Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News - December 20

Check out the latest news from Vietnam today:

Politics

-- The 14th Vietnam-U.S. Political, Security, and Defense Dialogue was held in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dang Hoang Giang and Senior Bureau Official for Political-Military Affairs Fleet White, Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Society

-- Passengers will be able to ride Ho Chi Minh City’s Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line for free on January 1, 2026, as part of a New Year celebration approved by the city authorities.

-- The Kind Heart Foundation of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup on Friday broke ground on the elderly care and social protection center project in Ha Tinh Province, with a total investment of VND90 billion (US$3.5 million).

-- Police in Ho Chi Minh City are investigating after a headless male body was found floating on the Saigon River on Friday afternoon.

-- Historic floods that struck Dak Lak late last month left 113 people dead, with damages exceeding VND7 trillion ($266 million), provincial authorities said on Friday, as the Ministry of Public Security investigates whether the discharge of the Song Ba Ha Hydropower Plant was conducted properly.

Economy

-- Vietnam’s total import-export turnover reached a record $920 billion in 2025, placing the country among the world’s top 15 economies by trade scale, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Friday.

-- Authorities in Lam Dong Province on Friday started work on the 66-kilometer Tan Phu-Bao Loc Expressway, a key infrastructure project expected to significantly reduce travel time between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat from more than six hours to just over three hours.

Education

-- Local authorities in Kim Ngan Commune, Quang Tri Province, have dismissed both the principal and vice-principal of Kim Thuy Semi-Boarding Elementary School for Ethnic Minorities following a food poisoning incident that sent 40 students to hospital, officials confirmed on Friday.

World News

-- Tourists who want to get close to Rome's Trevi Fountain will soon have to pay a two-euro ($2.34) fee, Reuters cited the city mayor as saying on Friday, as authorities look to profit more handsomely from Italy's many attractions.

-- SoftBank Group (9984.T) is racing to close a $22.5 billion funding commitment to OpenAI by year-end through an array of cash-raising schemes, including a sale of some investments, and could tap its undrawn margin loans borrowed against its valuable ownership in chip firm Arm Holdings, Reuters reported.