Assange Extradition Blocked | New Vaccine Rollout | Bitcoin Tumbles

Plus: Forbes Fintech Awards 2020: Jack Dorsey Gives Banks A Wake-Up Call

Good morning.

Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Dozen with all the news you need to start your day, and your year. The U.K. has started the rollout of a new low-cost vaccine, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States was blocked by a London court, while campaigning ends in Georgia’s runoff elections and voters take stock of an explosive leaked phone call.

Happy New Year.

In The News Today

The U.K. issued the first doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as Covid cases surged and hospitals faced being overwhelmed. The cheap, and easy to store and transport vaccine could be a major tool in ending the pandemic. 

On the eve of dual runoff elections in Georgia that will determine which party will control the Senate, voters were hit with a leaked audio recording of President Donald Trump haranaguing election officials in the state to find enough votes to overturn his defeat in November’s vote. 

Top Take-Aways

A British judge on Monday ruled against the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S. where he may have faced life in prison for releasing classified U.S. military documents and thousands of diplomatic cables, on health grounds.

Amid controversy over the slow rollout of the U.S. Covid vaccination program former FDA head, Scott Gottlieb called for the jabs to be distributed directly to pharmacies amid fears about the spread of a new contagious variant of the virus.

Nancy Pelosi was reelected speaker of the House by a slim margin on Sunday, the first day of the 117th Congress, kicking off what is likely to be her final stint at the helm of the lower chamber in which she will attempt to navigate the smallest majority since the 1930s.

Pelosi’s reelection came days after her home was vandalized and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home was targeted over Capitol Hill’s failure to push through a larger stimulus package.

Bitcoin tumbled 8% on Monday back from a record high of $34,800 over the weekend with the drop erasing some of the cryptocurrencies’ 300% rally over 2020.

Tesla closed out 2020 with a final delivery and production push that helped Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company finally deliver about 500,000 cars and crossovers to global customers, a goal the billionaire entrepreneur has been trying to achieve for years.

Surging stock markets in the U.S. and China and a proliferation of IPOs and reverse mergers called SPACs, led to more than 200 newcomers joining the ranks of Forbes’ list of billionaires in 2020.

Today's Must Read

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