Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Covid pills are coming

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a pair of pills from Pfizer and Merck to treat Covid-19, a potential milestone in the fight against the pandemic that will expand therapies for the infected. The news came as President Joe Biden sought to reassure a fearful America, echoing preliminary studies showing that while the omicron variant will cause more breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, they are very unlikely to cause severe illness—especially for people with booster shots. But as politicians and health officials pin their hopes on diminished severity and coming treatments, health systems are already imploding—especially in the U.S.  —David E. Rovella

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

With the exception of the U.K., where Boris Johnson rejected calls for more precautions despite an omicron tsunami, the other side of the Atlantic is buckling down for Christmas. Germany is set to limit gatherings to 10 people; Nightclubs and bars in Portugal will be shut from Saturday; and Sweden will introduce new measures as hospitalizations increase there. New Year’s Eve in France will be quiet, too. Worldwide, some 550,000 new infections were recorded yesterday along with 6,500 Covid-19 related deaths. There have been 275 million confirmed infections and more than 5.3 million fatalities since the pandemic began. The actual numbers, however, are likely much higher. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Across America, 2021 brought more jobs, lower unemployment, higher wages and pumped-up stock markets. On the other hand, the whiplash of the pandemic and lockdowns helped trigger backups at ports and rail yards, hobbling companies already struggling with labor shortages. Enter inflation: Here’s the story from Bloomberg Quicktake on how this economic scourge returned in force. Speaking of inflation, traditional foods for the holiday season, especially those sold for a limited time in even a normal year, are significantly costlier now—if they’re even available at all.

Before Britain quit the European Union, JPMorgan’s Paris headquarters was a relative backwater with a staff of 250. Now, thanks to the shift of EU banking out of London, it expects to have 800 workers there by the end of next year. The Wall Street giant has added a whole new business line to its French outpost: Trading and sales. The new space the bank made for them is the latest symbol of how Paris has become the EU’s No.1 financial trading hub, and how the U.K. will increasingly be left behind.

As real-estate prices boom across the globe, house hunters in Amsterdam say they are losing out on deals even when bidding 30% or more above asking price—in a city deemed one of the riskiest housing markets in the world.

While Republicans in the U.S. Senate—with the help of coal-state Democrat Joe Manchin—block Biden’s proposals to slow global warming, four American cities are scrambling to survive future drought. From expanding reservoirs and tapping neighboring watersheds to pushing conservation, these are the cities on the front lines of climate disaster.

Congressional investigators are amassing more evidence of alleged involvement by both the Trump administration and allied lawmakers in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on Congress. The possibility of criminal referrals to the Justice Department may be growing. On Tuesday, The first lawmaker publicly asked to meet with the House committee investigating the insurrection by Trump followers refused the request.

Fresh off relinquishing the chief executive reins of  Twitter, Bitcoin enthusiast Jack Dorsey is sounding off (on Twitter) about Web3 technology, the still hazy term for blockchain-based, decentralized systems and tech that are meant to replace the internet as it’s currently known. “You don’t own ‘web3’,” tweeted Dorsey. “The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives.”

Jack Dorsey  Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

• Putin threatens NATO as fear of Russian war on Ukraine looms.
• Even tourism-hungry Thailand is bowing to the threat of omicron.
• Biden to send 500 million free Covid tests to ease U.S. shortage.
• All you need to know about those rapid tests kits.
• Kellogg cereal workers agree to deal, ending strike begun Oct. 5.
• Crypto funds exploded in a year marked by the first U.S. Bitcoin ETF.
• A Black Atlanta tattoo master is elevating the industry to an art form. 

Bloomberg newsrooms all over the world are made up of journalists expert in their fields, a fact made clear every year by the numerous books they publish. Here are just a few for your consideration: The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources, by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy; The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power, by Max Chafkin; The Devil’s Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation, by Lauren Etter; and China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, by Peter Martin. We’ll have some more for you tomorrow.

Peter Martin Source: Bloomberg

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