Việt Nam năm 2019 để bạn đọc cùng tham khảo. Tiếp tục đọc “Mười sự kiện nổi bật của ngành Năng lượng Việt Nam năm 2019”
ASEAN AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: VIETNAM’S ROLE AS CHAIR
On November 4, the ASEAN chair’s gavel was passed to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam at the closing ceremony of the grouping’s annual summit in Bangkok. Vietnam will serve as the chair of ASEAN, the most important international organization in Southeast Asia, through 2020. This will be a crucial year for the grouping as it attempts to reach the goals set forth in the ASEAN Vision 2020, which was released in 1997 and envisions the establishment of a region of peace, prosperity, and stability. It is especially significant for Vietnam because the chairmanship will offer a unique opportunity to engage the region to take constructive action on the South China Sea disputes which have long threatened regional peace and security. With the chairmanship in hand, now is the time for Hanoi to be more active in fulfilling both its regional and its national responsibilities in the South China Sea. Tiếp tục đọc “ASEAN AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: VIETNAM’S ROLE AS CHAIR”
Nhiệt điện than và nguy cơ với thủy sản
Trung tâm Phát triển Sáng tạo Xanh (tổ chức khoa học – công nghệ trực thuộc Liên hiệp các Hội Khoa học và Kỹ thuật Việt Nam) vừa có nghiên cứu “Phân tích chi phí, lợi ích của kịch bản năng lượng dưới góc nhìn của khu vực đồng bằng sông Cửu Long”.
 |
| Chuyên gia sinh thái Nguyễn Hữu Thiện. |
Nghiên cứu đã đưa ra nhiều thông tin về ảnh hưởng môi trường của nhiệt điện than. Trong đó, chuyên gia sinh thái Nguyễn Hữu Thiện nghiên cứu sâu về nguy cơ đối với thủy sản ĐBSCL và ông có cuộc trao đổi với NNVN.
Thủy sản di cư
Vùng thủy sản quốc gia ở ĐBSCL có đặc điểm gì nổi trội cần chú ý, thưa ông?
Vùng thủy sản ĐBSCL quan trọng nhất là lưu vực các cửa sông đổ ra biển, gồm lưu vực sông và cả diện tích biển gần bờ vì đó là nơi sinh sống của nhiều loài thủy sản.
Bởi vì các loài thủy sản luôn di chuyển và sự di chuyển của thủy sản giữa sông với biển được xếp thành ba loại: Anadromous là các loài thủy sản sống phần lớn thời gian ở biển nhưng phải đi vào nước ngọt để sinh sản; Catadromous là các loài ngược lại, sống ở nước ngọt nhưng ra biển sinh sản; Potamodromous sống hoàn toàn trong nước ngọt nhưng phải di cư, thường là đường dài, trong hệ thống sông để sinh sản, tìm mồi, sinh sống. Tiếp tục đọc “Nhiệt điện than và nguy cơ với thủy sản”
Wind Power Potential for Vietnam
by Trần Đình Hoành, JD, Esq.
– Basically, the wind power sector is almost empty in Vietnam now, with only several wind farms of capacity of 30MW, 50MW…
However, the government has plan to add a total installed capacity of 2.613 MW in 2020 and 15.717 MW in 2030. Tiếp tục đọc “Wind Power Potential for Vietnam”
More Than 200 GOP Lawmakers Urge Supreme Court To Overturn Roe V. Wade As ‘Radically Unsettled Precedent’
Kaiser Health NewsThe amicus brief was filed in the case about a 2014 Louisiana law that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The large number of lawmakers signing the brief suggests that Republicans will emphasize the issue during the 2020 election cycle. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in March.
The Washington Post: More Than 200 Republican Members Of Congress Urge Supreme Court To Reconsider Roe V. Wade Abortion Rights Decision More than 200 members of Congress — nearly all of them Republicans — on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, prompting a wave of protests from Democrats and reproductive rights groups. The 207 lawmakers signaled their position in an amicus brief supporting a restrictive Louisiana abortion law that is expected to be reviewed by the Supreme Court on March 4. The 2014 law, which was stayed by the Supreme Court in February, would require doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. (Sonmez, 1/2) Tiếp tục đọc “More Than 200 GOP Lawmakers Urge Supreme Court To Overturn Roe V. Wade As ‘Radically Unsettled Precedent’”
Dump-turned-park offers relaxing moments
Update: January, 05/2020 – 08:03 VNS
By Lê Hương
People have to stand patiently in a long queue to enter Hanuel Park on Nanjido Island on a branch of the Han River in Seoul, South Korea.
