China’s predatory fishing fleets are denuding fish stocks and marine ecosystems on an unprecedented industrial scale. International collective action is urgently needed.
The desecration of maritime habitats and life-sustaining coral reefs is a clear and present threat at the hands of China’s massive fishing fleet. The maritime equivalent to poisoning a sovereign nation’s local farms, this threat has already had multi-generational impacts to the economy, climate and food supplies. Collaborative and bold solutions are imperative.
Admiral Linda Fagan, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, identified China as one of the prime culprits in illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, committing “theft of a nation’s natural resources.” Chinese fishing vessels steal coral for jewelry, giant clams for the ivory industry, and fish stocks to feed its own population. This is theft on a grand scale, unrestricted warfare on natural resources. The pilfering is happening across Asia, throughout the Pacific as far west as the Galapagos Islands, and off the West African coast, even within exclusive economic zones (EEZ) to which countries have a sovereign right to all natural resources.
Do not clam up on this issue just because it is only coral, clams and fish. Coral and giant clams are the life source of the ocean, easing the impacts of climate change, providing a protective breeding ground for fish, and serving as water filters. Giant clams increase the biodiversity of the coral which supports vital fisheries in the South China Sea. These fisheries account for 12% of the world’s catch and 28% of the protein to sustain human life in the region. The ongoing destruction at the hands of Chinese fishermen guarantees a loss of environmental and food security for future generations across the region.
VNE – By Luu Quy November 13, 2023 | 10:49 am GMT+7
A person uses a pay TV service in Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress/Luu Quy
Several foreign television channels and platforms have exited Vietnam after changing their business models or failing to meet new regulations, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.
In early November Amazon’s Prime Video OTT television platform pulled out after a seven-year run in the country.
Since October National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Baby TV, and Mezzo Live channels have stopped broadcasting in some markets, including Vietnam.
Paramount Network and Baby First have also exited the Vietnamese market.
Workers at a textile factory in the northern province of Bắc Ninh. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam should set up an early warning system for trade defence to help support Vietnamese products in foreign markets, said industry leaders and policymakers.
According to data from the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Vietnamese products have been involved in 235 trade remedies investigations in 24 markets around the world. The majority of the cases were anti-dumping (129), trade safeguard (47), evasion investigation (34) and anti-subsidy (24) in nature with products including wooden cabinets, laminated wood, solar panels, shrimp, basa fish, high-pressure washers, foam mattresses, grass cutting machines, cigarette paper, and honey.
Sau cuộc chiến với các nước Ả Rập năm 1948, Israel đối mặt với thách thức an ninh cực lớn khi bị bao quanh bởi phần lớn các nước thù địch. Tình thế này khiến Israel phải đưa ra giải pháp trước khi quá muộn. Và họ chọn Iran.
Trước khi thù địch, Israel và Iran từng hình thành một liên minh chiến lược. Ảnh minh họa: Sky News
Theo Viện Brookings (tổ chức tư vấn có trụ sở tại Mỹ), sự thù địch Israel – Iran rất kỳ lạ. Hai nước không có biên giới chung, không xảy ra chiến tranh cũng như không có bất kỳ sự cạnh tranh gay gắt nào về kinh tế hay vị thế trong khu vực. Lịch sử về mối quan hệ giữa người Ba Tư (Iran ngày nay) và người Do Thái (Israel ngày nay) cũng phần lớn là những điều tích cực. Thậm chí, trước năm 1979, Israel và Iran còn tạo thành một liên minh chiến lược về chính trị, kinh tế, an ninh và nhiều lĩnh vực khác. Vậy điều gì đã khiến Israel và Iran từ bạn hóa thù? Loạt bài kỳ này sẽ cố gắng giải đáp phần nào câu hỏi đó.
By age 18 years, Lalitbai was a married mother of three children. She became a child bride when she was 13 years old. At age 32 years, Lalitbai was a widow and cast out of her extended family. With no money or education, she worked tirelessly as a day labourer, eventually starting her own small bakery. She now speaks openly, with neighbours and in local gatherings, about stopping child marriage. Lalitbai lives in India, the country with the largest number of child brides worldwide.
Yet India is also making progress in reducing child marriage. According to UNICEF’s Is an End to Child Marriage within Reach? Latest Trends and Future Prospects, 2023 Update, released on May 3, 2023, since 2012, the percentage of young women aged 20–24 years who were married as children worldwide has fallen from 23% to 19%, and a substantial portion of this progress is driven by reductions in India.
In the past decade the prevalence of child marriage in this country has declined from 38% to 23%.
HANOI, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Vietnam will have a hard time reaching its offshore wind power target for 2030, a top executive at a state-owned energy company said, with foreign investors also warning of multiple regulatory hurdles that would need to be cleared.
The Southeast Asian country has good offshore wind power potential given strong winds and shallow waters near densely populated areas, according to the World Bank, which estimates the sector could add at least $50 billion to Vietnam’s economy.
