Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Race against the variants

Four million Covid-19 shots given in one day. One-third of the country has received at least one dose. Close to half of the 50 states are vaccinating all adults. All good news for the U.S.—good news that has been tainted by the worst-hit nation’s inability to wait before throwing off masks, ignoring social distancing and reopening businesses. Despite the most infections and deaths of any country on the planet, American ambivalence toward fast-spreading variants that seem to be outpacing vaccinations could trigger a fourth wave, medical experts warn. In Europe, nations are speeding up vaccination efforts after a botched start. But in South America, Brazil is being decimated: Some 4,000 people there died of the virus in one day. Here is the latest on the pandemic—David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the progress of coronavirus vaccines while mapping the pandemic globally and across America

Here are today’s top stories   

In an era of prosperity for investment banks, Credit Suisse is careening from one crisis to another and then another, now with a $4.7 billion writedown tied to billionaire investor Bill Hwang’s margin call meltdown. For the Swiss bank, the hits just keep on coming.

A resurgent U.S. job market is creating more opportunities at a faster clip than many economists and employers expected. What’s more, too few people are applying for positions that are reopening.

In the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, who along with three fellow Minneapolis police officers is being prosecuted for the killing of George Floyd last May, a department instructor testified that trainees are taught to avoid putting their knee on a suspect’s neck when seeking to restrain them. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost 10 minutes.

 Derek Chauvin's mugshot after being charged with the murder of George Floyd.

Photographer: Handout/Getty Images North America

A Senate official who dealt a blow to President Joe Biden’s plan to include a $15 minimum wage in his $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package has now handed him a big victory. The new ruling by the Senate parliamentarian means the Democrat has several chances to pass parts of his massive economic agenda without Republican votes. All he has to do is keep his increasingly fractious party unified. One person Biden already has on his side when it comes to his infrastructure bill and the taxes he needs to pay for it is the richest man in the world.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned nemesis of President Vladimir Putin whose near-assassination by chemical weapon was widely ascribed to the Kremlin, is in worsening health due to a respiratory infection. Navalny, 44, is “in a fairly bad state,” his lawyer said.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is taken out of a police station on Jan. 18 in Khimki, outside Moscow.

Photographer: Alexander Nemenov/AFP

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is telling U.S. chief executives to stay out of politics in response to the growing corporate backlash over a law passed by Georgia Republicans that may effectively disenfranchise likely Democratic voters, especially minorities. The shift by the Kentucky Republican, however, is a curious one given his track record.

Lisa Stockman-Mauriello is dying. She has one last ambition: to live long enough to see her three sons graduate this year—from middle school, high school and college. She and her doctor believe she needs a new experimental drug from Biogen to hold on. But she’s unlikely to get it.

Lisa Stockman-Mauriello

Source: Lisa Stockman-Mauriello

What you’ll need to know tomorrow 

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Wealth

Gorgeous, Near Covid-Free and Unaffordable

Famous for its handling of the pandemic, its otherworldly scenery and its trailblazing prime minister, New Zealand is now becoming known for something else—one of the least affordable housing markets in the world. Prices are surging for even the most dilapidated homes. So forget your bunker dreams: House hunter Femke Burger has just one word for this landscape—brutal.

The Lyall Bay suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. 

Photographer: Mark Coote/Bloomberg

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