Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala takes over the World Trade Organization on Monday amid hopes that she will spur the beleaguered body into addressing its towering challenges, including the pandemic-fuelled global economic crisis, AFP reported.

AstraZeneca announced it had sold 7.7% minority stake in Moderna for more than $1 billion cashing out on the back of the surge of the US company surge, Reuters said quoting an article in The Times. The strong demand and robust growth in prices were prompted by Moderna’s breakthrough in producing one of the approved vaccines against Covid-19. AstraZeneca and Moderna did not immediately respond to the report.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs admitted he made a 10 billion dollars worth of mistake by overspending in one of his acquisitions, Reuters reported. The deal on focus is the 2016 purchase of Precesion Castparts by Berkshire Hathaway.

The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei is involved in development of its own electric vehicle project, Reuters reported. If all plans are executed as previously envisaged, Huawei may launch some models under its own brand later in 2021.

The popular home-sharing site Airbnb announced massive losses for the last quarter of 2020 driven by the pandemic slowdown, AP reported. Figures show that Airbnb has lost a total of $3.9 billion for the period. The negative result is the first ever since Airbnb became a public entity last year.

The German subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell announced it hoped to raise funds from EU and local government subsidies to speed its transformation plans for decarbonisation of fuel production, Reuters reported. The energy giant aims to introduce the production of plant based aviation fuel.

The owner of flag carrier British Airways IAG announced a record loss, due to pandemic related slowdown, Reuters reported. Total annual loss for 2020 accounted to €7.43bn.

The European Central Bank has welcomed the rise in nominal bond yields, Reuters reported. The institution commented that the increase is a sign for working anti-crisis measures. The surge in yields comes in time with rising inflation.

Leading German manufacturer Daimler Trucks announced that hunting the aim to shift to zero-emission vehicles will have a bitter cost with projected layoffs of thousands of employees, Reuters reported.

Slovak Telekom which is the local subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom will have to pay a huge fine imposed by antitrust authorities, Reuters reported. The penalty is due nevertheless it had already been fined by EU competition enforcers, the EU’s top court ruled.