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The World
538 members of the electoral college will cast their ballots today — the formula America has followed since the first election in 1789 — gathering in state capitols to cement the race. In Michigan, citing "safety and security concerns," the state House and Senate will close their offices in Lansing as electors meet. (The Guardian, Detroit News)
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipments left a Kalamazoo, MI facility, as White House staff members were to be among the first to be vaccinated — until Trump adjusted the plan in a late night tweet. Hospitals will begin receiving shipments today, as officials compared the approval and start of distribution this weekend — which the four-star Army general overseeing the rollout called “D-Day”— to the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. However, the initial shipment of roughly 3 million doses will only go to roughly 145 sites, heightening the need “to make the most of this opportunity — the biggest vaccination effort in the country’s history — and also [resolve] the challenges we face in the days, weeks, and months ahead.” (New York Times, Axios, Washington Post, STAT News)
Germany is set for another hard lockdown, as Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that most stores, schools and day care centers would shut from Wednesday until at least Jan. 10. In Canada, the first batch of Pfizer/BioNTEch vaccines arrived. In China, Hong Kong leader Lam’s annual Beijing meeting with President Xi was postponed because of the pandemic— the first time the chief executive has not made the trip in December since Hong Kong’s 1997 handover. (Deutsche Welle, Reuters, South China Morning Post)
Half of Americans now say they are completely (16%) or mostly (34%) isolating themselves from people outside their household — up from 38% in the previous poll and the highest it has been since May. (Gallup)
The $908 billion bipartisan relief plan to be introduced in Congress as early as today will be split into two packages to help it pass: One will be a $748 billion measure, which contains money for small businesses, the jobless and COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The other will include some key sticking points: liability protections for business and $160 billion for state and local governments. (Reuters, Politico)
Russian government hackers who breached a top cybersecurity firm are behind a global espionage campaign that also compromised the Treasury and Commerce departments and other U.S. government agencies. The FBI is investigating the campaign by a hacking group working for the Russian foreign intelligence service, SVR. The breaches have been taking place for months and may amount to an operation as long-running and significant as one that occurred in 2014-2015. The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday. (Washington Post, Reuters)
The Brexit deadline was extended after progress on tariffs, as Britain and the EU pledged to “go the extra mile” to try to secure a post-Brexit trade deal — as UK manufacturers warn of a 'knockout blow' with no deal. Meanwhile, UK Ministers warned supermarkets to stockpile food, and the Royal Navy Police will be given the power to arrest French and other EU fishermen who illegally enter Britain’s waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit. (The Times, Reuters, The Times-2)
Venezuela President Maduro has begun putting his family into positions of power, in a sign of his growing confidence that the U.S. and its allies have failed to oust him. Maduro’s wife and 30-year-old son both will take up positions in the new national assembly in January. (The Times)
Israel established full diplomatic relations with Bhutan for the first time. In Nigeria, hundreds of Nigerian pupils are missing, with many feared abducted, after gunmen attacked a secondary school. Iran executed an exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017. (Jerusalem Post, The Guardian, Associated Press)
Congress enacted just 28 pieces of legislation this year, far fewer than in any other year since it started tracking the data in 1990. (Axios, Quorum)
Economy
Deutsche Bank’s U.S. chief raised the prospect of moving half its 4,600 New York staff to lower-cost areas of country in next five years, while the majority of large London banks have increased the number of people they employ in the capital since the Brexit referendum, dispelling fears of a mass exodus. (Financial Times, The Telegraph)
Software giant Oracle is moving its corporate headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, TX, while implementing a more flexible employee work location policy. (Austin American-Statesman, CNBC)
The Fed is poised to extend its crisis bond-buying program, as new guidance is expected this week while the U.S. central bank grapples with a faltering recovery. (Financial Times)
The sizzling tech IPO market is confusing investors: Affirm Holdings postponed its IPO, just one day after video game company Robolox pulled back from the red-hot market. Meanwhile, DoorDash is valued at $56 billion, just shy of General Motors; Airbnb is worth over $83 billion, more than FedEx; and cloud-software company Snowflake is worth over $100 billion, more than Goldman Sachs. Separately, AstraZeneca will buy Alexion, a U.S. biotech specializing in rare disease treatment, in a $39bn immunology deal. (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times)
Women’s Leadership Programs Help Stem Loss of Women from Today’s Workforce: Dedicated to improving the health care delivery system for patients and physicians, agilon health has a workforce that is majority women. But they recognized a gap in the percent of women in senior management. agilon designed a 6-month program to provide leadership workshops, individual coaching, and a supportive network to 20 high-potential women. Ten months later, agilon reported they have retained 100% of the participants and promoted three to senior leadership roles. (Reboot Accel)
Technology
Google made a major move into health research, unveiling a new smartphone app that lets Android users participate in medical studies remotely. The app, called Google Health Studies, could enable the tech giant to better position itself against competitor Apple, which has rolled out several remote research efforts since launching its first virtual health study in 2017. (STAT News)
CNN President Jeff Zucker was made aware of investor interest in taking the network private. One scenario floated was a management buyout that would see Zucker, whose contract is up for renewal, lead the network under new ownership. Zucker has indicated that would-be suitors should contact AT&T. WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said at a recent company town hall that CNN wasn’t for sale. (Wall Street Journal)
EA has ignited a bidding war for Codemasters, topping Take-Two Interactive's £725M offer that was agreed upon last month for the British game developer. Meanwhile, Reddit has agreed to buy lip-syncing video app and TikTok rival Dubsmash in a new video push. (Sky News, The Information)
Social Strikes Back: Andreessen Horowitz released series of analyses supporting a central thesis — Rumors of social's demise have been greatly exaggerated. The series reveals what new social looks like, the forces that are driving it, and how to build it. Not only are we seeing the rise of innovative new social networks—from the earshare of Clubhouse to the seamless interactivity of cloud gaming—but having a social component has become a powerful acquisition and retention tool for every consumer product, across education, shopping, fitness, food, entertainment, and more. (Andreessen Horowitz)
Bill Gates released his 2020 Holiday Book List:
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, by Erik Larson
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre
Breath from Salt: A Deadly Genetic Disease, a New Era in Science, and the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine, by Bijal P. Trivedi
Smart Links
The Best-Managed Companies of 2020: Microsoft is No. 1, then Apple, IBM and Amazon in Drucker Institute’s annual Top 250 ranking. (Wall Street Journal)
10 cities where the cost of living has gotten cheaper. (CNBC)
Less than 40% of colleges screened students for Covid-19 upon campus arrival this fall. (HigherEdDive)
Tesla suspends Model S and Model X production for 18 days. (The Verge)
PayPal introduces new fee for dormant accounts. (The Guardian)
Seattle tech leaders including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are investing in cricket teams. (GeekWire)
Cleveland’s baseball team will drop its Indians team name. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Sports cards have become a multi-million dollar alternative investment. (CNBC)
Kamala Harris’ husband, lawyer Doug Emhoff, to teach next semester at Georgetown. (Washington Post)