Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - U.S.-China relations thaw

Europe is heading for lockdown and imposing tight restrictions on the unvaccinated as a wave of new Covid-19 infections threatens to overrun its already battered healthcare systems. The situation, a dramatic reversal from just a few months ago, is turning into a race against time as infections explode. In the process, the crisis is upending markets and frightening investors who had prematurely written off the immediate virus threat. Austria is heading for nationwide lockdown and mandatory vaccination. Germany’s leadership hasn’t ruled out a lockdown, either. In the U.S., regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 boosters for all adults. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.—Margaret Sutherlin

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

After months of wrangling, the House of Representatives passed the $1.7 trillion bill at the core of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” economic agenda. It now heads to the Senate, where it’s likely to be reshaped. The slimmed down version of his original proposal was meant to appease fellow Democrats in the Senate—moderates Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—who have been the main reasons why the bill was chopped in half and stuck in Congress since summer. 

Officials in Washington and Beijing have agreed to open high-level channels of communication between their militaries, the result of Biden’s recent virtual meeting with China President Xi Jinping. The White House is defining a strategy on the engagements, which include cybersecurity, space and nuclear weapons. The agreement is a further sign of thawing ties between the world’s two largest economies and comes after months of escalating tensions, fueled most recently by China’s test of a hypersonic weapon and a warning from the Pentagon that China’s nuclear arsenal was growing more quickly than expected.

President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping met virtually Nov. 15.  Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/UPI

JPMorgan Chase has bought a restaurant guide, invested in a college financial-planning platform, taken a stake in a Luxembourg-based car-payments firm and a digital bank in Brazil. And that was just this year. Here’s what’s behind the buying spree.

Kyle Rittenhouse, the White teen with an affinity for police who killed two men at a protest over police killings of Black Americans, was acquitted on all counts. The verdict has sparked outrage in some quarters. The 12 members of the jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin, were—with the exception of one person—all White. The trial was marked by Judge Bruce Schroeder’s unorthodox rulings favoring the defense and comments condemned as racially offensive. Demonstrations had erupted nationally during the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by White Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. 

Justin Blake (left), uncle of Jacob Blake who was shot by Kenosha police, listens as the verdict is read outside of the Kenosha County Courthouse during the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Photographer: Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg

More Federal Reserve officials are sending up warning flares on inflation. Vice Chair Richard Clarida signaled policymakers may discuss whether to speed up the tapering of bond buying in December—something another Fed official supported. Meanwhile, two Democratic senators asked Biden to avoid re-nominating Fed chair Jerome Powell, a Republican, over his approach to the climate crisis. Here’s your markets wrap. 

How broken is the U.S. unemployment system? Just look at Georgia. ​​Black workers in the state who lost jobs during the pandemic were more likely to be denied unemployment benefits than White workers. They also suffered disproportionately when the state’s leaders withdrew early from a temporary federal unemployment program. 

Could oysters save New York from flooding? Oyster reefs once played a significant role in the natural flood-mitigation system, but a combination of overfishing and pollution killed off the natural barrier. Now a group thinks a wall of oysters could be one solution to deal with climate change.

Helene Hetrick of the Billion Oyster Project unloads a bin of cleaned shells in Brooklyn, New York.   Photographer: Catherine Blewer/Bloomberg CityLab/Bloomberg

• U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Texas’ abortion law may be Monday.
• Ten weeks into the Theranos trial and the prosecution rests.
• How tennis star Peng Shuai’s allegations hit China’s top leaders.
• Covid didn’t kill these small businesses. But the supply chain might.
• OPEC of maple syrup wants to make sure your pancakes are covered.
• The business of selling toys to billionaires has never been bigger.   
• Hello squash pizza: Try these surprising side dishes at Thanksgiving. 

Black Friday bargains are as much a holiday ritual as Christmas trees, turkeys and eggnog. But U.S. retailers are making a risky—dare we say downright Grinchy—bet this holiday season by cutting back on discounting. Their calculation is a simple one: Many merchants are forecasting demand to be strong while gummed up supply chains mean less inventory to sell. You know what that means.

Customers shop in the electronics section of a Target in Queens, New York during Black Friday on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019.   Photographer: Bess Adler/Bloomberg

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