Would TikTok make Microsoft a serious threat to Facebook?

Indian and Chinese troops have clashed on their disputed Himalayan border, the first known incident between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers in nearly two years.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is particularly rich in mineral resources such as coltan. China operates some of the gold mines there, but the locals complain about poor working conditions.

Many people in China are excited about traveling abroad as COVID restrictions are eased and borders are set to reopen on January 8. Others remain cautious, with more countries imposing restrictions for Chinese visitors.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of travelers flew in and out of China without having to submit to stringent centralised quarantine requirements. The change in policy is raising hope in neighboring countries that this will signal the return of Chinese tourists. Holiday bookings have already increased and markets are trading higher on the news, but as we explain, it will take some time for travel to return to what it was before the pandemic.

The former US president had been blocked from the social media platforms since the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Meta said it was taking measures to prevent "repeat offenders" from violating its rules.

The second "surveillance balloon" announcement comes after the first sighting prompted the top US diplomat to postpone a trip to Beijing. China claims the balloons are used for scientific purposes.

China said the device deviated from its route, and "accidentally strayed over Latin America and the Caribbean." This comes even as the US is seaching for the remains of the suspected surveillence balloon it shot down.

The US has shot down a Chinese balloon that had been floating over the mainland for days. China has claimed the US overreacted by downing what it said was a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.

After a Chinese "spy balloon" was sighted over the United States, another was spotted over Latin America. DW sums up what know about them so far.

Facebook has been under scrutiny before, for failing to curb hate speech on its platform in Ethiopia. The son of a man killed after calls for his murder appeared on the platform argues that Facebook treats Africa differently to Europe and the US.

The operation to gather pieces of the balloon comes as US officials reportedly said the device was part of a vast spy program. The incident has brought increased strain on US-China ties.

Microsoft says it is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser with artificial intelligence akin to ChatGPT, in the hopes of making inroads into Google's dominance of online searches.