Asian economies must ramp up wind and solar power to keep global warming under 1.5C, report says
A German thinktank has reported that to prevent global warming from surpassing the critical threshold of 1.5 Celsius, major Asian economies must ensure they can get half of their total electricity from renewables by 2030.
Former Stanford goalkeeper in US players' hearts at the Women's World World Cup
Sophia Smith flashed the zipping her lips gesture as she celebrated her second goal against Vietnam during the opening United States' opening match at the Womenโs World Cup in tribute to former Stanford teammate Katie Meyer.
Retired Navy Admiral explores what World War III could look like in new book
The UNited States and the former Soviet Union had many confrontations during the Cold War. That reality is what inspired Admiral James Stavridis to write his book, โ2034: A Novel of the Next World War.โ The U.S. Navy veteran and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO said he believes Cold War literature helped prevent a full-on war between the U.S. and Soviet Union. However, the Admiral also noticed the rising tensions with China, and how some people are calling it a Second Cold War. โBe part of that international world support those international organizations, theyโre flawed. You can get a copy of โ2034: A Novel of the Next World Warโ here.
Vietnam vaccinates COVID-19 front-liners with its 1st doses
A health worker injects a doctor with a dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, Vietnam Monday, March 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)HANOI โ Vietnam administered its first COVID-19 doses Monday to the front-line workers who made the nation's relative success in controlling the pandemic possible โ health workers, contact tracers and security forces who handled quarantine duties. Thousands of doctors, nurses and technicians working at hospitals designated to treat COVID-19 patients lined up in the morning and received the first jabs of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Separately, Vietnam expects to secure another 30 million doses of the same vaccine through COVAX, a U.N.-backed initiative created to ensure vaccine access to low- and middle-income countries. It is also negotiating with Pfizer for another 30 million doses, according to the health ministry.
Amnesty International: Hackers attacking Vietnam dissidents
The human rights group said Wednesday that Amnesty Tech's Security Lab found evidence of the hacking attempts in phishing emails sent to two dissidents, one in the Philippines and one in Germany. Cybersecurity firms earlier identified hacking attempts by Ocean Lotus targeting dissidents, governments and companies across Southeast Asia. The Amnesty report also said the hacking efforts involved emails pretending to share an important document with a link to download a file. An analysis of the phishing emails indicated they were generated by Ocean Lotus, based on the tools and techniques they used, it said. According to the cybersecurity company Volexity, OceanLotus was identified as a Vietnam-based hacking group in 2015.
WHO chief warns of complacency as global virus cases drop
People wearing face masks wait for boarding at the Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, Friday, Feb.12, 2020. Fresh COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam has slowed down business and travel during the popular lunar new year festival. โThese declines appear to be due to countries implementing public health measures more stringently,โ Tedros said. But he said it was possible the virus could still be present in samples that haven't yet been analyzed. "Of course, the best way to prevent long COVID is to prevent COVID-19 in the first place.โ
Myanmar's military takes power in coup, detains Suu Kyi
FILE - In this May 6, 2016, file photo, Aung San Suu Kyi, left, Myanmar's foreign minister, walks with senior General Min Aung Hlaing, right, Myanmar military's commander-in-chief, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. While Suu Kyi had been a fierce antagonist of the army while under house arrest, since her release and return to politics, she has had to work with the country's generals, who never fully gave up power. The first signs that the military was planning to seize power were reports that Suu Kyi and Win Myint, the countryโs president, had been detained before dawn. By midday, people were removing the bright red flags of Suu Kyiโs party that once adorned their homes and businesses. In November polls, Suu Kyi's party captured 396 out of 476 seats up for actual election in the lower and upper houses of Parliament.
Fresh outbreak in Vietnam grows to 82, company closed
Vietnam has reported 84 new cases of local transmission after nearly two months. Vietnam has reported 82 new COVID-19 cases in two clusters, hours after counting its first new local cases in nearly two months. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)HANOI โ Vietnam reported 82 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, hours after confirming the first two infections in nearly two months. The company with over 2,200 workers was closed for disinfection and the provincial authority locked down surrounding communities to curb the outbreak. Meanwhile, in neighboring Quang Ninh province, 10 people tested positive after a man working at Van Don International Airport was confirmed to be infected.
Asia Today: China's big holiday travel season light so far
This year, authorities have offered free refunds on plane tickets and extra pay for workers who stay put to dissuade travel for the holiday. The National Health Commission on Thursday reported 41 new cases of local transmission of the virus, a decline from previous days. The Philippines has nearly 520,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the second-highest number in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, and 10,552 deaths. โ Vietnam has reported 82 new COVID-19 cases in two clusters, hours after counting its first new local cases in nearly two months. Meanwhile, Australia has extended its suspension of quarantine-free travel from New Zealand for another three days.
