Real-time News

September 12th - The State Council Information Office will hold a press conference on the theme of "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan" at 10:00 AM on Monday, September 14th, 2026. Lei Haichao, Director of the National Health Commission; Liu Jinfeng, Vice Director of the National Health Commission and Director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Shen Hongbing, Vice Director of the National Health Commission and Director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention; and Guo Yanhong, Spokesperson and Vice Director of the National Health Commission, will introduce the decisive progress made in promoting the construction of a Healthy China and answer questions from reporters.

September 12th - Large-scale volcanic earthquakes continue to increase at Tokachi-dake in Hokkaido, Japan. At 9:30 AM local time today (September 12th), the Sapporo Meteorological Observatory issued a crater warning, raising the eruption alert level from 2 to 3, and urging vigilance for large rock eruptions within approximately 3 kilometers of the crater. According to the Sapporo District Meteorological Observatory, large-amplitude volcanic earthquakes at Tokachi-dake have been increasing since September 17th, and around 8:20 AM today, a series of the largest volcanic earthquakes observed were recorded. Since March of this year, there have been continuous crustal movements indicating expansion deep within the mountain; since April, volcanic gas emissions have also increased, indicating increasingly active volcanoes, with a small eruption occurring in July.

On September 12th, at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Pujiang Innovation Forum, the 2025 Directory of World-Class Scientific Journals was officially released. Based on the World Science Citation Database and the evaluation index system for world-class scientific journals, the China Institute of Scientific and Technical Information, in conjunction with relevant research institutions, selected and compiled the 2025 Directory of World-Class Scientific Journals, which includes 6,132 scientific journals from 55 countries and regions worldwide, covering 23 languages. Among them, 353 journals are from China.

On September 12th, at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Pujiang Innovation Forum held in Shanghai, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Yangtze River Delta Basic Research Joint Fund Major Project was officially launched. This is an important measure following the expansion of the Shanghai International Science and Technology Innovation Center to include the Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta) International Science and Technology Innovation Center. It is understood that the Joint Fund Major Project will address the major strategic needs of the Yangtze River Delta region, support application-oriented basic research, strengthen the principle of "industry posing questions, science and technology providing answers," and explore a collaborative mechanism among the three provinces and one municipality of "unified funding, joint question setting, joint management, and joint answers to the same questions."

On September 12th, the official Weibo account of "The Dark Side of the Moon" posted: Information circulating online regarding the founder and employees is completely fabricated and malicious rumor-mongering. We have immediately reported the matter to the police and will pursue legal action against those responsible for spreading the rumors. Please do not believe or spread rumors.

September 12th - According to reports from British media outlets such as The Guardian, the UK's flight management system malfunctioned earlier this week due to a British military aircraft submitting "false" flight data. The system experienced a serious outage on the afternoon of September 8th, leading to the cancellation or delay of numerous flights at airports across the UK. The Guardian reported that the system was shut down for four hours that day, resulting in the cancellation of over 2,000 flights and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. The report cited the Financial Times, stating that four sources familiar with the matter revealed that the malfunction was triggered by a flight plan submitted by a British military aircraft, which caused the flight management system to crash and remained unrepaired for several hours. The Guardian reported that a spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Defence stated regarding the reports, "We do not believe there is any indication of negligence on the part of the military. This matter is currently being investigated by the National Air Traffic Control (NAC), and we cannot comment further during the investigation."

Russia stated that its military destroyed 172 Ukrainian drone control stations in the past day.

On September 12th, He Baohong, Chief Engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), stated at the 2026 China Computing Power Conference that the development of comprehensive computing power should revolve around differentiated layout, software and hardware industry systems, low-carbon computing power infrastructure, and a nationally integrated institutional system, driving the shift in computing power construction from scale expansion to quality and efficiency improvement. Regarding regional policy implementation, advantageous regions should focus on both improving existing capacity and addressing rigid demand gaps, deeply cultivating high-value-added scenarios; growing regions should strengthen regional computing power hubs, using industry applications to drive upgrades in storage, computing, and network infrastructure; resource-rich regions should undertake non-real-time businesses such as training and cold data, supplementing their external transportation networks and industrial ecosystems. In terms of extending and strengthening the industrial chain, it is recommended that newly built intelligent computing centers be equipped with storage and networks simultaneously, improving the entire chain of chips, servers, databases, and models, using real business needs to drive the construction of computing power, storage, and transportation capacity. Regarding green empowerment and unified management, it is recommended to promote liquid cooling, energy-saving renovations, and computing-electricity synergy, improve clean energy consumption, and improve pricing, trading, value accounting, and compliance supervision systems.

September 12th - Following the Houthi rebels' capture of the key Red Sea town of Muha, the number of ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the 10th plummeted to single digits. Data shows that as of approximately 3 PM local time on the 10th, only six ships had passed through the strait that day, compared to 30 on the 9th, 26 on the 8th, and 29 on the 7th. The report stated that of the ships that passed through on the 10th, five carrying grain, crude oil, coal, and fertilizer left the strait, while another ship entered. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and is a vital shipping route in the Middle East, handling approximately 12% of the world's goods.

