What you need to know today:

Politics

-- Vietnamese people will continue joining hands with Lao people to strengthen and nurture their special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation, the Vietnam News Agency quoted President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) Nguyen Phuong Nga as saying on Thursday.

-- The Communist Party of Vietnam has admitted over 143,000 new members in 2019, raising the total membership to around 5.2 million, according to figures announced at a national tele-conference reviewing Party building on Wednesday.

-- Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong chaired a Politburo meeting in Hanoi on Thursday to discuss the agenda of the Politburo and Secretariat in 2020 as well as personnel work and some other important matters. 

Society

-- Vietnamese police are required to exert all their efforts to bust crime gangs, Minister of Public Security To Lam ordered on Thursday.

-- Ho Chi Minh City authorities will block Le Duan Boulevard in District 1 from 0:00 on December 28 to 5:00 on January 1 to organize a musical night to thank football supporters. 

-- The former police chief of Thanh Hoa City, which is the capital of the north-central province of Thanh Hoa Province, was prosecuted on Thursday for taking VND260 million (US$11,260) in bribes in 2018.

-- Major General Nguyen Trong Vinh, Vietnam's former ambassador to China from 1974 to 1987, passed away in Hanoi on Thursday at the age of 104.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has said it will launch the second waterbus route in early 2020.

Business

-- The owner of Vietnam's private carrier Bamboo Airways, Trinh Van Quyet, has refuted rumor that he had leased a Boeing 787-9 from China's Hainan Airlines, affirming that his airline bought the aircraft from the American company. 

-- Vietnam's manufacturing has posted revenue of $100 million for the first time this year, said Truong Thanh Hoai, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

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