Category Archives: Vietnam

‘No way to stop it’: millions of pigs culled across Asia as swine fever spreads

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Experts say region is losing the battle to stop the biggest animal disease outbreak the planet has ever faced

South-east Asia is battling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, known as “pig Ebola”, which has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam.

African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. China is home to almost half of the world’s pigs and the news sent the global price of pork soaring.

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Revealed: women making clothes for west face sexual abuse

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Study finds workers in Vietnamese factories have been harassed, groped and even raped

Female factory workers producing clothing and shoes in Vietnam – many probably for major US and European brands – face systemic sexual harassment and violence at work, the Observer can reveal.

Nearly half (43.1%) of 763 women interviewed in factories in three Vietnamese provinces said they had suffered at least one form of violence and/or harassment in the previous year, according to a study by the Fair Wear Foundation and Care International out on Monday.

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North Korean film on Kim and Trump glosses over summit’s failure

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Documentary about last week’s Hanoi meeting offers benign portrayal of US president

It fell short of Donald Trump’s claim that he and Kim Jong-un had “fallen in love”, but a new North Korean documentary suggests the leaders’ relationship is strong enough to survive last week’s doomed summit in Vietnam.

In keeping with the rest of the regime’s post-talks coverage, the film makes no mention of the summit’s premature end, the countries’ irreconcilable differences over sanctions or their conflicting accounts of why the US president and the North Korean leader parted without an agreement.

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‘Police didn’t help me’: Europe ignoring abuse of trafficked Vietnamese children

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Young people taken to UK are exploited in transit through Europe as governments ‘pass the buck’ on protection

Thousands of children trafficked from Vietnam to the UK are being abused and exploited in transit through Europe because governments are “passing the buck” on their protection, research has found.

Victims are typically trafficked through eight countries before arriving in the UK, and at each point are vulnerable to labour and sexual exploitation. Yet governments routinely view Vietnamese children as the responsibility of other states, according to a report published on Thursday by Anti-Slavery International, the Pacific Links Foundation and Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK (Ecpat UK).

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Trump blames Cohen testimony for collapse of summit with Kim Jong-un

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US president says the timing of the Cohen hearing, while he was at the talks in Vietnam, was ‘a new low’ in politics

US president Donald Trump has blamed that the Democrats’ decision to interview his longtime fixer, lawyer Michael Cohen, on the same day as a meeting with Kim Jong-un for the fact that the North Korea summit ended with no deal.

“For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the ‘walk.’” Trump said on Twitter, referring to his decision to walk away from what he previously said was a bad deal with Kim. “Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!”

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Kim and Trump finally show their hands after nuclear talks in Hanoi

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We now know where North Korea and US stand – and the gaps that still need to be closed

The Hanoi summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un may have broken down abruptly and stalled negotiations for the time being, but it has opened a window into the talks that leaves some hope that a compromise can be reached.

Related: Vietnam summit: North Korea and US offer differing reasons for failure of talks

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The art of the no deal: how Trump and Kim misread each other | Julian Borger

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North Korean despot and US president’s wildly different perceptions exposed in Hanoi

As with many disastrous second dates, the collapse of Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un was made inevitable by the misreading of each other’s intentions at their first encounter.

Since their initial meeting in Singapore last June, the US president had become fixated on what he saw as a close personal bond with the North Korean dictator half his age. He told his supporters: “We fell in love ... He wrote me beautiful letters.”

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Kim Jong-un answers question from foreign journalist for first time – video

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North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un answers – for what is believed to be the first time – a question from a foreign journalist. Asked if he was positive about reaching a deal with US president Donald Trump over nuclear disarmament, Kim said it was too early to tell whether a deal could be reached. However, he said he had a 'feeling that good results would come out' of the talks and that he was not pessimistic. Trump then asks a nearby photographer to make sure he sends his pictures to Kim 

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Trump-Kim summit proves to be more of a remake than a sequel

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Like most theatrical reboots, the strain in keeping things the same in Vietnam highlighted the small way things changed

Donald Trump vowed that his second meeting with Kim Jong-un would be at least the equal of the first and his Vietnamese hosts tried their utmost to make that happen.

