Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News - April 18

Read what is in the news in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Vietnam’s chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man hosted a reception for Vietnam’s Honorary Consul in Istanbul Ali Tezolmez on Friday afternoon (local time), as part of his working visit to Türkiye.

-- Vietnam and China signed 32 cooperation documents across sectors during Party General Secretary and State President To Lam’s April 14–17 state visit to China, including agreements on party cooperation for 2026–30, foreign affairs, security, customs, railways, science and technology, education, culture, media, and mechanisms to promote cross-border economic zones and supply chains.

Society

-- Vietnam’s agriculture ministry said on Friday El Nino is likely to form between June and August with an 80–90 percent probability and could strengthen to moderate or strong levels by late 2026, with a 20–25 percent chance of becoming very strong, bringing reduced rainfall of 25–50 percent and risks of widespread heat, drought and water shortages.

-- The Southern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Center said at a conference in Lam Dong Province on Friday that storms could make landfall in southern Vietnam in 2026, similar to 2012 and 2018, amid increasingly complex weather conditions.

-- Police in Thai Nguyen Province, northern Vietnam on Friday arrested a food supplier, a former kindergarten principal, and an accountant on bribery charges over a scheme to supply substandard food to a local school.

-- Vietnamese ministries are drafting a plan to integrate emergency hotlines 113, 114, and 115 into a single nationwide number 113 to handle security, fire, rescue, and out-of-hospital medical calls, officials said at a workshop on Friday.

Economy

-- FPT Corporation said a claim circulating on social media that it cut 26,000 jobs was false, clarifying that the figure after audited results showed its workforce edged down to 54,110 at end-2025 from 54,646 a year earlier, marking a rare decline after years of steady expansion.

Ho Chi Minh City

-- Ho Chi Minh City’s Center for Disease Control said on Friday that more than 100,000 people die annually in Vietnam from smoking-related diseases, as it trained nearly 300 health staff on tobacco harm prevention and called for strengthened capacity at grassroots health facilities amid smoking rates among men still above the target of below 36 percent by 2030.

-- On Friday, Ho Chi Minh City assigned Can Gio Tourism Urban Development JSC, a Vingroup subsidiary, to prepare within 12 months a self-funded pre-feasibility study for upgrading the more than 35-km Rung Sac Road to a 10-lane inter-regional route.

-- Ho Chi Minh City on Friday launched a public-private venture capital fund operated by Ho Chi Minh City Venture Capital Fund Joint Stock Company with initial charter capital of VND500 billion (US$19 million), including 40 percent from the city budget, to invest in technology startups and target expansion to at least VND5 trillion ($189.9 million) by 2035.