Have a hearty breakfast reading these salient news items:

Politics

-- Vietnam on Friday confirmed that Le Kha Phieu, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, had passed away the same day because of old age and illness. He was born in 1931.

Society

-- Many parts of Ho Chi Minh City were under rainwater on Thursday night following downpours since the rush hour.

-- Vietnam recorded three new COVID-19 patients on Thursday morning, taking the national tally to 750 cases. A total of 392 patients have recovered while ten have lost their lives to the disease.

-- Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday said it would suspend five bus routes connecting to neighboring Dong Nai Province to prevent coronavirus spread.

-- Vietnamese children spend a lot of time shopping and playing games on the Internet, alongside engaging in online classes, during social distancing periods in Vietnam, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said in its latest report.

Business

-- State-run telecom group VNPT has been listed by Forbes Vietnam magazine among the top three most valuable brands in Vietnam.

World News

-- Over 19.2 million people have caught COVID-19 while more than 12.3 million have recovered from the disease, according to the Ministry of Health's statistics. More than 717,000 people have lost their lives to the pathogen. 

 -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ramped up his attacks on China for its handling of COVID-19 that has killed over 717,000 people around the world, at a time when his health secretary is about to visit Taiwan, which Beijing always sees as a breakaway province, Reuters reported.

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