None of them, neither adults nor children, seem frustrated to be queuing.
That’s probably because they know once they pass the entrance gate, they will step into a relaxing space with immense fields of flowers, wild grass, full of fresh air and tranquillity.
People visit Hanuel Park especially in mass number at weekend. VNS Photos Đoàn Tùng
It’s a familiar scene at the park, which receives thousands of visitors a day. Tiếp tục đọc “Dump-turned-park offers relaxing moments”
Vietnam to buy 1.5 billion kWh of power annually from Laos
A worker repairs electricity cables in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.
State power utility EVN will buy around 1.5 billion kWh of electricity a year from Laos for two years starting in 2021.
Under contracts it signed on Saturday, Vietnam Electricity (EVN) will buy over 596 million kWh a year from two hydropower plants belonging to Phongsubthavy Group and 632 million kWh from two plants belonging to Chealun Sekong Group from 2022.
Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam to buy 1.5 billion kWh of power annually from Laos”
Mekong Delta stays alert for severe drought
A farmer in a paddy field hit by drought in the Mekong Delta’s province of Soc Trang, June 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen.
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is bracing severe drought and salinity in the coming months, and local authorities have been told to take every step possible to mitigate the damage.
For this dry season, which has already started in southern Vietnam and normally lasts until late April, drought conditions are likely to be more severe, resulting in more salinity in the delta, which spreads over 40,577 square kilometers (15,670 square miles).
The nation’s most fertile region for long, the Mekong Delta has been called the Vietnam’s rice granary. It is also the nation’s aquaculture hub.
Vietnam and Asia neighbors hungry for cheap coal
Vietnam’s steam coal imports in 2019 are estimated to total about 32 million tons, twice the amount for last year and up three times from three years ago. © Reuters
TOKYO — Demand for low-grade coal with lower combustion efficiency is growing amid economic growth in Vietnam and other emerging Asian countries, placing another hurdle in the global race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
While prices of high-grade coal with higher power generation efficiency have fallen by more than 30% over the past year as developed countries have been reducing coal consumption, prices of low-grade coal have fallen more slowly. The price difference between the two categories of coal has shrunk to one-third the level of a year ago. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam and Asia neighbors hungry for cheap coal”
Iran Challenges Trump, Announcing End of Nuclear Restrictions
President Trump thought the nuclear deal was flawed because restrictions on Iran would end after 15 years. Now, responding to a U.S. strike, Iran has declared the limits over after less than five.
When President Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, he justified his unilateral action by saying the accord was flawed, in part because the major restrictions on Iran ended after 15 years, when Tehran would be free to produce as much nuclear fuel as it wanted.
But now, instead of buckling to American pressure, Iran declared on Sunday that those restrictions are over — a decade ahead of schedule. Mr. Trump’s gambit has effectively backfired.
Iran’s announcement essentially sounded the death knell of the 2015 nuclear agreement. And it largely re-creates conditions that led Israel and the United States to consider destroying Iran’s facilities a decade ago, again bringing them closer to the potential of open conflict with Tehran that was avoided by the accord.
Tiếp tục đọc “Iran Challenges Trump, Announcing End of Nuclear Restrictions”
Trump-Trọng Summit Remains in Limbo
Strategic partnership between Vietnam and the United States may be a bridge too far, especially for China
Thursday, January 2, 2020
HANOI: With repeated Chinese intrusions into oil-rich Vanguard Bank and anticipated departure of ExxonMobil from the Blue Whale project, the South China Sea dispute has reached a turning point. A planned meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Nguyễn Phú Trọng could be pivotal for a strategic partnership, but is unlikely to happen any time soon.
During the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi in February, Trump invited Trọng to visit Washington with discussions expected on the South China Sea, the US-Vietnam strategic partnership and the Blue Whale project. Trọng postponed visits in July and October for unspecified concerns over health or Chinese reactions, and uncertainty lingers as Trump contends with impeachment by a polarized Congress. Tiếp tục đọc “Trump-Trọng Summit Remains in Limbo”
