This is The Loop, your quick look at this morning’s news as it happens.
Live updates
Setting you up for the day
Good morning. You’re reading The Loop, a quick wrap of today’s headlines, this Monday, December 19. Thanks for joining us.
Loading
ICYMI: It’s Messi’s world, we’re just living in it
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
From the weekend: Avatar sequel opens shy of US box office projections
By Kelsie Iorio
Avatar: The Way of Water, the expensive and long-delayed sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time, has opened below American box office forecasts with an estimated US$134 million (almost AU$200 million) in US and Canadian ticket sales.
Pre-weekend predictions from analysts had called for at least a US$140 million start for director James Cameron‘s decade-in-the-making return to the story of the Na’vi people on Pandora.
Walt Disney Co says overseas markets added US$301 million for a global total of roughly US$435 million through Sunday.
Cameron has said that the film will need to make US$2 billion over its theatrical run just to break even.
The film was released 13 years after the first installment wowed audiences with pioneering 3D technology.
The original Avatar remains the all-time box office champion with US$2.9 billion in global ticket sales.
Reporting with Reuters
Developing story: Twitter, self-proclaimed home of free speech, cracks down on cross-promotion
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
What do you make of this?
Twitter made this announcement online a few hours ago, declaring “free promotion” of selected other platforms will no longer be allowed.
As you can see, they’ve directly called out the platforms that are on their radar — Facebook, Instagram and Donald Trump’s Truth Social all included.
TikTok, notably, is not.
Twitter added later in the thread that cross-posting is still allowed, and “posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy”.
Overnight: Teenager charged over English Channel deaths
By Kelsie Iorio
A 19-year-old man has been charged by police after four migrants died while trying to cross the English Channel to enter the UK last week.
Another 39 people, including 12 children, were rescued after the inflatable boat they were using started to sink.
Police say the suspect has been charged with facilitating attempted illegal entry into Britain.
He’s expected to appear in court this week.
ICYMI: Argentina wins third World Cup in spectacular fashion
By Kelsie Iorio
Key Event
Six goals.
Extra time.
Possibly the highest-stakes penalty shootout in decades.
Argentina has defeated France to claim their third-ever World Cup.
In what many are describing as the ultimate fairytale ending, Lionel Messi‘s record-breaking World Cup run ends with a victory — the first time in his career he’s held the trophy aloft.
You can relive the whole match here, and we’ll bring you more reaction from around the world throughout the morning.