Ruling Communist Party to set Vietnam's course this week
Almost 1,600 leading members of Vietnam's Communist Party on Tuesday begin a meeting to set policy for the next five years and select the group's senior members to steer the nation. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)HANOI โ Almost 1,600 leading members of Vietnamโs ruling Communist Party meet this week to approve future policy and help select the nationโs top leaders amid talk whether the current party chief will stay. Vietnamโs Communist Party is known for its collective leadership, which means key decisions are determined by consensus in the Politburo. Factions associated with senior party leaders means the contest for the top jobs may not yet be settled. According to Tuong Vu, head of the political science department at the University of Oregon, the party leadership this year seems more united than in 2016.
Neil Sheehan, Pentagon Papers reporter, Vietnam author, dies
His account of the Vietnam War, โA Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,โ took him 15 years to write. Sheehan served as a war correspondent for United Press International and then the Times in the early days of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Soon, The Washington Post also began publishing stories about the Pentagon Papers. When Sheehan and Ellsberg bumped into each other in Manhattan in 1971, Ellsberg accused Sheehan of stealing the papers, just as he had. Neil and Susan Sheehan had two daughters, Catherine Bruno, and Maria Gregory Sheehan, both of Washington and two grandsons, Nicholas Sheehan Bruno, 13, and Andrew Phillip Bruno, 11.
US brands Vietnam, Switzerland as currency manipulators
The Treasury report said that Vietnam and Switzerland were the only two countries that met all three criteria for being named a currency manipulator. The designation of a currency manipulator will trigger special negotiations with Vietnam and Switzerland over the next year. If those negotiations don't alter the two countries' currency practices, the United States can move forward to impose economic sanctions on Vietnam and Switzerland including penalty tariffs. But the Treasury report labeled Switzerland a currency manipulator contending that the interventions in currency markets were excessive given the large size of the Swiss trade surpluses. The United States has only named three countries as currency manipulators.
The Latest: Vietnam has 1st local transmission in 89 days
(AP Photo/Hau Dinh)HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnamese authorities are conducting intensive contact tracing after the countryโs first confirmed local transmission of the coronavirus in 89 days. The flight attendant tested positive on Saturday, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said. The new case ended Vietnamโs streak of 89 days without any known local transmission of the virus. The country has reported 1,347 coronavirus cases, including 35 deaths. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Monday on Twitter that the record comes ahead of an โanticipated Thanksgiving accelerationโ in coronavirus cases.
ASEAN, China, other partners sign world's biggest trade pact
It is not expected to go as far as the European Union in integrating member economies but does build on existing free trade arrangements. The agreement is expected to help China, Japan and South Korea finally reach a trilateral free trade deal after years of struggling to bridge their differences. Critics of free trade agreements say they tend to encourage companies to move manufacturing jobs overseas. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the retooled version of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Trump, covers slightly less economic activity but less than a tenth of the world's population. The EU and Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, the revised version of the deal Trump rejected, also are smaller.
Pompeo wraps up anti-China tour of Asia in Vietnam
Pompeo is wrapping up an anti-China tour of Asia in Vietnam as the fierce American presidential election race enters its final stretch. โWe look forward to continuing to work together to build on our relationship and to make the region โ throughout Southeast Asia, Asia and the Indo-Pacific โ safe and peaceful and prosperous," Pompeo said. โThe United States stands with our Indo-Pacific allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources in the South China Sea, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law,โ it said. It noted that earlier this year, Pompeo had rejected outright nearly all of Beijingโs sweeping claims in the South China Sea, including those involving Vietnam. China has ignored an arbitration ruling won by the Philippines that invalidated most of Beijing's claims, and built military outposts on seven man-made islands.
Typhoon, landslides leave 35 dead, dozens missing in Vietnam
A bulldozer clears out the road damaged by landslide to access a village swamped by another landslide in Quang Nam province, Vietnam on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. Rescuers dug up eight bodies Thursday morning in Tra Van village in Quang Nam province where a hillside collapsed on houses. Quang Nam, a tourist draw for an ancient town and Hindu temples, is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Hanoi. Elsewhere, four people were killed by falling trees and collapsed houses in Quang Nam and Gia Lai provinces when the typhoon slammed into the coast Wednesday. The typhoon left at least 16 people dead in the Philippines before moving across the South China Sea to Vietnam.
Pompeo says AES of US, PetroVietnam to sign $2.8B LNG deal
HANOI โ The U.S. energy firm AES and PetroVietnam plan to soon sign an agreement on a $2.8 billion liquefied natural gas project, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday. Pompeo made the comments in pre-recorded remarks to a business conference hosted both online and in person in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. Later Wednesday, the State Department announced that Pompeo had added a stop in Vietnam to his Asia tour this week. Pompeo said Vietnam has approved the project, and that it would โopen the door to billions of dollars per year in U.S. LNG exports to Vietnam. Delta Offshore Energy and a consortium that includes Bechtel Infrastructure, GE Power and other companies also recently announced plans for a $4 billion LNG to power project in southern Vietnam's Bac Lieu province.
