European shares opened higher on Friday after a mixed session in Asia on the last trading day of the year for most markets.

Germany's DAX rose 0.3% to 16,745.67 and the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.4% to 7,566.11. Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.2% higher to 7,736.52.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a group of money exchange services from Yemen and Turkey alleged to help provide funding to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the southern Red Sea — including a drone and a missile that were shot down Thursday by the U.S. military.

Included in the sanctions are the head of a financial intermediary in Sana'a, Yemen, along with three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey. U.S. Treasury alleges that the people and firms helped transfer millions of dollars to the Houthis at the direction of sanctioned Iranian financial facilitator Sa'id al-Jamal.

Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi unveiled its first electric car model on Thursday, with its boss declaring ambitions of becoming a global automotive powerhouse despite fierce competition at home.

Norway's largest pension fund said Thursday it has divested from Saudi Aramco due to the oil giant's lack of climate action and from 11 other Gulf companies over human rights concerns.

KLP, which manages over 700 billion kroner ($70 billion), said the exclusion amounted to $15 million.

India's foreign minister met Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said relations between the countries are progressing even amid turbulent times.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar's meeting was part of a five-day visit. At the start of the meeting, Putin said he would inform the Indian diplomat about the fighting in Ukraine, on which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held a neutral stance.

There's been no shortage of tough news for China's economy as some of the world's biggest brands consider or take action to shift manufacturing to friendlier shores at a time of unease about security controls, protectionism and wobbly relations between Beijing and Washington.

Count Adidas, Apple and Samsung among those looking elsewhere.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who helped negotiate German reunification in 1990 and as finance minister was a central figure in the austerity-heavy effort to drag Europe out of its debt crisis two decades later, has died. He was 81.

Schaeuble died at home on Tuesday evening, his family told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.

Wall Street inched modestly higher in holiday-thinned trading Tuesday, while Asian markets mostly advanced and European markets remained closed.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.1% before the bell and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1% to kick off what's expected to be a quiet, holiday-shortened week of trading.

Nearly a million low-income Moroccan families are due to receive government aid, authorities announced, launching the kingdom's first and much-awaited social benefits program.

A U.S. import ban on certain Apple smartwatch models came into effect Tuesday, after the Biden administration opted not to veto a ruling on patent infringements.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) decided in October to ban Apple Watch models over a patented technology for detecting blood-oxygen levels.