Here are what you need to know to start your day!

Politics

-- Vietnamese Party chief and State President Nguyen Phu Trong and Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah agreed to upgrade their two countries’ bilateral relations to a comprehensive partnership during the latter’s visit to Vietnam starting on Wednesday.

Society

-- Around 150 Asian openbill storks, which Vietnam lists as endangered, were spotted for the first time in the southern province of Bac Lieu earlier this week.

-- The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment asserted on Wednesday that the appointment of the minister’s younger brother as head of a general department under the ministry “properly followed procedures,” following media reports suggesting nepotism was involved in the appointment.

-- A man died as a wartime bomb exploded while he was cutting it to get scrap metal on Wednesday in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

-- Military officers in the southern province of Ben Tre on Wednesday started bringing onshore the wreckage of a wartime military plane that a local farmer had found in his shrimp growing pond seven years earlier. The discovery had not been made known to authorities until earlier this week.

-- A woman in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong was fined VND10 million ($430) for posting fake Facebook news saying 800 local pigs had died from African swine fever.

-- Hanoi was shrouded in smog on Wednesday, with the air pollution in a number of its districts reaching serious levels while experts have warned of health risks from the phenomenon.

Business

-- Vietnam’s finance ministry on Wednesday suggested imposing 15-17 percent corporate income taxes on small and super-small enterprises, instead of the current 20 percent rate, in order to encourage their growth.

-- Major Vietnamese dairy manufacturer Vinamilk inaugurated a 685-hectare cow farm, which is the largest of its kind in Vietnam, in Tay Ninh Province, near Ho Chi Minh City, on Wednesday.

-- The 2019 Vietnam International Travel Mart, an annual international event showcasing tourism products and services, opened on Wednesday in Hanoi. It is joined by over 500 companies and scheduled to end on Saturday.

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