Environmental activists from the Irish Wildlife Trust and Extinction Rebellion called on the Irish Government to introduce legislation in the form of a Biodiversity Act at a protest outside the National Biodiversity Conference in Dublin Castle on June 8, 2022. Credit: Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images
Ireland—a nation synonymous with its abundant, verdant landscapes—is considering a nationwide referendum on the rights of nature and the human right to a healthy environment.
If that happens, Ireland would become the first European country to constitutionally recognize that ecosystems, similar to humans and corporations, possess legal rights. More than two-thirds of the 27 European Union countries already recognize a universal human right to a healthy environment.
In December, a legislative committee proposed that the Irish government take a series of administrative measures to draft proposed constitutional amendments recognizing that nature has inherent rights to exist, perpetuate and be restored, and that humans have a right to a clean environment and stable climate.
To take legal effect, the proposed amendments must be approved by both houses of parliament, the Dáil Éireann (the lower house) and the Seanad (the upper house), and win a majority of the popular vote.
TS. Nguyễn Thị Hải Bình – ThS. Hoàng Mạnh Cường • 14/01/2024 12:56
Sự xuất hiện tiền kỹ thuật số của Ngân hàng trung ương (CBDC) là một bước ngoặt trong sự phát triển của các hình thức tiền tệ pháp định.
Các quốc gia trên thế giới có những động thái khác nhau với CBDC. Có quốc gia đã chính thức phát hành CBDC, cũng có nước đang trong quá trình thử nghiệm nhưng hầu hết đang trong giai đoạn nghiên cứu và đánh giá về khả năng phát hành loại tiền tệ mới này. Tại Việt Nam, Chính phủ cũng đã có những định hướng ban đầu khi giao Ngân hàng Nhà nước (NHNN) nghiên cứu và cơ quan này cũng đang có những bước đi thận trọng trong nghiên cứu và phát triển CBDC. Bài viết tập trung tìm hiểu kinh nghiệm của các quốc gia trên thế giới về nghiên cứu, thử nghiệm và phát hành CBDC, từ đó có những gợi mở cho Việt Nam đối với quá trình xây dựng, thí điểm hay xa hơn là phát hành CBDC.
More than 80 per cent of overseas Vietnamese are living in industrial and developed countries and major global economic hubs.
Deputy foreign minister Lê Thị Thu Hằng speaks at the press conference on Monday. —Photo baotintuc.vn
HÀ NỘI — With approximately six million Vietnamese nationals living abroad, remittances sent to Việt Nam from 1993 to 2022 have amounted to US$190 billion, according to deputy foreign minister Lê Thị Thu Hằng.
Speaking at a press conference for the 2024 “Xuân quê hương” (Homeland Spring) programme on Monday, she said that this figure is almost equal to the amount of foreign investment capital disbursed in the same period.
VNE – By Dat Nguyen January 15, 2024 | 08:53 am GMT+7
An illustration of Bitcoin. Photo by Pexels
Some 64% of cryptocurrency investors lost money last year, a survey by data platform Coin98 Insights has found.
The survey collected date from 1,200 respondents last December. As cryptocurrencies went through a “Bitcoin winter” last year, nearly 30% of respondents said the reason for the loss was the fear of missing out.
Almost 36% did not have a detailed investment plan, and were unable to react to sudden market developments.
In terms of demographics, 85.3% of investors are male and aged between 18 and 36. They are mostly based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s two biggest cities.
They have an income of VND10-25 million a month, and nearly half entered the cryptocurrency market in 2020-2022 when it soared.
This year investors are showing interest in AI projects and most expect Bitcoin to reach a new peak after ETF Bitcoin was approved in the U.S.
2023 marked a significant milestone for the forestry sector as Việt Nam successfully sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits (10.3 million tonnes of CO2) for the first time through the World Bank (WB) for US$51.5 million, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyễn Quốc Trị.
