This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China. 

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China's foreign trade hits historic high in 2018

China said its foreign trade rose 9.7 percent to a historic high of 30.5 trillion yuan or 4.5 trillion dollars in 2018.

Customs officials said it was 2.7 trillion yuan higher than in 2017.

China enjoyed a trade surplus of 2.33 trillion yuan, but was 18.3 percent less.

China's trade with the European Union, the US and the ASEAN countries increased by 7.9 percent, 5.7 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively.

The combined trade accounted for 41.2 percent of China's total foreign trade.

China said private enterprise contributed more than half to its foreign trade growth. (Xinhua)

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China to launch Chang'e 5 mission to moon by year-end

China's lunar exploration program, the Chang'e 5 mission, will take place around the end of this year, said Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the China National Space Administration, at a press conference Monday.

The Chang'e 5 robotic probe is designed to collect samples and bring them back to Earth, which will make China the third nation in the world to bring lunar samples after the United States and Russia.

Wu also said that the country's first Mars mission is scheduled around 2020. (China Daily)

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Trump denies hiding detail of Putin summit talks from staff

US President Donald Trump has denied hiding details of conversations with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

The Washington Post alleges that on at least one occasion in 2017 he took away his interpreter's notes after talks.

And there is reportedly no record of his one-on-one, two-hour discussion with Putin in Helsinki last year.

Trump's relations with Russia before his election in 2016 are the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.

Investigators led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller are trying to establish whether there was any collusion between Trump's campaign team and the Russian state to help get him elected. (Agencies)

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Presumed EB virus influenza groundless misinformation: Beijing health authority

Recently, rumors of the prevalence of the so-called "EB virus influenza" have flooded the internet.

However, according to Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control, the "EB virus influenza" does not exist in medical science, since the flu and the EB virus cannot be associated.

"EB virus is short for Epstein-Barr virus, one of herpesvirus types in the herpes family. Infection with EB virus occurs by the transfer of saliva, mostly in sporadic cases," said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing CDC.

80 to 90 percent of adults worldwide have been infected with this virus.

The primary infections always happen before patients are 10 years old, and these infections usually cause no symptoms.

However, if the primary infections occur on adults, 50 to 75 percent of them lead to typical infectious mononucleosis.

So far Beijing authorities have not received any reports on the increase of EBV infections. (People's Daily)

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16 arrested in Quanjian case

Prosecutors in Tianjin approved the arrest of 16 suspects from the Quanjian Nature Medicine Technology Development Company.

This, for allegedly organizing and leading a pyramid scheme.

The company’s chief executive was among those arrested.

Tianjin prosecutors made the decision after reviewing evidence, informing the suspects of their rights and questioning the suspects. (People’s Daily app)

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China's natural gas imports hit record high

China's imports of natural gas climbed to a new high last year in part due to government support for clean energy.

Some 90 million tonnes of natural gas were transported to China last year, about 32 percent higher than a year ago, the General Administration of Customs said Monday.

China's appetite for natural gas has swelled rapidly in recent years, partly driven by environmental policies to replace dirtier coal-fired electricity generation.

It surpassed the Republic of Korea to become the world's second-largest liquefied natural gas importer in 2017, after Japan.

Monday's data also showed import increases in other commodities including crude oil and copper, while imports of iron ores and soybeans went down. (Xinhua)

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Iran denies withdrawal from nuke deal

And Iran strongly denied recent "rumors" inside the country about the country's plan to pull out of the landmark deal.

The country’s foreign ministry said certain groups are "systematically" fomenting mental chaos in society and disrupting the market to favor the profiteers.

But the ministry also ruled out any disagreement between the Iranian foreign minister and President Hassan Rouhani over the ongoing political affairs of the Islamic republic. (Xinhua)

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And that's People's Daily Tonight, thanks for joining us.

(Produced by David Nye， Huang Jingjing and Wang Xiangyu)