Latest news with #Thuy
Business Journals
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Journals
Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month May 30 at Sacramento's AAPI Night Market
Celebrate the rich diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community at Sacramento's premier AAPI Night Market! On Friday, May 30, from 5 to 10 PM, Capitol Mall transforms into a lively hub of food, music, and community spirit. Featuring over 50 AAPI-owned businesses offering mouthwatering dishes and unique handcrafted goods, the AAPI Night Market is a can't-miss celebration of culture, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Bring your family and friends to enjoy a night filled with incredible food vendors, artisan shopping, and live entertainment. The night's exciting performances include acclaimed pop artist Thuy, along with high-energy sets by DJ LEX and Soosh! Beyond the fun, the AAPI Night Market shines a spotlight on the contributions of the AAPI community to Sacramento's cultural fabric, providing a platform for small businesses and artists to thrive. Whether you're coming to taste something new, support local businesses, or simply experience the energy of the city in a new way, the AAPI Night Market offers something for everyone. Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with us under the stars—delicious food, live music, and unforgettable memories await!
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
50 years after the war, Vietnam looks to the future
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, April 29 (UPI) -- Fifty years after a North Vietnamese tank came crashing through the front gate of Saigon's presidential palace and brought an end to the nearly two-decade Vietnam War, the metropolis that has since been called Ho Chi Minh City is gearing up for a celebration. Once a symbol of devastation and conflict, Vietnam has emerged on the global stage as a dynamic, growing economy -- a remarkable turnaround seen most vividly in the former capital of the South. The North's Communists may have won the war, but the capitalists have won this cosmopolitan city of nearly 10 million people that buzzes with entrepreneurial energy. And while there remain scars from a conflict that left more than 3 million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 American troops dead, the public mood is one of jubilance on the eve of a massive military parade on Wednesday, the official anniversary of the war's end on April 30, 1975. Compared to previous anniversaries, "the scale of preparation is much larger, and the atmosphere is more confident, even celebratory," Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, told UPI. One striking change is the participation of military units from Cold War allies Cambodia, Laos and China in the parade -- a first for Vietnam, Giang said. "The way the government is framing the event reflects a broader narrative of Vietnam's transformation from a war-torn, isolated nation into one of Asia's rising economic stars," he said. Also notable is the enthusiasm on display by Vietnamese in their teens and twenties, usually seen as apathetic and removed from the obscure politics of a one-party state. Driven by social media hype and a fear of missing out on one of the biggest celebrations the city has ever seen, young Vietnamese in patriotic outfits have been a festive presence at fireworks, street art installations and fighter jet airshows leading up to the anniversary. University student Thuy Pham traveled two hours from Dong Nai Province to Ho Chi Minh City to visit anniversary-related sites this week, including the city's War Remnants Museum. Posing for photos and shooting videos in the museum's courtyard, which features captured American tanks, planes and helicopters, Thuy said she wanted to showcase modern Vietnam to the rest of the world via TikTok and Facebook. "We want to share our pride in Vietnam with everyone," Thuy said, wearing a white ao dai -- a traditional Vietnamese tunic -- and holding a Vietnamese flag. "I also wanted to learn more about history and the suffering of the soldiers who fought for our country," she added. "I didn't know that much about it. I'm really thankful for their sacrifice." A message of reconciliation Others with a more direct experience of the war also have returned to Vietnam for the anniversary, from American veterans to legendary journalists to supporters of the South Vietnamese government who fled and started new lives elsewhere. Paul, a Vietnamese-American who asked to use only his first name when speaking to UPI, managed to escape from Saigon with his well-connected Southern family one day before the North's tanks and troops arrived. "We knew we had to leave," Paul, who was 13 at the time, said. "We were terrified about what would come next." After months of staying in camps in the Philippines and Guam, the family was eventually relocated as refugees to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas before starting over in the United States. And while his family was on the losing side of the war, Paul called his return to Vietnam "profoundly moving." "I wanted to be here on the day that changed my life," he said. "Some people will celebrate, some mourn. I did not fight in the war, so maybe I don't have the same sense of anguish. This week, I feel a sense of unity." That spirit of unity has been central to the messaging this year by Vietnamese leadership, particularly in an article written Sunday by To Lam, the General Secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party. "After 50 years of national reunification, we have enough courage, faith, pride and tolerance to overcome the pain and look forward together -- so that the past war is no longer a gap between the children of the same [Vietnamese] bloodline," Lam wrote. "We believe that all Vietnamese people -- no matter where they live or what their past is -- can join hands and contribute to building a bright future for the nation," he wrote. "We cannot rewrite history, but we can reshape the future." Lam's message signals a remarkable change in tone for a Vietnamese leader, Carlyle