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Three students from Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) have secured full PhD scholarships in computer science from U.S. universities before graduating, a first for their professor. Nguyen Manh Duong (Data Science & AI) will attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a US$370,000 scholarship. Cao Minh Tue and Tran The Hung (Computer Science) will study at the University of Florida and Washington State University, respectively, each with scholarships worth about $270,000.

All three are part of the AI4LIFE Institute lab, achieving GPAs of 3.94, 3.85, and 3.61, and contributing as first or second authors to papers at top AI conferences: ICCV, ICLR, and NeurIPS. Tue notably presented at ICLR 2025 in Singapore.

Professor Nguyen Phi Le called this achievement “extremely rare,” noting that most HUST students who gain such scholarships usually graduate first and spend one to two years in industry research roles. The trio credited their success to starting research early, which they said fostered curiosity, independence, and resilience.

Founded in 1956, HUST enrolls 8,000–9,000 new students yearly and offers 65 undergraduate, 63 graduate, and 32 doctoral programs. In 2024, only 8.65% of graduates earned honors, and about 7% pursued further studies.

Japan leads Agoda's list of Asian countries with the highest number of repeat visitors in early 2025, followed by Thailand, which surpassed Vietnam and Malaysia despite tourism challenges. Thailand remains popular for its affordable flights, quality services, and friendliness, with some tourists visiting over 10 times. However, safety issues — including the January kidnapping of Chinese actor Xing Xing and recent deadly border clashes with Cambodia — have hurt its image, leading to a 6.56% drop in foreign arrivals to 19.57 million in the first seven months.

Malaysia has emerged as the region's most visited destination, attracting 16.9 million visitors from January to May. Vietnam also hit a record with over 12 million foreign arrivals in the first seven months, up nearly 23% year-on-year.

Agoda's list of Asian cities with the most return visitors includes Bangkok, Da Nang, Bali, and Hong Kong.

Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, 44, has reinvented herself as founder of Fan Beauty Diary, now ranked among China's top 100 beauty brands. The company earned 1.45 billion yuan (US$201.9 million) in 2023, a notable feat for its seven-year run despite trailing far behind the market leader's 8.6 billion yuan. Industry experts call it a “dark horse,” crediting Fan's personal brand for much of its success. Since 2023, she has expanded into Southeast Asia and TikTok promotions, though overseas sales remain modest.

Fan launched the brand in 2018, the same year she was investigated for tax evasion, paying 883 million yuan to avoid criminal charges. Once one of China's most famous and highest-paid actresses, she dominated red carpets and endorsed luxury brands. The scandal ended her domestic acting career, with a seven-year absence from Chinese film events. She describes the period as a lesson in patience and persistence.

Although thriving in business, Fan admits she misses acting deeply and has sought roles abroad, starring in the South Korean film Green Night (2023) and the Malaysian movie Mother Bhumi, while also buying rights to scripts for production work. On social media, she stresses self-reliance, saying one should never depend on others for happiness.

Fan sees her current stage as a crossroads, using the time for reflection and embracing uncertainty. Thanking fans for their support, she vowed to face life with strength, gentleness, and kindness. Born in Shandong, she debuted in 1996, rose to fame in My Fair Princess (1998), and was named a Time 100 figure in 2017 before her scandal tarnished her image.

Vietnam's snack culture is going viral globally, with foreign tourists shifting from classics like pho and banh mi to banana fritters, rice paper rolls, grilled coconut cookies, and street desserts. The trend, fueled by TikTok's “Vietnam snack haul” videos, has visitors spending hundreds of dollars on instant noodles, snacks, and coffee to take home.

Filipina traveler Dannica Refe joined the trend in June 2025, buying VND7 million ($275) worth of snacks, praising their variety, taste, and affordability. Tourists now seek food experiences beyond restaurants, enjoying street treats like cassava pudding, grilled banana in sticky rice, and bo bia (Chinese sausage spring rolls).

Social media has boosted independent travel and snack tourism, with convenience stores and street stalls seeing surges in foreign customers. Vietnamese snacks' diversity, low prices, and strong flavors make them especially appealing.

Examples include New Zealander Zane Hanson, who traveled in July 2025 to try school-gate snacks like keo chi (malt sugar with coconut) and rice paper rolls, amazed at the cheap prices compared to back home. German expat Maximilian Rolf, in Hanoi for over three years, now considers banana fritters a weekly essential and enjoys savory fried rice cakes with papaya.

Tourism officials see snacks as cultural ambassadors, with global sharing helping promote Vietnam's culinary heritage. They stress keeping street food clean and well-promoted to encourage repeat visits. Through June 2025, Vietnam's international arrivals rose 23% year-on-year, showing food tourism's growing role in the country's appeal.

A Rush University Medical Center study found that following the MIND diet—combining elements of the Mediterranean and DASH diets—may reduce the risk of dementia, Alzheimer's, and hippocampal sclerosis (HS), a brain condition linked to memory loss. Researchers examined data from 809 participants who were dementia-free at enrollment (2004–2024) and had brain autopsies after death.

Those adhering to the MIND diet were less likely to show HS, HS with limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE-NC), and hippocampal neuronal loss. HS is present in about 20% of people with cognitive impairment and is often tied to Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative pathologies.

The MIND diet emphasizes whole grains, nuts, legumes, berries, leafy greens, olive oil, poultry, and fish, while limiting red meat, fried foods, butter, full-fat cheese, pastries, and sweets. The researchers suggest that its brain benefits may also support heart health, weight maintenance, and general well-being.

Findings indicate the diet's protective effect may partly come from reducing HS-related brain degeneration, which could help preserve memory and slow cognitive decline. The team calls for more research into underlying mechanisms, such as neuroinflammation and oxidative stress.

Overall, the study supports incorporating MIND diet foods into daily meals—unless restricted by allergies or medical conditions—as a potential strategy for healthy aging and dementia prevention.