What you need to know in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- The chairman of Vietnam's lawmaking National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue, will pay an official visit to China from April 7 to 12, according to an announcement the legislature's external affairs commission released on Thursday.

Society

-- It is time to lift the 'yellow card' warning the European Union has imposed on Vietnam's seafood since 2017, Julien Guerrier, Ambassador of the EU to Vietnam, said during a meeting with Le Minh Hoan, Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, in Hanoi on Thursday.

-- Graffiti now covers walls and embankments along Son Thuy Beach in Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang, central Vietnam.

-- Around four to seven gaurs have been captured on wildlife viewing cameras at Phuoc Binh National Park in Ninh Thuan Province, south-central Vietnam since October 2023, Nguyen Ngoc Minh, deputy director in charge of the park, said on Wednesday.

-- Recently, 239 buses in Ho Chi Minh City have undergone replacement and comprehensive amenity upgrades, with residents praising the new vehicles for their 'clean environment and 5-star quality service.'

-- On Wednesday, customs units at Da Nang International Airport detected a passenger arriving on flight VJ970 from Singapore smuggling approximately 60,000 live lobster larvae, worth an estimated VND5 billion (US$200,401) concealed in two items of luggage, prompting collaboration with local authorities for inspection. Paperwork is underway to transfer the contraband to relevant agencies for handling.

Lifestyle

-- The first edition of the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (HIFF 2024) is set to kick off on Saturday, coordinated by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Department of Culture and Sports, in collaboration with VietFest and several other implementing units.

-- On Thursday, representatives from Yeah1 Group announced that the reality television show 'Haha Farmers' produced in collaboration with the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, TikTok, and Yeah1 is scheduled to debut in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Education

-- IDP Vietnam has said that the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training already allowed it to run the IELTS One Skill Retake, which enables candidates to take a test on one of the skills -- namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking -- if they did not show their full potential in the first IELTS test.

World News

-- "Taiwanese rescuers looked for 18 people still missing on Friday after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the island's mountainous and scenic east coast, as dozens of aftershocks rattled the disaster zone and those cut off were gradually taken to safety," Reuters reported.

-- "Weather forecasters at Colorado State University (CSU) on Thursday predicted an 'extremely active' 2024 Atlantic hurricane season because of warm sea surface temperatures and less wind shear to break up storms in the summer and fall," according to Reuters.

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