Good morning from Vietnam!

Politics

-- Japan is considering Vietnam’s request for new naval ships to strengthen the two nations’ military cooperation, Masato Otaka, deputy press secretary at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a press conference in Hanoi on Thursday during Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida’s official visit to the Southeast Asian country.

-- Vietnam’s Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong visited the Cam Ranh naval base on Thursday, reaffirming the country’s attention to naval forces and maritime sovereignty amidst escalating tensions in the East Vietnam Sea.

Society

-- Tap water in many areas of Ben Tre Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta was found to contain even higher salt concentration than nasal drops, said Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat after a taste test by the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson on Thursday.

 -- Ho Chi Minh City’s UV Index readings of this week indicate unsafe levels of UV in solar radiation during the hottest hours of the day, from 10:00 am to around 3:00 pm, said Le Xuan Lan, former deputy head of the Forecast and Service Department at the Southern Meteorological Station.

-- Farmers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta are deserting their homeland to move to urban areas looking for new jobs as crops fail to grow due to prolonged drought and salinization that have hit the region since March.

Education

-- An 18-day-long series of environmental festivals organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment at 24 kindergartens in the city concludes today.

-- Over 1,200 youths in the southeast province of Dong Nai took part in the Young Voters Festival hosted by the provincial chapter of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, a program aimed to improve young people’s involvement in politics and national issues.

Sports

-- VND70 billion (US$3.13 million) is to be spent renovating the running track of My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, said Can Van Nghia, director at the My Dinh National Sports Complex.

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