| Horse trading | Biden meets Republican lawmakers today to discuss their alternative Covid-19 economic relief package that's less than a third of his $1.9 trillion plan. The president and Democratic leaders must decide whether to break his proposal into pieces to secure a bipartisan bill that would include funding for vaccines and testing, and unemployment assistance. - Even within the White House, there's debate about the plan to issue Americans another $1,400 each in stimulus checks.
Defense scramble | Former President Donald Trump's 11th-hour remake of his impeachment defense team leaves little time to prepare for arguments that start next week in a Senate trial over whether he incited the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. - Trump's fundraising cooled off in the final weeks of the year as his false claims of election fraud suffered judicial setbacks.
Merkel Steps In | Chancellor Angela Merkel convenes talks today with pharmaceutical industry representatives, German state leaders and European Union officials to discuss the slow pace of vaccination across the bloc. The aim is to boost the production capacity of vaccines and speed their rollout. The virtual meeting is an acknowledgement of the EU's stuttering performance and its controversial decision to restrict exports when faced with reduced deliveries, prompting global complaints and charges of protectionism. - As soon as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's vaccine emergency plan was published, senior officials in Brussels knew it was a terrible mistake.
 Prison threat | Russian prosecutors called today for the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny on the eve of a court hearing to review a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence, after police detained record numbers of protesters against President Vladimir Putin for a second straight weekend. More than 5,000 were held at Sunday's protests nationwide in support of Navalny, in detention since returning to Russia from Germany last month. Not so fast | The U.S. and Iran are calling on each other to take the first step to restore the nuclear accord abandoned in 2018 by Trump. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. can't automatically return to the deal without reversing key sanctions, including permitting "easy oil exports." What to Watch - Talks aimed at setting up a new Italian government continue today in a bid to end the deadlock that spurred the resignation of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
- Brazilian legislators vote today for the presidency of the lower house and the Senate in what could be a defining moment for President Jair Bolsonaro as he seeks to ensure his allies win both key jobs.
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A career banker, a socialist and an indigenous party candidate all have a shot at winning Ecuador's presidential election on Sunday, but it will probably go to a runoff. -
Former South African President Jacob Zuma said he will refuse to cooperate with a judicial panel that's probing graft during his nine-year rule, in violation of an order by the nation's top court. -
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu starts a two-day visit to northern Cyprus against a backdrop of tensions with Cypriot and Greek authorities over maritime boundaries. Thanks to all who responded to our pop quiz Friday, and congratulations Virgile Salmon, who was the first to name Haiti as the country where the president disagrees with the opposition on which year his term ends. And finally ... Singapore was held up as a model for using a tracing app to fight Covid-19 until the authorities disclosed that police had used the data in a murder investigation. After countries from the U.S. to Australia to Israel collected reams of data during the pandemic, largely with public support, there's growing concern that uses for that information are going beyond the original intent. Jamie Tarabay explains why.  Singapore's TraceTogether contact-tracing phone app. Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/Bloomberg | 
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