What you need to know today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- Vietnam's State President Vo Van Thuong met with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Thursday. This is the first visit to the Vatican by a Vietnamese head of state since 2016.

-- Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang and Prime Minister of Egypt Mostafa Madbouly have agreed to continue spurring bilateral traditional friendship and fine cooperation via the exchange of high-level delegations, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday.

Society

-- WHO and UNICEF welcomed on Thursday the shipment of lifesaving pentavalent vaccine to Vietnam, the two agencies said in a press release the same day. The 185,700 doses have been urgently provided in support to the Ministry of Health to address low vaccination rates and a shortage of the five-in-one vaccine in the country.

-- Authorities in Ca Mau Province, southern Vietnam have dismissed Nguyen Van Dung from his post as the director of the provincial health department over his mismanagement during COVID-19 control missions, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Thursday.

Business

-- TikTok Shop has become Vietnam's second-largest e-commerce site by revenue, with sales hitting VND16.3 trillion (US$689 million) in January-June.

Sports

-- Vietnam have been eliminated from the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup after losing 0-2 to Portugal in the group stage on Thursday.

-- Host France beat Vietnam 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup on Thursday. The tournament lasts from July 27 to 30 in Laval, France, and is contested by France, Vietnam, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Ukraine, Sweden, and Croatia.

World News

-- "At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen were injured after a grain silo explosion on Wednesday at an agricultural co-operative in southern Brazil, the government of Parana state where the incident occurred and the company involved said on Thursday," Reuters reported.

-- "Colombian police have seized property and bank accounts worth 1.3 trillion pesos ($329 million), proceeds from the sale and export of stolen crude oil, officials said on Friday," according to Reuters.

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