U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is proposing a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, including more than doubling the federal minimum wage to $15. It would be the third pandemic rescue bill since the coronavirus struck and his first legislative test of a Democratic-controlled Congress. It also comes as the battered U.S. economy takes a turn for the worse. His plan is expected to be the first phase of a two-part strategy, with a broader program coming in subsequent weeks focused on longer-term goals such as infrastructure and the climate crisis. As for President Donald Trump, he’s having a hard time finding a lawyer for his Senate impeachment trial. —David E. Rovella

Here are today’s top stories

The sprawling federal investigation into last week’s deadly attack by far-right groups on the U.S. Capitol may be taking an even darker turn, as members of Congress call for close scrutiny of other lawmakers they allege may have helped prepare for the unprecedented assault, which resulted in the death of a Capitol police officer. While law enforcement says no hard evidence has yet emerged to support the allegations, the Justice Department says it’s already probing alleged police and military involvement.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sought to stamp out talk of a premature reduction in the central bank’s massive bond-buying campaign, saying “now is not the time.” Treasury yields climbed on Thursday. Here’s your markets wrap.

The New York Police Department should be placed under yet another federal monitor, this time for violently suppressing the constitutional rights of citizens during peaceful demonstrations, the New York attorney general said Thursday. The state is suing the city agency over its conduct during protests last year against police killings of unarmed Black Americans. During those demonstrations, the attorney general said NYPD leaders failed to prevent their employees from beating, gassing and severely injuring peaceful protesters. The NYPD’s abuses during protests, New York state alleged, extend back decades.

New York City police in riot gear at a recent demonstration.

France is extending a 6 p.m. curfew to the entire nation, Brazil hospitals are running out of oxygen, and in the U.S., New York leads the hard-hit Northeast in people hospitalized with Covid-19 as some city hospitals run out of vaccine. Almost 93 million people have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus, and the global death count is approaching 2 million. Here is the latest on the pandemic.

In theater, there’s Broadway, off Broadway, and off-off Broadway. A similar hierarchy exists in the stock market, and it’s in the third category where today’s retail speculator is going wild. Share volume in unlisted stocks topped 1 trillion last month.

Revel’s thousands of shared electric mopeds are a real step toward emissions-free transportation—but with real risks, too: Like hundreds of collisions, and three deaths.

Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director noted the significance of yesterday’s news that struggling American chip giant Intel is replacing CEO Bob Swan. Overnight, rival manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor announced strong earnings and plans to spend as much as $28 billion to expand manufacturing and solidify its tech dominance. As Bloomberg Opinion columnist Tim Culpan put it, with this aggressive capital expenditure plan, Taiwan Semiconductor is going in for the kill. Joe says it’s hard to think of any other industry this interesting or important right now. Everything is built atop semiconductors: Even the car industry is having troubles due to a shortage of chips.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

The decade ending in 2020 was the hottest in recorded history.
U.S.-Iran tensions rise with a submarine incident.
A year after Covid appeared, China’s economy is beating the world.
Cargill undermined efforts to fight Covid-19, meatpackers union says.
Wall Street is fuming over an 11th-hour federal rule change.
Welcome to the Russian Bitcoin mine, inside the Arctic circle.
Hotels battered by the pandemic want to be vaccination sites.

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What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Hyperdrive

Your Next Corvette Might Look More Like an SUV

General Motors is working on a strategy to build at least one new electric vehicle inspired by its famous Corvette, potentially expanding the brand from a single performance model into a family of vehicles. If the plan is approved, the most likely model to emerge later this decade would be a marriage of a crossover SUV and a sports car.

Chevrolet Corvette Stingrays sit on the production line at the General Motors Co. Bowling Green Assembly Plant in Kentucky.

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg

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