Bloomberg reported on Aug. 7, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Pentagon plans a first test of its under-construction 'Jinqiong' space-based missile-defense system before year-end. In April the U.S. Space Force awarded contracts to 12 firms, including SpaceX and Lockheed Martin, to develop space-based interceptors; sources said the government is prepared to pay $60m to contractors if interceptor ground tests are successfully completed by year-end. The Space Force expects to begin

National Bureau of Statistics urban division chief statistician Dong Lijuan said China’s CPI rose 0.5% YoY in July, a 0.5ppt slowdown from June. The moderation was mainly driven by weaker gasoline inflation: gasoline prices rose 1.0% YoY, with the rate down 16.0ppt month-on-month, cutting CPI’s upward pull by about 0.45ppt and bringing energy price growth to 0.6%. Excluding energy, industrial consumer goods rose 1.5% YoY, down 0.2ppt and contributing roughly 0.37ppt to CPI. Gold jewelry prices increased 24.6%; personal-care goods +1.7%; household appliances +0.2%; these decelerations together added about 0.13ppt. Computers, tablets and mobile phones rose 17.4%, 17.2% and 8.5% YoY, respectively.

約旦外交部：兩位外交大臣還討論了一些共同關心的問題，以及加強阿拉伯共同合作的前景和途徑，並一致同意在雙邊及多邊組織框架內繼續協調和磋商，針對地區和國際問題進行合作。