President-elect will receive presidential daily briefing, while recovering from fractured foot sustained over weekend
- Neera Tanden and Cecilia Rouse nominations expected shortly
- US hits four million monthly Covid cases as Fauci warns of holiday surge
- President-elect announces all-female media team at his White House
- Kushner heads to Saudi Arabia and Qatar amid Iranian scientist killing tension
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10.16am GMT
Jeffrey Frankel is a professor at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government who served as a member of president Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. He writes for us this morning: Joe Biden will lead the US back to international cooperation
Biden did not campaign on international economic cooperation per se; US presidential candidates never do. But he has pledged to immediately reverse Trump’s monumentally short-sighted decisions to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization and the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Pandemic diseases such as Covid-19 are a classic example of an international externality that individual governments can’t adequately address on their own. International cooperation is a far more effective way to investigate local disease outbreaks and warn of global dangers; coordinate research, development, production and distribution of vaccines or treatments; and agree on procedures for restricting or quarantining cross-border travellers. The WHO is not perfect, but it is obviously needed now.
Related: Joe Biden will lead the US back to international cooperation
10.08am GMT
Here’s some more detail of the economics line-up we are expecting to hear from president-elect Joe Biden this week. It’s not clear when we will get an official announcement, but it is being reported as a done deal – well, with the caveat of the obvious hurdle of his nominations being accepted by the Senate in January. Annie Linskey and Jeff Stein report for the Washington Post:
Biden is expected to nominate Neera Tanden, the chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, as director of the influential Office of Management and Budget, according to people familiar with the matter. Tanden, whose parents immigrated from India, would be the first woman of color to oversee the agency.
The president-elect will also appoint Princeton University labor economist Cecilia Rouse as chair of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members. Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair the council, which will play a key role in advising the president on the economy, which has been ailing since the pandemic struck the country.
Continue reading…President-elect will receive presidential daily briefing, while recovering from fractured foot sustained over weekendNeera Tanden and Cecilia Rouse nominations expected shortlyUS hits four million monthly Covid cases as Fauci warns of holiday surgePresident-elect announces all-female media team at his White HouseKushner heads to Saudi Arabia and Qatar amid Iranian scientist killing tensionSign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email 10.16am GMTJeffrey Frankel is a professor at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government who served as a member of president Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. He writes for us this morning: Joe Biden will lead the US back to international cooperationBiden did not campaign on international economic cooperation per se; US presidential candidates never do. But he has pledged to immediately reverse Trump’s monumentally short-sighted decisions to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization and the 2015 Paris climate agreement.Pandemic diseases such as Covid-19 are a classic example of an international externality that individual governments can’t adequately address on their own. International cooperation is a far more effective way to investigate local disease outbreaks and warn of global dangers; coordinate research, development, production and distribution of vaccines or treatments; and agree on procedures for restricting or quarantining cross-border travellers. The WHO is not perfect, but it is obviously needed now. Related: Joe Biden will lead the US back to international cooperation 10.08am GMTHere’s some more detail of the economics line-up we are expecting to hear from president-elect Joe Biden this week. It’s not clear when we will get an official announcement, but it is being reported as a done deal – well, with the caveat of the obvious hurdle of his nominations being accepted by the Senate in January. Annie Linskey and Jeff Stein report for the Washington Post:Biden is expected to nominate Neera Tanden, the chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, as director of the influential Office of Management and Budget, according to people familiar with the matter. Tanden, whose parents immigrated from India, would be the first woman of color to oversee the agency.The president-elect will also appoint Princeton University labor economist Cecilia Rouse as chair of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members. Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair the council, which will play a key role in advising the president on the economy, which has been ailing since the pandemic struck the country. Continue reading…