💉 The U.K.’s health secretary warned that a new Covid strain is “out of control” and suggested parts of England will be stuck in the new, highest tier of restrictions until a vaccine is rolled out. https://bloom.bg/3rhcSDB

💰 In the U.S., Congress reached a deal on a $900 billion pandemic relief plan after many rounds of negotiations. It will provide direct payments of $600 to most Americans. https://bloom.bg/3p4iE9Q

📈 And a speculative frenzy is sweeping Wall Street and world markets. Meanwhile, the economy is still on life support and businesses are getting thrashed by lockdowns. https://bloom.bg/3h6IjvO

🇬🇧 The U.K. is facing threats of food insecurity days before Christmas. European nations have restricted trade and travel after a new strain of Covid-19 was discovered, in a preview of the border chaos to come in the absence of a Brexit deal. https://bloom.bg/3rilppR

📈 Elon Musk inquired about converting "large transactions" into Bitcoin in an exchange with Michael Saylor, a prominent Bitcoin booster. Bitcoin’s surge to record highs has investors racing for exposure to the rally. https://bloom.bg/3pacS6H

💰 And a private bank in Luxembourg gave Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince advice on how to attack Qatar’s financial markets. One presentation called for an attack to deplete Qatar’s foreign-exchange reserves and pauperize its government. https://bloom.bg/3rjZIpt

💵 A House committee released the text of $900 billion in pandemic relief and $1.4 trillion in government funding just hours before lawmakers are set to cast their votes: http://bloom.bg/3mGk20I

🦠 Covid-19 is now killing in rural areas at a faster pace than anywhere else, affecting 46 million Americans: https://bloom.bg/2JaE463

🌱Joe Biden’s ambitious $2 trillion climate plan will take time and resources to execute. Here’s five easy things the president-elect can do on climate right away, plus two he can’t: http://bloom.bg/2KpOMpQ

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💰 The U.S. House passed a $900 billion Covid aid package, which economists say should avert a double-dip recession in 2021. Now the bill goes to the Senate. https://bloom.bg/2KhbIrn

🚗 Apple plans to build a self-driving car for consumers by 2024, Reuters reported. https://bloom.bg/3pgSjpo

🇨🇳 And some westerners who travel to China on business are increasingly worried about being detained by security agents. "It’s just not worth the risk,” one said. https://bloom.bg/3p8XgjG

🐟 The EU rejected the U.K.'s latest concessions on fishing, dealing a setback to securing a post-Brexit trade deal. Only nine days are left before the U.K. leaves the bloc's single market. https://bloom.bg/3rkiptd

😷 The first locally transmitted case of Covid-19 in more than eight months was reported in Taiwan, ending what was the world's longest stretch without a domestic infection. https://bloom.bg/3pkhMhD

🇺🇸 And a pandemic aid package finally passed in Congress, but Joe Biden will now be challenged to address the half-year of political dysfunction that preceded it. https://bloom.bg/2WCWKyw

💉 BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin says he’s confident his coronavirus vaccine will work just fine against the fast-spreading variant that is raising alarms: http://bloom.bg/3aBWszN

🚘🍎 Elon Musk says he tried to approach Apple years ago about the possibility of buying Tesla for about $60 billion, but Tim Cook refused to take the meeting: https://bloom.bg/38wDYyf

🎁 Last-minute shopping before the holidays and USPS delays are forcing retailers to find creative delivery solutions to avoid a “Shipageddon”: http://bloom.bg/2KtYHL1

✒ Donald Trump signaled he might not sign the Covid relief bill, demanding changes to the legislation that Congress approved less than 24 hours earlier. https://bloom.bg/38ol1O8

🌪 Jack Ma’s empire is in crisis. The sudden cancellation of his Ant Group IPO shocked investors, but the billionaire’s fall from grace had been years in the making. https://bloom.bg/3mHQobD

💸 A trader says he put almost his entire life savings into a Robinhood account this year, only to lose about $300,000 in a hack. He was relieved when the money was restored — but then, he says, Robinhood took the funds back. https://bloom.bg/37I6yNX

🇺🇸 Critical trade links between the U.K. and continental Europe are to resume. France cut off shipments on Sunday because of concern over a faster-spreading variant of Covid-19. https://bloom.bg/2WHxXZT

😷 The re-emergence of the virus in places with the world’s best records for handling the pandemic indicate that strategies to fully snuff it out don’t work as a long-term solution. https://bloom.bg/2WHmnOo

⛽ For years, Exxon has carefully calculated its future emissions, but kept investors in the dark. Major shareholders are starting to notice the huge gap, and they're not pleased. https://bloom.bg/3mHq6WL

💵 Nancy Pelosi is scheduling a Christmas Eve vote on a new bill to boost stimulus payments to $2,000, urging Donald Trump to push Republicans to support it: http://bloom.bg/38ttGil

💉 The Trump administration has agreed to purchase an additional 100 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. The drugmaker expects to deliver all doses to vaccine and drug accelerator Operation Warp Speed by late July: https://bloom.bg/2WGiut9

🇬🇧 The outline of a historic post-Brexit trade agreement between the U.K. and the EU has been reached, according to officials: http://bloom.bg/3mKF3r9

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🇨🇳 China launches a probe into alleged monopolistic practices at Alibaba, escalating scrutiny over the country’s internet giants. https://bloom.bg/3aDpPSp

