1. The epidemic in Europe has rebounded fiercely: more than 10, 000 new infections are reported in Spain every day; confirmed cases in the UK double every seven days, and if no further action is taken, there could be 50, 000 new cases of novel coronavirus infection in the UK every day by mid-October; more than 4, 000 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized in France in the past seven days, more than 600 of whom need to be treated in intensive care units. At present, 55 provinces in France are red areas of the epidemic, accounting for about half of the country’s 101 provinces.

2.On September 21, the United States Department of Justice issued a statement listing New York City, Portland and Seattle as anarchist jurisdictions and will cut federal funds for the three cities. The statement said the three cities failed to resist criminal activities caused by the protests, which the justice minister said endangered the safety of local people.

3. Federal Reserve: due to rising stock markets and slow credit growth, US household net worth rose by $7.61 trillion in the second quarter, the biggest increase on record to $118.9 trillion. Federal debt grew at an annualised rate of 58.9%, three times the rate during the recession of 2007-2009.

4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration: announces the latest plan to send astronauts back to the moon in 2024. The estimated cost of completing the project is $28 billion, of which $16 billion will be used to build the lunar module.

5.WTO: the volume of global trade in goods fell 14.3% in the second quarter of this year compared with the first quarter, with Europe and North America having the biggest decline. Compared with trade in goods, global trade in services has shrunk more seriously. In April and May this year, the volume of global trade in services fell by nearly 30 per cent compared with the same period last year. 

6.According to the latest report jointly released by the World Health Organization, the World Heart Federation and the University of Newcastle in Australia, about 1.9 million people worldwide lose their lives each year due to coronary heart disease caused by tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure (accounting for about 1/5 of all global deaths from coronary heart disease). This number has increased by more than 200,000 in just two decades. Only a small amount of smoking every day, occasional smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke can also increase the risk of heart disease, the report said.

7.In view of the severe epidemic situation, Scotland first Minister Sturgeon said that starting from Wednesday (23) local time, indoor gatherings between different families across Scotland would be banned, which previously applied only to western Scotland. The policy will be evaluated every three weeks.

8. With the rebound of the epidemic in Britain and the tightening of epidemic prevention policy, how to restart the economy has been widely concerned by the outside world. On the 24th local time, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Sunak announced the next phase of the economic support plan in Parliament. The new plan will start in November this year and last for six months. Some experts believe that under the double blow of Brexit and the epidemic, the future of the British economy is still not optimistic.

9. The 2020 Nature Index-Scientific Research City, a supplement to the British journal Nature, was recently released, using the Nature Index as the main indicator to show the top scientific research cities in the world in 2019. Beijing, New York Metropolitan area, Boston Metropolitan area, San Francisco-San Jose area and Shanghai ranked top 5 in the world.

10. The Japanese giant Gunda robot, tested in Yokohama, is 18 meters tall and weighs 24 tons. In the test, Gunda demonstrated a number of movements, such as walking, kneeling on one knee, lifting and lowering limbs, consisting of more than 200 hybrid steel and carbon fiber reinforced polymer parts, driven by a combination of electric motors and hydraulic presses.