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German schoolteacher Verena Brunschweiger decided shortly after her marriage not to have children - not because she did not want them but because she felt she could not justify the climate damage caused by adding to the planet's population. She is part of a growing movement of women and young people who have vowed not to have a families out of concern about a looming climate change crisis. "We really thought long and hard about this," Brunschweiger told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview from her home in Bavaria. "Eventually the environment was the most important factor for me," she said. "I struggled, of course. We love children – my husband is also a teacher... But I'm certain I made the right decision." Climate change is changing choices for some young people as the world struggles to limit global warming, aiming to hold off impacts ranging from more extreme floods, droughts, storms and sea level rise to growing hunger, water shortages and poverty. … [Read more...] about A new ‘climate strike’: Opting for no children as climate fears grow

Vietnam loses $800 million every year from local gamblers going to other countries, Photo: Le Toan The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is currently revising Decree No.03/2017/ND-CP governing the casino business in Vietnam to cut a number of investment conditions on segments such as casinos, lotteries, and betting. If approved, this revised decree will expectedly be a boon for investors implementing registered projects. Regarding lottery, electronic games for foreigners, and casinos alone, the MoF proposed to cut eight conditions and simplify two. Electronic gaming services for foreigners would have three fewer conditions, while casinos would be subject to one fewer condition, with an additional condition simplified. In addition, horse and dog racing would see two conditions removed and four simplified. Up until Decree 03 was issued in January 2017, after about a decade of waiting, only people with foreign passports were permitted to play in Vietnam’s casinos and … [Read more...] about Revised casino decree to further relax restrictions

Cambodian officials have promised to grant two-year residency cards to roughly 70,000 ethnic Vietnamese currently facing deportation to Vietnam where they have no legal status either. Officials said on Monday that they plan to issue the short-term documents to people of Vietnamese origin who can prove they arrived in Cambodia before 2012. There will be an application process but most people are likely to pass, officials said, as cited by the Phnom Penh Post. A drive to revoke their Cambodian documents, which were deemed “improperly issued”, has rendered many of them stateless, as they have no Vietnamese citizenship either. Nouv Leakhena, deputy head of the Immigration Department at Cambodia’s Interior Ministry, said the government recognized that many ethnic Vietnamese have lived in Cambodia for up to 30 years, some since before the Khmer Rouge regime. “Immigration officials cannot be nationalistic,” he said, as cited in the report. People of … [Read more...] about Cambodia offers ethnic Vietnamese short-term residency in migrant crackdown reprieve

Duc Hoang The most potent weapon of a consumer is to stop consuming. How do we then answer the question: "If we don't use their water, who else will provide it to us?" My family was among those troubled recently over the fact that our son's school was located just one kilometer from the burnt Rang Dong light bulb warehouse (that leaked 15-27 kilos of mercury into the air). Now we've got a new one: polluted tap water and the difficulty in getting bottled water. Since my family and I are not the only ones severely affected by this, since there are millions of us, one would expect the company responsible for the crisis to be hit hard by it too. However, the stocks of Song Da Water Investment Joint Stock Company (code: VCW) on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) still went up on Tuesday. There was no chain reaction following a public crisis like what one would see in a movie, where a negative news about a company spreads and causes its stock to spiral … [Read more...] about How can Vietnamese people manage a water supply monopoly?

Tighter regulations are needed to ensure good quality water is sourced for years to come. A PSI project model implemented in Phu Thanh Commune, Nghe An Province is displayed at a conference in Hanoi. VNS Photo That was the message delivered by Nguyen Thi Hong Khanh, from the Ministry of Construction’s Technological Infrastructure Department. She believes a solid legal framework is necessary to make sure there is plenty of water for future generations. “We need a scheme for the Water Supply Law, and submit it to the Government and the National Assembly,” Khanh said. “It is needed to survey and catalogue important sources to have an effective protection, exploitation and use plan.” There are more than 200 water supply enterprises, mainly operating as joint stock companies. The national programme to ensure water supply and prevent water loss in the 2018-25 period has been implemented to promote investment and improve modern and energy-saving water … [Read more...] about A legal framework for water supply essential in Vietnam