Forests in Quảng Bình. This province would transfer more than 2.4 million carbon credits to earn about VNĐ235 billion in the 2023-25 period. — VNA/VNS Photo Võ Dung
Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has signed 19 contracts with investors on importing electricity from 26 hydropower plants in Laos with a total capacity of 2,689MW.
On January 7, in Hanoi, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone co-chaired the 46th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Bilateral Cooperation between Vietnam and Laos.
The meeting focused on assessing the implementation of tasks in 2023, including settled and outstanding issues, as well as new orientations for 2024.
The two sides agreed that trade and investment have been promoted. Vietnam now has 245 investment projects in Laos with investment capital of $5.5 billion in total.
Elderly poverty in Vietnam is a significant issue considering that Vietnam currently has one of the highest rates of aging populations in the world. Right now, Vietnam is still a young country, despite the fact that its elderly population has increased from 4.9% in 1975 to 7.9% as of 2020. There is reason to have some concern over the aging population. Even just between 2009 and 2019, the elderly population older than the age of 60 increased by 2%. The World Bank has calculated that Vietnam could be the country that is aging fastest globally.
Dr. Claudine Gay testifying before the House Education and Workforce Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on December 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. She has since resigned from her post as President of Harvard University.Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images
The end of Claudine Gay’s brief and turbulent presidency at Harvard has hardly put an end to controversies about elite university leadership and governance. Bill Ackman, the “activist” donor and Harvard graduate, is calling for further resignations from the Harvard Corporation, while baiting MIT’s President, Sally Kornbluth, with the Shakespearean query: “et tu?” Meanwhile, Mark Rowan, the board member who engineered the takedown of the University of Pennsylvania’s erstwhile president, Elizabeth McGill—the first of the Washington three to step down—has now been pressing his advantage in calling for major reforms of an academic nature at Penn. Philanthropy and academic freedom are colliding in ways that have the potential to undermine the true purpose and mission of our universities.
As much as these, and some other, donors have appeared to embody popular discontent with those at the pinnacle of higher education, it is easy to forget that not long ago the scandals around these universities had to do with donors who used their gifts as leverage to secure admission for their children, making visible the problematic relationship between some individual philanthropy and private interests. We all called for firewalls then but seem now to have forgotten those critiques of the relationship between private interests and higher education.
Though the 100 incidents in 2023 increased by 19 per cent over 2022, these were small-time robberies, with theft of items such as nominal value wires, brass ship products, engine spares and scraps, Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery, says executive director
PTI Singapore Published 09.01.24, 06:06 PM
Representational picture.File picture
No report of piracy incidents occurred on the Asian high seas but 99 actual incidents and one attempted armed robbery against ships occurred in Southeast Asian waters in 2023, a Singapore based maritime organisation reported said on Tuesday.
Though the 100 incidents in 2023 increased by 19 per cent over 2022, these were small-time robberies, with theft of items such as nominal value wires, brass ship products, engine spares and scraps, Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery (ReCAAP) executive director Krishnaswamy Natarajan said at the annual press conference.
Such incidents were five in India in 2023, the same as those in 2022, while Bangladesh and Malaysia reported one incident each, compared to five and two incidents in 2022, respectively.
Reviewing the year, Natarajan pointed out that the increase in incidents occurred in Indonesia, the Philippines, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS), Thailand and Vietnam.
Of concern was the occurrence of incidents in SOMS with 63 incidents compared to 55 incidents in 2022, said the former Director General of Indian Coast Guard.
In the Sulu-Celebes Seas, there was no report of the abduction of crew for ransom by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), which was achieved through the concerted efforts of the Philippine and Malaysian authorities, he highlighted.
As part of the Centre’s continuous efforts to ensure that the evolving needs of the shipping industry are met, the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC) launched various initiatives in 2023, to keep the shipping community abreast of the latest piracy and ARAS situation in Asia and to facilitate ship masters in the timely reporting of incidents to the nearest coastal State.