September 12th - According to Canadian media reports on September 11th, Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's Minister for Canada-US Trade, stated at a cabinet meeting that there are currently no formal trade negotiations arranged between Canada and the United States, but he remains in contact with US Trade Representative Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. LeBlanc said the escalating trade dispute between Canada and the United States remains a key issue for the government. The Canadian government must prepare for potential trade agreements, and any agreement must respect Canadian sovereignty and be in the national interest.

On September 12, Sun Lei, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations, spoke at a high-level discussion during the UN South-South Cooperation Day commemoration on September 11, calling for deeper South-South cooperation. Sun Lei stated that China supports the statement made by Uruguay on behalf of the "Group of 77 and China" and appreciates the efforts made by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation to promote development in the Global South. Southern countries face the common task of achieving economic and social development and should adhere to the principles of independence, equality, and mutual benefit, leveraging the advantages of South-South cooperation in capacity building and knowledge sharing to form a synergy for development. China has always been a member of the Global South and welcomes the continuous enrichment of South-South cooperation mechanisms and platforms. China expects relevant cooperation to continue to be led by developing countries and demand-oriented, achieving practical results.

On September 12, officials from the U.S. engineers' union stated that Boeing (BA.N) and its union reached a provisional contract agreement on Friday. This four-year proposal includes a higher general wage increase than the first proposed plan. The first plan was overwhelmingly rejected by members of the Society of Professional Engineers in Aerospace Engineering (SPEEA) in a vote on August 21. If approved, approximately 17,000 members in SPEEA's professional and technical divisions would receive a 10% pay rise on October 16, followed by a 4% annual increase between 2027 and 2030, plus performance-based increases. Ben Nimgurt, Boeing's vice president of production engineering and chief competency engineer, stated in a statement, "Our final contract addresses the primary concerns raised by employees and the SPEEA negotiating team, including immediate pay rises and a larger, guaranteed pay pool." According to the union, the latest proposal also includes adjustments to remote work policies and overtime restrictions for professional division members.

On September 12th, a research report from Huatai Securities stated that the unexpectedly strong core inflation in August makes a September rate hike by the Federal Reserve a "must-have," further increasing the credibility risk of a September rate hike. Following the much stronger-than-expected non-farm payrolls in August and the escalating tensions in the Middle East pushing oil prices above $100, the August CPI data has become the core variable for the market pricing in whether the Fed will raise rates in September. The core CPI inflation in August rose more than expected, and the core services ex-housing component, which the Fed focuses on, did not show further signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, concerns about high oil prices due to low inventory levels, the transmission of AI price increases to downstream industries, and a new round of tariffs in certain regions could all disrupt the process of declining US inflation. Looking ahead, CPI data may push neutral voting members, represented by Walsh, to turn hawkish at the September FOMC meeting, reducing the resistance to a September rate hike due to internal divisions within the Fed; August data also cleared obstacles to a rate hike. If Walsh fails to deliver on his hawkish promises made at the August Jackson Hole meeting in September, the Fed's credibility will be more challenged, and long-term Treasury yields will be more difficult to control.

September 12 - The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ministry of Health released an epidemic report on the 11th, showing that the country's current Ebola outbreak has resulted in a total of 7,022 confirmed cases, including 3,398 deaths and 1,671 recoveries.

On September 12th, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, OpenAI agent developers participated in a previously undisclosed cyberattack that overwhelmed RubyGems, the official manager of the Ruby language. The report stated that OpenAI confirmed its AI agents in testing used RubyGems to access the internet as part of a harmless task to obtain publicly available information during training. This incident occurred in May of this year, two months before another incident involving OpenAI agents and the AI platform HuggingFace. Security researchers dubbed the attack "GemStuffer," in which agents created a batch of RubyGems accounts every two to three minutes and downloaded hundreds of web pages collected from the internet. The scale of the test was so large that RubyGems was forced to suspend new account registrations for four days.

On September 12th, DeepSeek conducted a gray-scale test of voice dialogue. Users who participated in the test will see a small speaker icon in the upper right corner of the app. Additionally, DeepSeek's settings page will feature a "Reading Voice" option, allowing users to choose from four different voice tones.

On September 12, Li Qingshuang, Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), led a delegation of Chinese entrepreneurs to India to attend the BRICS Business Forum. During the visit, they met with representatives from relevant institutions and enterprises to promote multilateral and bilateral exchanges and cooperation. During his trip, Li Qingshuang met with Ghosn Ghosn, President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry; Badalko, Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Mabuza, Chairman of the South African Council of the BRICS Business Council; and Bakri, Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Indonesian BRICS Business Council, among others. They engaged in dialogue and exchanges on jointly upholding the multilateral trading system, facilitating trade among BRICS countries, and promoting practical cooperation in the supply chain.

On September 12th, local time, Iranian President Pezechzian, who was in India preparing to attend the BRICS summit, emphasized that "Iran will absolutely not bow to bullying" and will not yield to the United States and Israel. Pezechzian pointed out that the US and Israel talk about human rights while committing massacres; they call Iran a terrorist while bombing schools and attacking scientists and civilians; unable to win on the battlefield, they resort to bombing infrastructure, cutting off water, food, and internet access, attempting to force the Iranian people to revolt through "slow killing"—but Iran will never yield. Pezechzian asked: Who exactly are the terrorists? Who stipulates that a government can dictate to the whole world? He stressed, "Precisely because we are alive and pursuing truth and justice, we will never bow to oppression, tyranny, or bullying. They will never!"