Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News — July 4

What you need to know today:

Politics

-- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday that at the invitation of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse will lead a high-level Vietnamese delegation to attend the 2025 BRICS summit and conduct bilateral activities in Brazil from July 4 to 8. 

-- Vietnam closely monitors developments in the East Vietnam Sea, the foreign ministry's spokesperson Pham Thu Hang affirmed on Thursday in response to questions about the illegal survey activities conducted by a Chinese vessel within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone.

Society 

-- On Thursday, social media in Vietnam was abuzz with a video showing a man using a drone to fly a rope out to the middle of a river, rescuing two children who had been stranded in the fast-moving current and bringing them safely to shore one by one.

-- Leaders of Dong Nai Children's Hospital in the namesake province reported on Thursday that doctors had successfully performed anesthesia and endoscopic surgery to remove a live climbing perch from the throat of a 4-year-old boy, K.T.H., originally from Dak Lak Province and currently residing in Long Thanh Commune, Dong Nai Province.

-- Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has reported that a tropical convergence zone currently stretches across the northern part of the East Vietnam Sea, connecting to a low-pressure area northeast of Luzon Island, the Philippines. As a result, scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected over the Gulf of Tonkin; the waters from southern Quang Tri to Quang Ngai; and across the northern, central, and southern parts of the East Vietnam Sea, including the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos.

-- The Dong Nai police department reported that in the first two days of July 2025, officers provided guidance and issued digital identification accounts to more than 200 foreign nationals currently residing and working in the province.

Economy

-- The Vietnamese and U.S. negotiating teams have reached an agreement on the Vietnam-U.S. Joint Statement regarding a reciprocal, fair, and balanced trade agreement framework, according to Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang. Speaking at the government’s regular June meeting on the afternoon of Thursday, Thang also reported that Vietnam's economic growth had reached its highest level in nearly two decades, with significant improvements across key indicators related to production, business activity, and the state budget.

World News

-- A cache of 'unusually large' 2,000-year-old shoes unearthed at a Roman archaeological site in northern England has left researchers puzzled, archaeologists told AFP on Thursday.

-- DNA extracted from the remains of a man who lived in ancient Egypt during the era of the first pyramids is shedding light on connections between two great civilizations of the time, with about 20 percent of his genetic ancestry traced to Mesopotamia, according to Reuters.