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Moderna plans to begin human studies of a booster shot for its vaccine to help protect against a more-transmissible South Africa variant of the coronavirus, one of several newly discovered strains. The World Health Organization is warning that vaccine coverage won’t be able to stop transmission for the foreseeable future. In the U.S., Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are receding from the most recent holiday wave, and New York and California are lifting some restrictions. But localized outbreaks are still raging. This pattern is a preview of the landscape in the months to come. Here’s 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  

Melting of the Earth’s ice sheets has accelerated so much over the past three decades that it’s now in line with the worst-case climate warming scenarios.

Apollo Global Management said Chairman and CEO Leon Black will retire as CEO. The news comes the same day Apollo announced that its conflicts committee completed an independent review of Black’s previous professional relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The firm said an investigation found Apollo never retained Epstein for any services, that the convicted sex offender never invested in any Apollo-managed funds, and that it found no evidence that Black was ever involved with Epstein’s criminal activities.

Leon Black 

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon

Despite a punishing two weeks and relentless chat-room taunting, GameStop haters show no signs of surrender. Stock equal to 139% of its available shares has been borrowed and sold short despite mark-to-market losses of more than $6 billion year-to-date. GameStop shares have surged roughly 78% in the past two days alone. Stocks rose Monday in the broader market on the back of tech shares. Here is your markets wrap.

The world is witnessing the greatest rise in inequality on record, with the poorest likely to feel the effects of the pandemic for years to come while the mega-rich have already bounced back.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he’s open to negotiate with Republicans on his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal, but didn’t rule out pursuing a Democratic-only route to passage.

Evidence that could be used against Donald Trump in his impeachment trial for inciting a deadly insurrection is piling up, Timothy L. O’Brien writes in Bloomberg Opinion. This weekend brought more reporting on how the Republican allegedly sought, and almost received from one DOJ official, the help of the Justice Department in his bid to discard Biden’s victory. An investigation is underway.

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark 

Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says there may be a bubble brewing. Whether it’s crazed shorts gang-tackling GameStop or the boom in SPACs, the exuberance around anything related to electric and autonomous vehicles, or the surge in tech companies that haven’t posted a profit, there is a lot of enthusiasm these days for speculative bets. If you’re somehow tempted to blame all this on the Fed for keeping rates at zero, or for pushing real rates to negative, don’t, Joe says. If you look back at the late 90s, when there were bubbles galore, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury was over 4%.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow 

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits

Michelin: Three Stars Each to Two Female Chefs 

Michelin announced two new three-star restaurants in London on Monday—both led by women chefs. The awards go to Hélène Darroze at the Connaught and to Core by Clare Smyth. They are the first women in the U.K. to win three stars in their own right.

Clare Smyth

Photographer: Miles Willis/Bloomberg

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