In Hanoi on Wednesday evening, every effort was made in recreating the circumstances and ambience of Singapore, scene last June of the historic first meeting between an incumbent US president and a North Korea leader.

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Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un meet for second time – video

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The leaders of the US and North Korea meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the start of the second nuclear summit. The pair, who looked pleased to see each other as they shook hands, were to hold a brief discussion on Wednesday before full meetings on Thursday

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Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam: what is on the table?

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From the easing of sanctions to denuclearisation and ending the Korean war, there’s a lot to play for in Hanoi

Donald Trump has said that when he meets Kim Jong-un in Hanoi’s Metropole Hotel on Wednesday evening, the potential for a deal is “awesome”.

Few would argue with that. A move to limit the North Korean arsenal and begin to re-integrate the country back into the international community, would be a significant step away from the brink of nuclear war.

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Kim Jong-un arrives in Hanoi for Vietnam summit with Donald Trump

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North Korean leader to meet US president on Wednesday for dinner after three-day overland trip

Kim Jong-un has arrived in Hanoi, after transferring from train to car for the final leg of his overland trip to Vietnam where the North Korean leader is scheduled to have a private dinner and meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Kim will meet the US president for a brief one-on-one conversation, followed by a social dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

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US negotiating position in disarray ahead of summit with North Korea

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Trump says he would be happy if rogue state continues with nuclear testing ban, handing diplomatic initiative to Kim Jong-un

Donald Trump has said the US will be “happy” if North Korea simply agrees to continue its moratorium on nuclear and missile testing at this week’s summit in Hanoi.

The US president’s remarks on Sunday night represented a lowering of already modest expectations for his second meeting with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, due to begin on Wednesday.

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Workers making clothes for Australian brands can’t afford to eat, Oxfam reports

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Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam working for Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On earning 51 cents an hour

Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam making clothes for the $23bn Australian fashion industry are going hungry because of wages as low as 51 cents an hour, an Oxfam report has found.

The aid group interviewed 470 garment workers employed at factories supplying brands such as Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On, and found 100% of surveyed workers in Bangladesh and 74% in Vietnam could not make ends meet.

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Vietnam threatens to deport Trump and Kim impersonators before ‘sensitive’ summit

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Authorities unhappy with pair walking the streets of Hanoi and causing a ‘disturbance’

Vietnamese authorities were not amused when an impersonator of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, wandered the streets of Hanoi on Friday, just days before the second summit between Kim Jong-un and the US president, Donald Trump.

Howard X, an Australian, said Vietnamese authorities questioned him and another impersonator dressed as Trump and warned them they could be deported after they had taped an interview at a local TV station. The interview was not aired.

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‘Napalm girl’ Kim Phuc receives German prize for peace work

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Activist honoured decades after she was photographed fleeing naked in Vietnam war

Kim Phuc, known as the “napalm girl” after a well-known photo of her from the Vietnam war, has received an award in Germany for her work for peace.

Organisers of the Dresden prize say the 55-year-old, who lives in Canada, is being honoured for her support of Unesco and children wounded in war, and for speaking out against violence and hatred. She received €10,000 (£8,800).

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Tiger poachers arrested by Thai police were part of Vietnamese gang

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Police investigating discovery of animal’s remains warn of organised crime threat to Thailand’s tiger population

Thai authorities investigating the discovery of the remains of a wild tiger in a taxi have warned that organised crime gangs are behind the capture and slaughter of Thailand’s endangered tiger population.

Police, acting on a tip-off from a cab driver, arrested two men suspected of being members of a Vietnam-based syndicate involved in the trafficking of animal parts. The tiger was found in their luggage along with mobile phones containing photographs of the animal being killed.

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