Hanoi looks to Seoul for its second nuclear power plant
Today's news: China has launched a new sea patrol east of Taiwan. Drug traffickers are recruiting Thai aircrew members as couriers. At least 40 people died in Pakistan after a bus ended up in a ditch, with a similar incident in Afghanistan. In Japan, indigenous Ainu are denied inherent fishing rights.
VIETNAM – SOUTH KOREA
Vietnam announced that it will choose a foreign partner, likely South Korea's KEPCO, for the construction of its second nuclear power plant, Ninh Thuan 2 (Ninh Thuan 1 is being built with Russia's Rosatom), with a capacity of up to 3.2 gigawatts, in cooperation with Petrovietnam. The foreign partner should commit to transferring at least 30 per cent of its nuclear power technologies to Vietnam, the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated.
CHINA – TAIWAN
Beijing announced this morning that it has launched a coast guard patrol east of Taiwan to counter crime in what China considers its territorial waters. A similar patrol was also conducted last month in response to Japan and the Philippines' announcement that they would begin formal talks on their maritime borders, which Beijing said also include Taiwanese waters.
THAILAND
Criminal groups are using social media to contact and recruit airline crew members as drug couriers. In recent days, a Thai Airways flight attendant was arrested and charged with importing a kilo of cocaine into Australia. According to Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, at least six people from Thailand were arrested for drug trafficking this year.
JAPAN
The Sapporo District Court in Japan recently rejected an appeal filed by members of the indigenous Ainu people in Hokkaido, seeking recognition of their inherent right to fish for salmon in the Urahoro River. In April 2024, the district court ruled that the river is public property, but at the same time recognised the Ainu's connection to fishing, dating back to the Edo period (1603–1868). This is the first case in which the Ainu people have sought recognition of their indigenous rights from both the central and Hokkaido governments.
PAKISTAN
Some 40 people are reportedly dead after the bus they were travelling on plunged into a roadside ditch after leaving the city of Quetta (Balochistan). In another incident in neighbouring Afghanistan, four people died with ten missing after a lorry carrying 22 Afghan refugees from Pakistan plunged into a river along the Kabul-Jalalabad highway.
RUSSIA
Russian state media and social media have touted reports that “Russia ranks second in the world in wealth" and "has become the second fastest-growing country in the world," based on the UBS Global Wealth Report, which shows a 37 per cent increase in the average wealth of Russians between 2020 and 2025. In fact, almost all of this increase has benefited a small circle of the super-rich. The same report also notes that Russia now has the second-highest level of inequality.
KAZAKHSTAN
Heavy rains have caused the Turgen River in Enbekshikazakh, a district in Kazakhstan's Almaty Region, to rise sharply. According to the regional administration, the water flooded a section of the Turgen-Assy highway at kilometre 25, some areas along the river where six yurts were located, as well as the Turgensay recreation area, which was completely evacuated. Temporary pedestrian bridges were also partially damaged, with soil erosion around the drainage ditch.
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