The initiatives include the launch of the ReCAAP Data Visualisation Map and Panel (Re-VAMP) — an interactive dashboard to enable the viewing and analytics of past and current incidents of piracy and ARAS in Asia.
The initiative also includes the production of a poster containing the guidelines and updated contact details of law enforcement agencies of the littoral States of the SOMS; and engagement of the shipping industry through various events including conferences, forums and shipping dialogue sessions, he elaborated.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
Judges at the International Court of Justice on Thursday opened two days of legal arguments in a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in its Gaza war. (Jan. 11)
BY GERALD IMRAYUpdated 2:28 AM GMT+7, January 12, 2024 AP
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Barely two weeks after he was released from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela flew to Zambia to meet with African leaders who had supported his fight against South Africa’s apartheid system of forced racial segregation.
One figure stood out among the men in dark suits eagerly waiting to greet Mandela on the airport tarmac: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, wearing his black and white checkered keffiyeh headdress, had traveled to see the newly freed Mandela.
Cambodian people will never forget the end of the Pol Pot regime 45 years ago and the whole-hearted support and sacrifices made by Vietnamese voluntary troops. Those efforts have helped create an unbreakable bond between the two nations.
Kỳ 1 – Dịch vụ thụ tinh ống nghiệm: Ngành ‘công nghiệp’ siêu lợi nhuận?
Người bệnh khám vô sinh tại bệnh viện. Ảnh: Phương Thúy.
So với 10 năm trước, hiện nay, cả nước có 53 trung tâm hỗ trợ sinh sản thụ tinh trong ống nghiệm (IVF). Với chi phí dao động từ hàng chục tới hàng trăm triệu một lần thực hiện, dịch vụ này đang trở thành ngành “công nghiệp” siêu lợi nhuận.
Lời tòa soạn
Năm 1997, lần đầu tiên tại Việt Nam, kỹ thuật thụ tinh trong ống nghiệm (IVF) được thực hiện. Một năm sau, các em bé chào đời. Mặc dù bắt đầu muộn so với thế giới (1978) và khu vực (1984), nhưng hiện nay, Việt Nam là nước thực hiện IVF nhiều nhất khu vực ASEAN và là nước đi đầu về kỹ thuật này của khu vực. Nước ta có khoảng 50.000 trường hợp IVF mỗi năm, cho đến nay ước tính đã có khoảng 200.000 trẻ ra đời ở Việt Nam từ kỹ thuật này.
Đây được xem là thị trường y tế siêu lợi nhuận mang lại hàng triệu USD mỗi năm. Tuy nhiên, nhiều bác sĩ lo ngại kỹ thuật hỗ trợ sinh sản sẽ bị thương mại hóa.
VietNamNet xin đăng tuyến bài: ‘Nở rộ’ trung tâm hỗ trợ sinh sản, người hiếm muộn thành khách hàng tiềm năng để phản ánh về thực tế bức tranh điều trị vô sinh hiếm muộn tại nước ta.
Việt Nam là quốc gia sản xuất và xuất khẩu quế đứng thứ ba thế giới về sản lượng, sau Indonesia, Trung Quốc. Tuy vậy, do sản phẩm Việt Nam chủ yếu xuất thô nên thường gắn nhãn mác của nước ngoài, giá trị thu về thấp, thậm chí có tình trạng xuất khẩu tận vườn như câu chuyện thương nhân Ấn Độ tìm đến Yên Bái để thu mua.
Sản phẩm quế, hồi Việt Nam vẫn chưa xây dựng được thương hiệu ở thị trường thế giới.
Bộ Công Thương cho biết, trên bản đồ dược liệu thế giới, Việt Nam được đánh giá có nguồn dược liệu đa dạng, tỷ lệ dược liệu tự nhiên quý hiếm vẫn còn khá phong phú. Theo thống kê, hiện nước ta có khoảng trên 5.100 loài cây dược liệu, có nhiều tiềm năng, lợi thế để phát triển dược liệu trở thành một ngành kinh tế.
CVD 