Minecraft annual 2017 kmart

By Hieu Dang

The figure represents a significant rebound from the 1.7-percent contraction registered last year, said the report titled “Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress,” citing data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

South Asia will see its economy grow 9.7 percent this year, the fastest growth in the region, the report said, citing the IMF.

East Asia is expected to see its economic growth hit 6.5 percent during the same period, the report showed.

The report attributed the relatively high growth rate to effective epidemic control and orderly production and work resumption in China and the Republic of Korea, among other factors.

The Asian economy has taken up a growing share of the world economy. Measured by purchasing power parity, the region’s economy is expected to account for 47.9 percent of the world’s total in 2021, up from 45.3 percent registered in 2017, according to the IMF data the report cited.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian economy has presented many highlights and opportunities, according to the report.

Asian economies have introduced new measures to promote the digital economy, advancing digital infrastructure construction and international digital cooperation, among other initiatives.

The digital economy has helped promote production resumption, stabilized the economic situation, and become a new driving force for Asia’s economic growth in the future.

The economic and trade cooperation among Asian countries has continued to deepen.

By February 2021, 186 regional trade agreements were in force, accounting for 54.9 percent of the global total, the report said, citing data from the World Trade Organization.

In particular, the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in November last year will further accelerate the Asian economic integration, said the report.

As some YouTube content creators in Vietnam leech off a disabled man’s private life for views, the video platform has failed to protect him and his loved ones against such cyberbullying.

Pham Huu Tho, 36, was born with limb defects and later acquired hearing loss that caused his career options to dwindle.

In 2017, he took his first shot at selling goods online – a job that Tho soon knew was most suited to him because it did not discriminate against his disabilities.

By 2018, Tho had already made enough to pay his bills thanks to the explosion of online shopping in Vietnam.

It was also through the Internet that Tho met his future girlfriend Pham Thanh Hoa in 2019, when she was a factory worker who ran a small online business as a side job.

Hoa would source her goods from Tho, and frequent chatting between them eventually led the couple to fall in love.

After introducing Hoa to his family in the southern beach city of Vung Tau, Tho decided to relocate to Hanoi with the girlfriend so they could move in together.

Their relationship was not one without hindrances: Tho’s family members vocally opposed them getting married out of fear Hoa was only using him for money.

They could not wrap their heads around how an able-bodied woman would want to spend the rest of her life with a disabled man.

Tho disagreed, maintaining that he was not any richer than Hoa for such an argument to make sense.

Things would have stayed an internal family feud had it not been for some dozen YouTube channels who saw the forbidden love as perfect material for click-baiting videos.

At first, Tho agreed to answer questions from some visitors who said they wanted to put his love story online.

Then, droves of other so-called content creators jumped on the bandwagon and digged deeper into Tho and Hoa’s private struggles to win approval from his family.

Each had their own take on the matter, including those attacking Tho for ‘disobeying’ his parents.

Slanders and insults were common among the thousands of comments posted under each video.

Whenever Tho spoke up about his desire for love, respect, and the ability to travel, he would be met with a barrage of online attacks for turning his back on his own family to pursue a lover.

Some YouTubers even came to his parents for interviews and published all of their ‘reveals’ on the online platform, without any regard for Tho and Hoa’s privacy.

Pham Huu Tho (left) and his girlfriend Pham Thanh Hoa are seen in this provided photo.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Tho mentioned the ‘respect’ he has received from his girlfirend.

“She talks a lot and shares with me many of her happy stories, and about everywhere she goes and anything she does,” Tho spoke of his girlfriend.

“I’m more than 35 years old, and I have every right to love and my own choice.”

Recently, some YouTube personalities even published videos in which they threatened to hire thugs to abduct Tho and bring him back to his parents’ house.

Tho and Hoa said they are now afraid to even step out of their house, fearing for their lives.

Tho said heartwarming support they receive from some netizens have been inconsequential compared to the amount of hate being unleashed upon the couple, which often reduces Hoa to tears.

“I only wish for a peaceful and normal life like others,” Tho said.

“What can YouTube and relevant authorities do for those like us?”

Would YouTube step in?

YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content “promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on their intrinsic attributes, including a disability.

However, to what extent YouTube goes to curb content that violates this policy remains a question.

“YouTube does remind people that behind the target of every video or comment is a real person,” Xuan Minh writes for Tuoi Tre.

“Then why does it allow a multitude of channels to monetize by spreading hatred, and even ‘recommend’ similar videos with thousands of views?

“YouTube and its content creators make money off of views and advertisements, so the tolerance or even encouragement of content promoting hate speech targetting disabled members of society, Tho’s case being an example, goes to show that many parties are violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines and degrading others for profit.”

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Red-crowned cranes, an endangered bird species listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species, were spotted at the Tram Chim National Park in Dong Thap Province, located in southern Vietnam, after one year of disappearing from the area.

Three red-crowned cranes were seen perching at Tram Chim on Friday afternoon, confirmed Le Thanh Cu, deputy director of the nature reserve.

Do Minh Chanh, a guard at the Tram Chim National Park, said the family of three were sighted in this area from 2017 to 2019.

However, no red-crowned crane was seen at Tram Chim, as well as other locations in Vietnam, in 2020.

The cranes usually descend on the park from December to May, which is southern Vietnam’s dry season, to forage and mate prior to the onset of rainy weather, according to news site VnExpress .

The birds may only stay in Tram Chim for a few days this year, as it has already been April, said Nguyen Hoai Bao, deputy director of the Center for Forest and Wetland Research.

Red-crowned cranes are spotted flying above Phu My Lepironia articulate grass fields in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam. Photo: Hoang Tuan

“As it has started raining in the dipterocarp forest in Cambodia, the grass foliage there began to prosper, bringing in insects and frogs,” Bao explained.

“Hence, the [red-crowned cranes] tend to return there to hunt and save energy for the mating season.”

The consistently high water level in the forest during past months, which did not fully recede until April, had hampered the normal hunting activity of the red-crowned cranes and deterred the birds from revisiting the national park in 2020, he pointed out.

“It’s still too early to celebrate,” Bao said.

“We are working to change the way the local system is managed so that the habitat for the cranes is recovered, but it may take years.”

The red-crowned cranes have returned to the area for about half a month, according to Lam Hong Tuan, deputy head of the wildlife conservation management authority at Phu My Lepironia articulate grass fields in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

This year, they have abandoned the regular Lepironia articulate grass fields and retreated to more remote areas, Tuan added.

“They head to Phu My during the day, then go to Anlung Pring in Cambodia in the afternoon,” Tuan said.

“They will leave when they see humans.”

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