Offshore wind is also a priority for Group of Seven (G7) members that have promised funds to boost the country’s renewable energy sources and reduce its reliance on coal.
Laos borrowed billions from President Xi Jinping’s administration to finance railways, highways and hydroelectric dams, which has ballooned public debt to over 100% of GDP.
Combined with a currency crisis and soaring inflation, Laos is on the brink of economic collapse.
Without a clear-cut debt reduction deal with China, Laos’ financial hardships are unlikely to ease, analysts warn. But it remains to be seen if Beijing will agree to long-term concessions.
A pedestrians at a bus station in Vientiane, Laos, on Saturday, June 24, 2023.
Greenhouse gas emissions can be offset by carbon sinks such as forests, but expanding these areas can put Indigenous communities, reliant on the forests, at risk.
Khao Sok rainforest in Thailand. Photo by: Sebastian Kautz / Alamy
From Khao Sok National Park in the southwest to Phu Chi Fa Forest Park in the north, forests cover around 30% of Thailand’s total area. Approximately 23 million people live near or in these lush green landscapes, depending on them for sustenance and livelihoods. But that’s now at risk, due to both climate change-related threats and the policies implemented to protect the forests.
Warangkana Rattanarat, Thailand country director for The Center for People and Forests, warned that the arrival of El Niño earlier this year has caused long droughts and less rain, damaging crops and other forest resources. This has affected the availability of food, as well as the income local people can derive from forest resources, she added.
The country has also experienced floods and the highest temperatures on record this year, impacting forests and the communities within them. In theGermanWatch Global Climate Risk Index 2021, Thailand ranked at number nine globally for long-term climate risks.
Additionally, there are land and tenure rights issues for Indigenous forest communities to contend with, and national climate commitments that have the potential to negatively impact such communities, said experts.
India prides itself as the largest democracy in the world, with nearly 1 billion eligible voters for the upcoming 2024 general election. But what’s been holding that democracy together has changed drastically under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalist party, BJP. Modi’s influence has shifted Indian society and widened rifts between communities.
How has Indian democracy changed? And why is it time to worry about India?
The classes not only help Jrai ethnic people in the village learn to read and write, but also contribute to raising people’s awareness and responsibility in protecting the national borders.
Many JRai students have to bring their children to literacy classes. — VNA/VNS Photo
GIA LAI — Border soldiers in the Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) province of Gia Lai are assuming the role of teachers to eliminate illiteracy among local ethnic people.
The residential area of Suối Khôn in the border commune of Ia Mơ, Chu Prông District has 561 residents of the Jrai ethnic minority group, with most of them being very poor.
Currently, there are 71 illiterate people, accounting for 10 per cent of the area’s population.
Ia Lốp Border Guard Station opened classes to teach people and the soldiers are their teachers.
The classes not only help Jrai ethnic people in the village learn to read and write, but also contribute to raising people’s awareness and responsibility in protecting the national borders.
To get to Suối Khôn Residential Area, it takes more than two hours to travel from the city of Pleiku to Ia Pier Commune, then through a dirt road of more than ten kilometres full of mud and slush.
Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Văn Thành, secretary of the station’s Party Committee, said that there were 71 Jrai ethnic people who were illiterate, of which 45 people wanted to learn.
The station’s leaders decided to open classes to teach the illiterate people.
Since earlier this year, Ia Lốp Border Guard Station has organised two four-month literacy classes for the Jrai ethnic minority with 25 students.
The teachers are soldiers including Lieutenant Colonel Vũ Văn Hoàng, who teaches math, and Captain Nguyễn Văn Luân, who teaches Vietnamese language.
The entire programme uses literacy learning materials compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training.
The classes, which take place three evenings per week, received the professional support of Hoàng Hoa Thám Primary School in neighbouring Ia Piơr Commune.
Captain Nguyễn Văn Luân said that the journey of mobilising people to come to class encountered many hardships.
“The weather conditions here are very harsh. People mainly work in agriculture and their lives are very difficult,” Luân said.
“Ethnic minorities often feel an inferiority complex and have low self-esteem so they are timid in communication,” Luân said.
“Therefore, we had to go to each household to mobilise and encourage them to boldly come to class,” the captain said.
Soldiers cum teachers of Ia Lốp Border Guard Station come directly to local residents’ houses to urge them to attend literacy classes. — VNA/VNS Photo
Getting people to come to school was difficult, and maintaining class size was even more difficult.
Lieutenant Colonel Vũ Văn Hoàng said that the classes started in the evening, but in the afternoon the teachers had to go to each house to remind people of the class.
Because the students’ ages ranged from 16 to 60, organising classes and teaching methods must be flexible, especially during the crop season. Students have to work hard during the day so many of them cannot attend classes in the evening, said Hoàng.
