Vietnam drops two-child policy amid demographic fears
The National Assembly removed a clause in the country's population ordinance that says parents should have 'one or two children' except in government-approved 'special cases,' state-run media reported.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Warning over ‘decade of decline' for one of England's precious chalk streams
Surveying shows one of England's important chalk streams has suffered 'a decade of decline', campaigners warn as they call for more action to protect the globally rare habitat. Monitoring at five sites on the River Avon, which flows through Wiltshire and Hampshire, over the past 10 years by conservation charity WildFish has found a significant decline in wildlife such as freshwater shrimps, mayflies, caddisflies, beetles and aquatic bugs. WildFish said the declines in invertebrates showed the Government was not doing enough to protect precious chalk streams – even ones such as the Avon, which have the highest conservation status. The charity is calling for government bodies such as the Environment Agency and Natural England to 'raise the bar' by setting more ambitious environmental standards to assess the health of what should be wildlife-rich chalk streams. The monitoring, carried out in partnership with the Wiltshire Fishery Association as part of the SmartRivers citizen science project, reveals the diversity of invertebrates fell by 17% and numbers were down by more than three quarters (77%) in average annual counts between 2015 and 2024. The situation for riverflies, which are sensitive to pollution and a good indicator for the wider health of the river ecosystem, was even worse, with the monitoring revealing the diversity of the Avon's riverfly species had fallen by 25% and average abundance of the insects was down 83% in 10 years. Despite the declines, official assessments under the statutory water framework directive found the monitored sites all scored as high quality for invertebrates in 2015 and were still high or good quality in 2024. WildFish's Dr Janina Gray warns the statutory standards set the bar too low to reflect the high levels of invertebrate life which a healthy chalk stream should support. As a result, the official monitoring can conclude all is well in the river despite major declines in key species, and make action and investment to protect them more difficult, she warned. Chalk streams, with their clear, flowing water fed from underground chalk aquifers and springs, provide habitat for an array of wildlife including Atlantic salmon, brown trout and water crowfoot, as well as water resources for people. There are only around 200 in the world, most of them found in the southern half of England, making them an internationally rare habitat. But they are suffering from 'death by a million cuts', according to Dr Gray, with pressures on water quality driven by nutrient pollution, sediment and chemicals from water treatment works, agriculture, and road run-off. They are also threatened by over-abstraction of water, reducing the flows in the river and making pollution more concentrated. Dr Gray, head of science and policy at WildFish, told the PA news agency: 'The Avon is a SAC, it's the most protected river we have, and yet the abundance drops that we're seeing are dramatic in that time period. 'It's just about hanging in there.' She added: 'It just shows that the bar is not set high enough to properly protect chalk streams.' And she warned: 'These ecosystems are globally rare and ecologically critical, but without immediate action, we risk causing irreversible damage to the very characteristics that make them so important.' All chalk streams should be designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), WildFish argues, joining the handful of such waterways which already have the classification. And current assessments and protections do not go far enough and need to be properly enforced. 'We would like the Environment Agency and Natural England to revise the standards for chalk streams to raise the bar to protect them,' Dr Gray said. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: 'Within this new government, our top priority is to clean Britain's rivers and restore them from years of damage. Chalk stream restoration is a vital part of this effort. 'We have secured £2 billion of funding from water companies to start cleaning them, while modernising the abstraction licensing system to ensure water is used sustainably and to stop damaging abstraction practises to the environment – a problem particularly pronounced in chalk streams. 'This is part of our wider plan to rebuild the water system, including a record £104 billion investment to halve sewage spills by 2030 and the creation of a new, powerful regulator.'
Wall Street Journal
8 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Will E.J. Antoni Raise Your Taxes?
President Trump's recent decision to replace the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has the feeling of replacing the meteorologist and hoping you get better weather. But economic data affect government actions and could have surprising consequences. If nominee E.J. Antoni manipulates the statistics to make Mr. Trump look good, you could end up paying higher taxes. Every year the IRS adjusts more than a dozen tax thresholds to account for inflation, a process called indexing. In 2020 the 10% tax bracket applied to income up to $9,875 for single individuals and $19,750 for married couples. Thanks to inflation indexing, those thresholds are now $11,925 and $23,850, respectively.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Labour needs to ‘pick things up' after ‘tough' first year in power, Khan says
Labour needs to 'really pick things up' after a 'tough' first year in government, Sir Sadiq Khan has insisted. The London Mayor said Labour supporters would be 'delusional' if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024. After taking Labour into power at Downing Street for the first time since 2010, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has seen his party's popularity slump in the polls, amid criticism over issues such as welfare reforms. 'It's been a tough first year,' Sir Sadiq conceded. Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he insisted that Labour supporters 'need to have the humility to recognise' that 'otherwise we are being delusional'. The London Mayor, who was one of the most powerful Labour politicians until Sir Keir became Prime Minister, added: 'Those people that say it has been a great first year… I think they are letting the party down. 'It hasn't been a great first year. There have been great things that have happened in this first year, around the rights for renters, around the rights for workers, around energy security, and I could go on. 'But as first years go, it has not been a great first year.' However, he said the 'good news' is his party has 'got another four years to make sure we turn this around'. The London Mayor – who is a Liverpool FC supporter – said if Labour was in a football match, they would be 'two-nil down' But continuing his analogy, he said that only 15 or 20 minutes of the match had gone, with minutes still to play and to 'win this game'. He said: 'It is really important now we really pick things up because I think we are two-nil down. 'But the great news is we have turned it round before, we have won games before where we're two nil down, we can do it again.' His comments came as he said that many people who backed the party last year had 'lent us their vote'. Sir Sadiq said: 'They didn't sprint toward Labour at the ballot box, they lent us their vote, gave us the benefit of the doubt.' After over a decade out of power at Westminster, he also said that the party had 'lost the memory of running things'. Sir Sadiq said: 'It has taken some time for the Labour Party, the Labour Government, to understand how the machinery of government works.' But he added: 'There are some really, really good people in the cabinet, there is a good back office team as well. So I have got confidence we will turn it round.' He added: 'With Keir and the team we've got in Number 10, and across Whitehall, Westminster, we've got a great team. 'They are not performing to the level I know they can perform at. I'm not being critical of them, I think they themselves would admit they can do much more. 'So I am hoping the next three, four years you will really see the best of this government.'
