Check out the news you should not miss today, January 20

Politics

-- Vietnam hopes Japan will continue its provision of ODA for the country, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said at a reception for a delegation of Japanese parliamentarians attending the 26th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) in Hanoi on Friday.

Society

-- ILL-Abilities, an international breakdancing crew comprised of dancers with different physical limitations that has inspired audiences around the world with their extraordinary performances, is in Vietnam from January 19 to 23 to promote messages of diversity, equality and inclusion of marginalized populations.

-- Nearly 1,100 middle school students in coastal areas in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan participated in a drill on natural disaster prevention supported by the United Nations Development Programme on Friday.

-- A truck, weighing a total of 15 metric tons, including its load, was trying to pass a bridge with a weight limit of only 3 metric tons in Can Gio District, outside Ho Chi Minh City on Friday night and eventually broke the structure.

-- Administrators of the central city of Da Nang on Friday announced that local residents and tourists are banned from visiting the famed My Khe beach due to severe erosion there.

Business

-- Vietnam and South Africa have potential for boosting cooperation in many fields, as well as increasing bilateral trade to $2 billion a year, Nguyen The Hung, deputy chief of the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said at a meeting in the Vietnamese city on Friday.

-- Twenty-one lottery ticket companies in southern Vietnam posted total revenue of VND92.88 trillion (US$4.09 billion) in 2017, with nearly 49 percent, or VND34.04 trillion ($1.5 billion) spent on paying winning tickets.

Lifestyle

-- U.S. filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts, director of the Hollywood blockbuster 'Kong: Skull Island', returned to Vietnam on Friday, taking his family to tour the central tourist city of Hue.

-- An exhibition honoring De Men Phieu Luu Ky (Adventures of a Cricket), one of the most well-known Vietnamese children’s books, will open to the public from Saturday night and run until late March, in Hanoi.

Sports

-- Vietnam will play Iraq in their quarterfinal game at the AFC U-23 Championship in China today, January 20, with some international commentators believing that the Golden Stars are capable of continuing their historic run at the event.