💉 A Covid-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac has been found to be more than 50% effective in a Brazilian clinical trial. https://bloom.bg/2WH9d47

🇺🇸 And Donald Trump has pardoned ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, as well as adviser Roger Stone and Jared Kushner's father, Charles. https://bloom.bg/2Kvc6SY

🇬🇧 🇪🇺 The Brexit deal may not yet be signed, but Boris Johnson’s government has already started trying to sell it at home, claiming victory over the European Union. https://bloom.bg/2WJkK2U

😷 The high transmissibility of the new coronavirus strain spreading in the U.K. may cause more deaths, a study finds. https://bloom.bg/34GUKtv

🇺🇸 Congressional Republicans face high-stakes decisions on legislation -- the annual defense spending plan and a Covid-19 relief bill -- that President Donald Trump savaged this week. https://bloom.bg/3rk3sY6

🇺🇸 Donald Trump signed the U.S. virus relief bill after days of resisting. It will let individuals and businesses start to get aid and avert the risk of a government shutdown. https://bloom.bg/3hmjewW

💸 Two months ago, global investors were on the brink of a windfall from what would have been the world’s largest IPO. Now, Ant has turned into a nightmare for them. https://bloom.bg/3nYf80E

💄 Korea’s beauty industry, which once minted billionaires left and right, is getting hit hard. The pandemic has made cosmetics far less important — and cut off the shopping sprees of big-spending Chinese tourists. https://bloom.bg/34NGvD6

🇺🇸 Donald Trump backed away from a crisis of his own making by signing a pandemic relief bill, but only after depriving millions of a week of unemployment aid and triggering an outcry from lawmakers. https://bloom.bg/2KXVhQA

🇩🇪 Germany is pushing to ramp up production of Covid-19 vaccines as Europe faces pressure to end the pandemic. Authorities are concerned the slow pace of the rollout could force longer lockdowns. https://bloom.bg/3o6Ndvm

📈 And Bitcoin is on track for its longest monthly winning streak in more than a year after hitting a record above $28,000. https://bloom.bg/3nWiZLw

🦠 Over 118,000 Americans have been hospitalized with Covid-19 on average over the last seven days, putting a strain on emergency rooms and forcing healthcare workers to quarantine when they’re needed most: https://bloom.bg/3aPYjRF

🩺 As private equity investors buy up doctors’ offices, they’re popularizing a controversial legal practice: forcing patients to sign binding arbitration agreements to keep malpractice victims from suing: http://bloom.bg/3mX7YZ4

⚪️ With 333,000 Americans dead, millions are left behind to cope with the pain: https://bloom.bg/2WOriNG

Hello, here’s what we’re following right now:

📉 Some of the year’s most expensive stocks, including Zoom, are sinking in a year-end selloff. https://bloom.bg/34QqPyN

🇨🇳 China is struggling to gain the world’s trust in its Covid vaccines — especially from developing countries that need them the most. https://bloom.bg/2L6Yttq

💰 Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, sold Silicon Valley and Wall Street a $27 billion plan to transform his tech empire. Now he’s under pressure to deliver. https://bloom.bg/3aR3GAm

🇺🇸 Senate Republicans will likely block Democrats’ attempts to follow the House in boosting stimulus payments for most Americans. https://bloom.bg/38P2KtI
😷 The scale of the Wuhan outbreak early this year may have been nearly 10 times the recorded tally, a study says. https://bloom.bg/34U6KI9
🇬🇧 🇪🇺 Britain’s long-awaited trade deal with the EU still leaves many questions unanswered for the world’s biggest banks, trading venues and money managers. https://bloom.bg/2WUhcLm

💵 Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked an attempt by Senate Democrats to quickly deliver $2000 direct stimulus payments to millions of Americans, but he isn’t completely ruling out higher checks: http://bloom.bg/3puFIin

🦠 The CDC estimates the U.S. will reach 400,000 coronavirus deaths by January 20, when Donald Trump is to leave office: https://bloom.bg/2WWeKnn

💰Unemployed people claiming federal benefits won’t see a one-week gap in their payments, despite the delay in President Trump signing the program extension into law, says the Labor Department: http://bloom.bg/37VaIlG

Covid-19 has changed the world economy forever. 💉 Vaccines should accelerate the rebound in 2021, but the pandemic’s other legacies will shape how we work, spend and travel for years to come.

Some of those changes are already clear, like rising inequality between and within countries. Here are 10 transformations currently under way. https://bloom.bg/34VxA2p

😷 The U.K. approved the AstraZeneca-Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine that will be key to mass immunization. https://bloom.bg/2JtDkJe

📈 The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is on track to close out a banner year with a bang. https://bloom.bg/3mYZ9hI

🥩 The Muslim-majority country of Malaysia is roiling after the discovery that a cartel smuggled in meat for years and erroneously labeled it halal. https://bloom.bg/3rEd2Fw

🛳 Cruise ship sailors were left at sea for months after the pandemic stopped travel. Separated from their families and confined to tiny cabins, some crew members were sent tumbling into depression: https://bloom.bg/3mYdJ8Z

🦠 “This has to be done better.” Nancy Pelosi is criticizing the Trump administration for its slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines to states: http://bloom.bg/2KEiFTz

💉 Moderna vaccine shipments to Texas are being delayed due to temperature sensor issues, underscoring the obstacles the U.S. has faced in its effort to get 20 million people vaccinated by the end of the year: http://bloom.bg/3pC2CUS