Valerie Biden Owens, her brother's closest political adviser for 49 years, told me in an interview for "Axios on HBO" that President-elect Joe Biden plans to ignore the distractions of President Trump while building and launching a government.

Driving the news: "He's never going to see Donald Trump again," Owens said Sunday in Wilmington, in her first on-camera interview since Joe Biden became president-elect. "Donald Trump is going off the stage on January 20th. ... That's history, that's past."

Pfizer yesterday took a giant step toward a COVID-19 vaccine, reporting that its vaccine candidate was effective in over 90% of uninfected clinical trial patients.

Reality check: It's a giant and welcome development, but the pandemic will be with us long after vaccine distribution begins.

Risk assets had a very good day on Monday, but U.S. stock performance was mixed after news that a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech could be distributed to millions of people before the end of the month.

Why it matters: Beyond just stocks, Monday's market moves clearly reflected investor enthusiasm and a market pricing in a return to pre-pandemic life that will benefit risk at the expense of safety.

Despite the tight count in key states, Joe Biden matched the election results Trumpworld labeled a "mandate" in 2016.

The big picture: Biden's raw vote and Electoral College tally put him in noteworthy historical company.

1. Politics: Biden unveils coronavirus task force — Trump adviser leading election legal fight tests positive.
2. Health: Coronavirus won't disappear, even with a vaccine — Pfizer says its vaccine is over 90% effective — U.S. coronavirus cases top 10 million — FDA grants emergency use authorization for Eli Lilly treatment.
3. Business: Stock market roars higher after vaccine news
4. World: Portugal and Hungary the latest European nations to enter partial lockdown
5. 🎧Podcast: Pfizer CEO says he would've released vaccine data before election if possible.

Facebook and other social media platforms aim to serve users across the political spectrum, but as America's tribal partisan split deepens after a divisive election, more users may start choosing to stick with their own kind.

Why it matters: No competitor will be able to match Facebook's size any time soon, or maybe ever. But the nation's sharp schism is reducing the company's options for keeping users on both left and right engaged — and seeding the online landscape with potential alternatives.

Days after Republicans defied expectations by picking up seats in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy cited a junior member of Congress — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) — as one of the reasons he was able to raise so much money.

Driving the news: "Well, she runs the floor," McCarthy told "Axios on HBO" last night when asked why Republicans respond so vociferously to AOC.

President-elect Joe Biden isn't likely to pursue a full reset with China, but he quickly must decide which of the Trump administration's many policies to keep and which to scrap.

Why it matters: In a world struggling against the common threats of climate change, nuclear proliferation and an ongoing pandemic, the U.S. must find a way to both challenge and cooperate with a rising authoritarian superpower.

The U.S. Space Force is slated to swear in its first officer in space just as the scope and mission of the military’s newest branch are being defined.

Why it matters: The Space Force — one of President Trump's major space policy initiatives — will continue to be shaped by a new administration with potentially different ideas about how to protect U.S. national security in space.

Jon Ossoff says he and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia Democrats competing in two Jan. 5 runoffs to decide partisan control of the U.S. Senate, can win as a "team" riding the state's demographic changes.

Driving the news: Ossoff made the prediction in an interview for "Axios on HBO" in which he also said that his opponent in the Jan. 5 primary, Sen. David Purdue, embodies "Trumpism in a nutshell."

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn isn't happy with his Democratic caucus for allowing slogans to dominate the narrative about their party, telling "Axios on HBO" that phrases like "defund the police" cost them crucial seats in the House and Senate.

Why it matters: Democrats might have won the White House, but their party underperformed expectations in the congressional elections, and some members are publicly and privately blaming their more liberal colleagues.

In an "Axios on HBO" interview, California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna continued to urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take the $1.8 trillion coronavirus relief deal that the Trump administration offered — and Pelosi rejected — before the election.

Driving the news: Asked if he thinks Pelosi ought to take the deal now, Khanna replied, "If we get $1.8 trillion? I think we would definitely want to make the deal. And it's gonna be catastrophic if we don't."

Richard Pilger, a Department of Justice official who oversees investigations of voting crimes, stepped down from his role Monday after Attorney General Bill Barr authorized U.S. attorneys to probe alleged elections fraud, the New York Times first reported.

Why it matters: President Trump has refused to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, alleging a conspiracy of widespread voting fraud, but he has yet to provide relevant evidence.

Joe Biden's transition team is warning that it may take "legal action" if the General Services Administration fails to make an official determination that Biden has won the election.

Driving the news: GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, a Trump political appointee, has not made the declaration — a so-called "ascertainment" — that would allow officials from Biden’s agency review teams access to the information they need in order to get to work.

Governments around the world are preparing to work with President-elect Biden — but they still have to navigate what could be a bumpy final 10 weeks of President Trump.

Split screen: Around the time Biden was holding his first call as president-elect with a foreign leader, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump was firing his secretary of defense, Mark Esper.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan surprised his country and the world tonight by announcing that he had agreed to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh on terms that were “unbelievably painful for me personally and for our people.”

Why it matters: The announcement followed confirmation that Azerbaijan had taken a critical town in the breakaway region, which is majority ethnic Armenian but lies within neighboring Azerbaijan.

Attorney General Bill Barr has authorized U.S. attorneys to conduct investigations into alleged voter fraud if there are "clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities" that could change the outcome of a federal election in a particular state, AP first reported and Axios can confirm.

Why it matters: President Trump has refused to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, alleging a conspiracy of widespread voting fraud and corruption by Democratic election officials. He has thus far not provided specific evidence for his claims, which have been shot down by both Democratic and Republican secretaries of state.