Disney’s Star Wars stumble hurts quarterly results

It's Christmas Day and following a year which has been harrowing for so many, we've decided to look back at the good news of 2020. We begin in Uganda, where a plastics company that specialises in recycling switched from making building materials to face shields to help hospitals. We also go to Benin, where the closure of the border with Nigeria has led to a push for more locally produced food, some of it on rooftops. And our correspondent in DR Congo looks back at how an NGO is helping Ebola survivors turn their lives around.

The under-representation of women in German boardrooms has been a matter of debate for years. Now, Angela Merkel's government has tabled a new bill to help boost the numer of female executives in top jobs.

The US said the sanctions were a response to China's increased naval activity in the region. The move comes just days before Joe Biden is set to take over as US president.

It's whip fast, obeys commands and doesn't leave unpleasant surprises on the floor -- meet the AlphaDog, a robotic response to two of China's burgeoning loves: pets and technology. The high-tech hound uses sensors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to 'hear' and 'see' its environment -- and can even be taken for walks.

Tencent, a giant gaming company in China, has seen billions wiped off its market value. The tumble followed the publication of a critical article in state-affiliated media.

Benefitting from soaring demand for online ads, Google's parent company Alphabet reported nearly $19 billion in profits between July and September, up 68 percent from the same period last year. Microsoft's earnings also beat expectations, while French consumers are gearing up for some price hikes at the bakery.

Apple on Monday became the first company to hit a $3 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,23,75,950 crore) stock market value, before ending the day a hair below that milestone, as investors bet the iPhone maker will keep launching best-selling products as it explores new markets such as automated cars and virtual reality.

For the first time since inception in 2004, Facebook lost about 5 lakh users on a daily basis during Oct-Dec 2021. That saw the shares of its parent company, Meta, plunge 20 percent on the exchanges, wiping off $200 bn in market capitalisation.

Peru's government says an oil spill off the country's coast is twice as big as previously reported. 12,000 barrels of oil leaked into the sea at a refinery owned by the Spanish oil company Repsol. Lima has demanded compensation.

Brussels has imposed sanctions on 22 Myanmar officials and a state- owned oil and gas company that has been a major source of funding for the ruling junta.

Tiwani Contemporary is pleased to present 'The company she keeps'. A group show bringing together five artists, Chioma Ebinama, Miranda Forrester, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Nengi Omuku, and Charmaine Watkiss who worked internationally. Materially and collectively their works draw attention to intimacy, reparative approaches, and the valorization of labour.

After years of delays, Russia's atomic energy giant Rosatom started work on Egypt's first nuclear power plant, calling it "the largest project of Russian-Egyptian cooperation" since the 1950s.