1. Michael Ryan, director of World Health Organization (WHO) ‘s health emergency program, said COVID-19 is likely to spread for a long time unless people comply with epidemic prevention regulations and vaccine coverage meets the required standards. If the vaccine coverage among young people lags behind, COVID-19 will continue to spread.

2. United Nations: the global economy will recover moderately in 2021, with an expected growth rate of 4.7%. Hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, the global economy shrank by 4.3% in 2020, far exceeding the contraction during the international financial crisis. Among them, the economy of developed economies fell by as much as 5.6%, while developing economies shrank by 2.5%. In 2021, developed economies will grow by 4% and developing economies by 5.7 %. China’s economy is expected to grow by 7.2% this year and lead to 6.4 % growth in East Asia as a whole.

3. European stocks rose across the board. Britain’s FTSE 100th index rose 0.33% to 6660.75, France’s CAC40 index rose 0.93% to 5523.52, and Germany’s DAX index rose 1.66% to 13870.99.

4. Axiom Space, a private US space company, released a list of the first commercial manned spaceflight, with three tycoons from the United States, Canada and Israel buying $55 million worth of tickets for a 10-day trip to the International Space Station in January. This is the first time that a commercial organization has provided manned space service for such a long time. 

5. Former US President Donald Trump set up the “Office of the former President” in Palm Beach County, Florida on the 25th to take care of affairs after leaving office. Trump’s new office will be responsible for “managing (former) President Trump’s communications, public statements, appearances and official events,” Trump’s new office said in a press release.

6. [global Times] Biden issued a memo condemning racism, xenophobia and exclusion of Asian-Americans and other groups that were allowed to exist wantonly by the US federal government during the Trump administration. Such racist and xenophobic words and deeds include the practice of “naming the COVID-19 epidemic after its first geographical location,” saying that this term for COVID-19 ‘s epidemic provoked prejudice and discrimination against Asian and South Pacific Americans, and led to bullying, harassment and even hate crimes against these ethnic groups.

7. Apple: in its first-quarter earnings report for fiscal 2021, Apple posted its largest-ever quarterly revenue of US$111.4 billion. This is the first time that apple has broken through the US$100 billion mark in a single quarter, with sales up 21% year-on-year and profit of US$28.76 billion.

8.US: GDP grew by 4%in the fourth quarter of 2020 and is expected to be 4.2%, which means that US GDP shrank 3.5% for the whole of 2020. It was the first negative GDP since shrinking 2.5% in 2009 and the worst annual setback since the US economy shrank by 11.6% in 1946.