Thayer, professor of politics and a Vietnam expert at the University of New South Wales, told UPI. "This is not a Communist monologue," Thayer said. "There is no negative content. It is a call for reconciliation." Thayer noted that Lam, who came to power in August, is looking to build a broad coalition of support in Vietnam ahead of the next Party Congress in early 2026, when he will seek to extend his position for a full five-year term. He is also reaching out to trade partners and Vietnamese living overseas to contribute to Vietnam's development, Thayer said, as the country faces headwinds from economic uncertainty that will test the party's leadership. Vietnam's export-heavy economy is particularly exposed to the effect of a China-U.S. trade war and President Donald Trump's proposed 46% tariff on Vietnamese imports. The World Bank in April cut its 2025 growth forecast for Vietnam from 6.8% to 5.8%, even as the Vietnamese government is maintaining its 8% growth target for the year. Controlling the narrative Tuong Vu, professor of political science at the University of Oregon and founding director of its U.S.-Vietnam Research Center, said that Hanoi's efforts to build up excitement around the anniversary could be a way to divert attention from potential bumps in the road ahead. "[The government] is trying to shape the narrative to create a unified message and reach out more deeply to various constituencies," Vu told UPI. "They want to convey an upbeat message so the new leadership can ride on a sentiment of national accomplishment," he said. "It's also an effort to buy time and cover worries about a changing international environment that is posing big challenges to the [Communist] Party." Hanoi is growing increasingly savvy about using social media and influencers to spread its messaging to a younger audience, Vu added, while at the same time consolidating control over the traditional media landscape and cracking down on dissenting voices. Over the past six years, Vietnam has ratcheted up enforcement of an open-ended law to imprison at least 124 people for "infringing upon state interests," as Human Rights Watch noted in a report released last week. Fifty years after the war's end, the city many still refer to as Saigon has transformed almost beyond recognition. From its soaring skyline to its newly opened subway to the home-grown VinFast electric cars filling its roads, the remarkable distance the country has traveled since the war's end is on full display. But after the parade ends and the celebrations die down, Vietnam will have to take the next steps in a post-war journey filled with daunting challenges, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute's Giang said. "The return of great-power rivalry, a stubborn middle-income gap, rapid aging and environmental degradation all threaten to slow Vietnam's remarkable ascent and its open economy," Giang said. "These of course could not compare to the existential struggles of half a century ago, but how Vietnam weathers them will define its place in the decades to come."
CNA
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- CNA
VinFast's losses widen after offering promotions to boost EV sales in Asia
Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast's losses widened in the fourth quarter, it said on Thursday, due to rising costs linked to its overseas expansion and free charging programme aimed at attracting buyers. VinFast reported a net loss of $1.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024, worsening from a $650 million loss a year earlier and a $773 million loss in the third quarter. The carmaker is focusing its expansion on Asia and said it would open assembly plants in India and Indonesia this year. It has struggled to penetrate the U.S. market and so analysts expect the impact from new U.S. tariffs on imported cars to be limited. "We remain agile to the changes in regulatory and geopolitical landscape," Chairwoman Thuy Le said on an earnings call. The quarterly loss was due to the free charging programme, net realizable value and impairment of assets, it said. "If we exclude the impact of the above items, the net loss margin improved to negative 94 per cent in the fourth quarter from negative 109 per cent in the third quarter," VinFast's Chief Financial Officer Lan Anh Nguyen said on an earnings call. "In 2025, we are focused on scaling volume through new product launches and deepening our market presence in Asia," she said. Revenue jumped 56 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier to $678 million on increased deliveries of more affordable models, but missed analysts' average forecast of $1.2 billion, provided by LSEG. For 2024, the company recorded a $3.2 billion loss, worsening from a $2.4 billion loss a year earlier. Revenue grew 58 per cent to $1.8 billion. Shares of VinFast fell slightly in pre-market trade in New York. The shares have dropped more than 20 per cent since January. VinFast has been expanding aggressively in Asian markets by offering promotions including a free charging programme to capitalize on growing demand for EVs in Asia and offset softer demand in the United States. At the shareholder meeting on Thursday of VinFast's parent company Vingroup, VinFast's CEO Pham Nhat Vuong said the carmaker would focus more on Indonesia, India and the Philippines. It plans to open a car assembly plant in India by the end of June, another one in Indonesia by October, Vuong said at the meeting. Since its inception in 2017 up until November last year, VinFast has received capital injections totalling around $17 billion from Vingroup, its affiliates and founder Vuong, according to an announcement last year. At Vingroup's shareholder meeting, Vuong said the company aimed to sell around 200,000 vehicles in Vietnam this year, more than double the 97,000 units sold in 2024. Deliveries in the U.S. and Canada accounted for 4 per cent and 2 per cent of the company's total sales respectively, Chairwoman Thuy said on the earnings call. For 2025, Thuy expected overseas markets would contribute more than 10 per cent to VinFast's total sales. ($1 = 26,017.0000 dong)