Strong typhoon slams Vietnam; at least 2 dead, 26 missing
Broken tree branches caused by strong winds from typhoon Molave lie on a deserted street in Da Nang, Vietnam Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. Another man was pinned to death by a fallen tree in the coastal province, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. Vietnam is still recovering from severe flooding and landslides that killed 136 people and left dozens missing in three provinces. The relentless storms and flooding are taking a devastating human toll,โ Vietnam Red Cross Society president Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu said in a statement. The typhoon left at least nine people dead in the Philippines before blowing toward Vietnam.
Vietnam evacuating low-lying areas as strong typhoon nears
People move fishing boats to save place ahead of Typhoon Molave in Danang, Vietnam on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. National agency forecasts the typhoon to hit Vietnam on Wednesday morning in the central region where 1.3 people could face evacuation. Typhoon Molave is forecast to slam into Vietnamโs south central coast with sustained winds of up to 135 kilometers (84 miles) per hour on Wednesday morning, according to the official Vietnam News Agency. The typhoon left at least 3 people dead and 13 missing and displaced more than 120,000 villagers in the Philippines before blowing toward Vietnam. Torrential rains are expected in the still-flooded and isolated region, Vietnam News said.
Post-Abe agenda: Suga says Japan to go carbon-free by 2050
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga delivers a policy speech during an extraordinary Diet session at the upper house of parliament in Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. Suga has declared Japan will achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050 in his first policy speech after taking over from Shinzo Abe. The policy speech Monday at the outset of the parliamentary session set an ambitious agenda reflecting Suga's pragmatic approach to getting things done. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)TOKYO โ Japan will achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared Monday, outlining an ambitious agenda as the country struggles to balance economic and pandemic concerns. He also promised to reduce Japan's reliance on coal-fired energy by promoting conservation and maximizing renewables, while promoting nuclear energy.
Japan, Vietnam agree to boost defense ties, resume flights
In talks in Hanoi on Monday, Suga and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc set a basic agreement allowing Japan to export defense equipment and technology to Vietnam. Japan has been pursuing such pacts in recent years to bolster ties with Southeast Asia and sustain its own defense industry. Phuc said the peace and stability of the South China Sea should be protected by the rule of law, not unilaterally by force or threats. The two sides also agreed to ease entry bans and allow short-term business visits and reopen flights between Vietnam and Japan. The country is seeking to improve its maritime defenses amid Chinaโs continuing development and militarization of artificial islands in contested waters of the South China Sea.
The Latest: Vietnam to resume int'l flights, but not tourism
(AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)Vietnam will resume international commercial flights connecting the country to several Asian destinations starting Friday, after a monthslong shutdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak. The flights, however, are reserved for Vietnamese nationals, diplomats, experts, managers, skilled workers, investors and their families. The flights connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to destinations in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan will operate weekly, the government website announced. Flights connecting Vietnam's two largest cities with Cambodia and Laos will resume next week. Vietnam shut down international flights on April 1.
Asia Today: Vietnam to resume international flights
(AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)HANOI โ Vietnam will resume international commercial flights connecting the country to several Asian destinations starting Friday, after a monthslong shutdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Flights connecting the cities with Cambodia and Laos will resume next week. The flights, however, are reserved for Vietnamese nationals, diplomats, experts, managers, skilled workers, investors and their families. Vietnam shut down international flights on April 1. Vietnam has reported 1,059 cases of the coronavirus.
Get an inside look at the Broadway tour of Miss Saigon
Majestic Theater โ For Jackie Nguyen & Matthew Overberg being in the ensemble for the National tour of Miss Saigon is more than just a job. Both have personal connections to the story about a young girl named Kim forced to work in a bar after her family is killed in the Vietnam war. They sat down with KSAT News @ Nine producer Lexi Salazar to share their connection to the show and tell what audiences can expect from this Broadway classic. Miss Saigon is playing at the Majestic Theater until January 12th. For more info about the show click here and for ticket information click here.
SA Vietnam veteran gets new home after living in shed for decade
SAN ANTONIO โ A Vietnam veteran spent this Veterans Day in a comfortable home for the first time in over a decade. When the leaders of two organizations found out she had been living in a shed, they stepped up immediately. Cotungo heard about the homeless veteranโs situation right after a couple from Missouri generously donated a recreation vehicle to Adapt-A-Vet. "They're couch-surfing women, living in their cars. They're not living out on the streets often times, so it's hard to get an account of how many homeless women veterans there are," Hart said.