1. Japan’s Meiji said it had set up a company to produce and sell milk, yogurt and pastries in China. With a registered capital of about 18.4 billion yen, the factory will start construction in the first half of 2021 and start production in 2023. Meiji plans to further expand its business in China through active investment.

2.Moscow Mayor Sobyanin: 60% of the Muscovians have been immunized with novel coronavirus. Unlike New York, it took a month for their health care system to withstand the pressure of the epidemic. It took Moscow three months, and the peak of the epidemic had even less impact on the Russian medical system.

 3.The Agricultural Outlook report 2020-2029 released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently shows that Brazil will continue to increase its share of world agricultural trade, while consumers’ concern for Brazil’s environmental problems is also increasing.

4.The global population is expected to shrink after reaching a peak of 9.7 billion around 2064 and will decline to 8.8 billion by the end of the century due to a decline in the birth rate, according to a team from the Institute of Health indicators and Assessment at the University of Washington in the Lancet. By 2100, the population of 23 countries, including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Spain and Portugal, will be halved.

5.Due to the huge differences among the leaders of European Union member states over the establishment of a “recovery fund,” the EU summit failed to reach an agreement within the original two-day session, which was extended to the 19th. European Council President Charles Michel, who hosted the summit, is scheduled to submit another revised “recovery fund” plan to leaders at noon on the 19th.

6.The European country Iceland’s flagship local airline “Icelandic Airlines” Icelandair has announced the dismissal of all flight attendants and the temporary replacement of flight attendants by pilots. This happened because Icelandic Airlines failed to agree on the remuneration of its employees with the trade unions that represent flight attendants.

7.Recently, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India’s richest man and chairman of Reliance Industrial Group, announced that his Jio Platforms already has its own 5G technology and is ready to deploy in the field in 2021.

8.Online retail sales of Strategy Analytics: Smartphones will account for a record 28% of global smartphone sales in 2020, up 4% from a year earlier. It is estimated that more than 1/4 smartphones are sold online worldwide.

9.Japan’s Kyodo news agency: The Group of Seven countries (G7) basically decided to cooperate on the issuance of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC). It is proposed to hold discussions at the coordinated summit (G7 summit) to be held in the United States from the end of August to early September to share practical topics and the wisdom of various countries.