What you need to know today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse Le Thi Bich Tran will pay an official visit to South Korea from June 30 to July 3, at the invitation of South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck Soo and his spouse Choi Ah Young, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

Society

-- A video showing a bus driver watching his phone while driving started circulating on social media in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday. The video was recorded and uploaded by a passenger on the bus. Transport authorities are verifying the authenticity of the video. 

-- In District 1, the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, there are still cramped and unsafe residential areas with houses measuring only a few square meters. According to District 1's Party secretary Duong Anh Duc, residents there have to "take shifts to sleep."

-- The connection of transportation infrastructure, particularly railways and highways, is a major focus of cooperation between Vietnam and China and will be prioritized for implementation immediately following Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit.

-- On Thursday evening, a chain-reaction accident occurred in downtown Vung Tau, about 100km from Ho Chi Minh City, where a car crashed into multiple motorcycles waiting at a red light, resulting in two deaths and injuring many others.

Business

-- The taxman in District 6, Ho Chi Minh City has recently discovered that in a short period, a person had established up to 116 companies in various districts of the city.

-- Along with the impressive growth in the number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first half of 2024, travel and tourism companies have also recorded a significant increase in their spending.

World News

-- "Democratic President Joe Biden endured a shaky start at Thursday's debate, while his Republican rival Donald Trump rattled off a series of attacks that included numerous falsehoods, as the two oldest presidential candidates ever clashed on stage ahead of November's U.S. election," Reuters reported.

-- "Forecasts for a mild slowdown in India's fast-growing economy held steady in the first Reuters poll of economists since the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost its parliamentary majority in phased national elections that ended in early June," Reuters reported.