“So to maintain the classes, the border guard soldiers had to come to help people with farm work or take care of their children to help them feel secure and focus on their studies,” said Hoàng.
Change of life
Kpui H’Lép, 27, is one of the outstanding students. After only four months of studying, she was able to read and write fluently.
H’Lep happily said: “Before, I was illiterate, very self-conscious and shy. I was always oppressed when doing business and criticised when doing housework.”
“But now it is different. I learned how to read and calculate. I thanked the teachers for helping me and other people in the village to have a better life,” she said.
Another student, Rơ Lan H’Cúc, 26, residing in Sâm Village, Ia Piơr Commune, has a two-year-old daughter whom she has to carry to evening classes.
Rơ Lan H’Cúc often sits at the back of the class but is very diligent and serious.
“I regretted not being literate earlier. Now I have the opportunity to learn many things from teachers. The teachers not only taught us how to read and write but also gave us books, pens, babysitting and farming instructions,” Rơ Lan H’Cúc said.
“I am very grateful to the teachers,” she said.
Suối Khôn residential area was formed in 2003. Most of residents are the Jrai ethnic minority.
Since its formation until now, this residential area has not yet received basic investment in electricity, roads, and schools, and people haven’t fully benefited from social security policies.
The reason is because this land belongs to the administrative boundaries of Ia Mơ Commune but the population is managed by another commune, Ia Piơr Commune.
Hà Văn Tin, vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Ia Piơr Commune, Chu Prông District, said that the authorities of Ia Piơr and Ia Mơ communes and the people in the area hoped that the competent authorities would soon allow the establishment of Khôl Village under Ia Mơ Commune according to a project since April 2022.
This is a condition for Suối Khôn Residential Area to be better managed and develop in the future, Tin said. — VNS
Soldiers of the Ia Lốp Border Guard Station teach literary classes for JRai ethnic minority people. — VNA/VNS Photo
An image taken before South Korean girl band Black Pink’s Born Pink Tour in Hà Nội in July. Tourist arrivals in the city jumped 2.5-fold to 170,000, including 3,000 foreigners, during their two-day concerts. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Đức
The recent successful shows of famous international singers and bands show that Việt Nam is capable of organising mega global shows.
By Thu Ngân
For weeks Hanoian Bùi Trang Dung was unable to decide where to take her family for vacation last summer.
“This place is beautiful in the summer, that place has many delicious foods and the other one is cheaper.” These were the words that constantly ran in the 42-year-old’s mind.
She then came across a piece of information about a music show by a famous singer she loved in Mù Cang Chải in the northern province of Yên Bái.
The holiday destination instantly chose itself: It was to be Mù Cang Chải.
Activists from Jewish Voice for Peace group unfurl banners reading ‘Palestinians should be free’ at the base of New York landmark.
Activists from Jewish Voice for Peace occupy the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. [Stephanie Keith/Getty Images via AFP]
Published On 7 Nov 20237 Nov 2023
Hundreds of US Jewish activists have peacefully occupied New York’s Statue of Liberty to demand an end to Israel’s “genocidal bombardment” of civilians in Gaza and a ceasefire.
Dressed in black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogans “Jews demand ceasefire now” or “Not in our name”, the protesters from the Jewish Voice for Peace group on Monday unfurled banners reading “The whole world is watching” and “Palestinians should be free” at the base of New York’s landmark.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of demonstrators, gathered in Washington, DC to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and to denounce US policy of support for Israel.
Caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks on the phone ahead of an interview.
NOVEMBER 9, 2023, 4:30 PM
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has a plan for peace in Gaza and Israel. If it has any hope of becoming reality, he’ll need Western backers. Thus far, he doesn’t have any.
It’s time for Western leaders to step up.
As the death toll in Gaza grows, now over 10,000, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has been trying to win allies for his three-step peace plan. First, Mikati proposes, would come a five-day pause in hostilities, during which Hamas would release some of its Israeli hostages and Israel would open its border crossings to more humanitarian aid. If the peace can hold for those 120 hours, negotiations would begin for the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for prisoners held by Israel. As that happens, work on an international summit for a permanent two-state solution would begin.
If it can get off the ground, Mikati’s proposal would channel the worst violence Israelis and Palestinians have seen in decades into the most serious peace effort since the collapse of the Oslo Accords.
Dr. Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) working inside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, described the situation on November 11, 2023. “Since this morning, there is no electricity. There is no water. There is no food,” he said. The hospital and the areas outside the hospital where people are sheltering have been hit with bombs. A sniper has wounded patients inside the hospital. Premature babies have died because the incubator cannot function without electricity. “We need help,” he said. “No one hears us.”
Premature babies are dying at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital
Healthcare workers gathered in front of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office in London, raising signs with the names of more than 200 physicians who have been killed so far by Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza.
Doctor who worked in Gaza describes dire situation at Al-Shifa Hospital
CVD 