Axios

European Union leaders have agreed to cut net carbon emissions at least 55% from 1990 levels by 2030, European Council President Charles Michel announced on Friday.

The big picture: The agreement eased concerns among Eastern European countries, including Poland, that rely heavily on coal, while putting the EU on a path toward its goal to be climate-neutral by 2050.

ByteDance is closing in $2 billion in new funding co-led by KKR and existing backer Sequoia Capital at a $180 billion valuation, per Reuters.

Why it matters: This would cement China-based ByteDance as the world's most valuable VC-backed company, worth 3X the next-largest unicorn, and comes despite the U.S. government's efforts to force its divestiture of TikTok.

A fallout between President Trump and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, led to the breakthrough that resulted in the Morocco-Israel normalization deal, sources briefed on the matter told me.

Why it matters: Inhofe is Washington's most avid supporter of the Polisario Front — a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara. He has travelled many times to Algeria for meetings with Polisario leaders.

AstraZeneca will begin trials to test whether its experimental coronavirus vaccine can be successfully combined with Russia’s Sputnik V shot, the company announced on Friday.

Why it matters: Both AstraZeneca's and Russia's vaccines have raised questions among experts around their separate trials. Russia has not completed advanced studies on the vaccine to ensure whether it is safe and adheres to scientific protocols. AstraZeneca's vaccine is reported to be about 62% effective, but some patients accidentally received a modified dosing regimen during trials.

Chinese authorities have detained Haze Fan, a Chinese national and Bloomberg News staff member working for their Beijing bureau, on suspicion of national security endangerment, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The big picture: Chinese citizens working for Western media companies have been warned by officials to "watch their step," according to the Washington Post. Western media companies are facing worsening conditions in China, and many American journalists have been expelled from the country.

While Americans were fixated on the U.S. presidential election, another major political event was happening in China: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee’s crucial Fifth Plenum meeting.

The big picture: The plenum underlined a further consolidation of Xi Jinping’s political hold on the party, lauding Xi as China’s “great navigator and helmsman,” a term last used for Mao Zedong. It also approved the outline of China’s all-important next Five-Year Plan for 2021-2025, and set 15-year goals out to 2035.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy activist and critic of the Chinese Communist Party, has been charged on suspicion of "colluding with foreign forces" under Hong Kong's national security law, AP reports.

Why it matters: It's the most high-profile application yet of the draconian new law, which was brought into force over the summer as part of Beijing's crackdown on the city's pro-democracy movement.

President Trump announced a deal with Morocco on Thursday that included two major provisions: Morocco will establish diplomatic relations with Israel, and the U.S. will recognize Morocco's sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Why it matters: The U.S. is now the only Western country to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, reversing decades of U.S. policy. With six weeks left in his term, Trump provided Morocco a diplomatic breakthrough for which it has lobbied for decades.

Soccer star Antoine Griezmann said Thursday he has ended his sponsorship deal with Huawei, citing "strong suspicions" that the Chinese tech giant had tested software aimed at helping the Chinese government's surveillance of Uighur Muslims.

Driving the news: U.S.-based research organization IPVM on Tuesday alleged that Huawei tested facial recognition software that can alert police when it recognizes Uighur minorities. The Washington Post first reported the allegations.

The European Commission published a series of contingency measures on Thursday to ensure that basic air and road connectivity are maintained in the increasingly likely event that a free trade agreement is not reached with the U.K. by the end of the Brexit transition period.

Why it matters: It's the surest sign yet that the U.K. is headed for a cliff-edge Brexit on Dec. 31, coming one day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels and failed to make progress on major sticking points.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday she doesn't have "any concern" about Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), after an Axios investigation revealed the congressman was targeted by a suspected Chinese spy seeking to gain access to U.S. political circles up until 2015.

Driving the news: Pelosi called for closer examination of Chinese activities "in terms of their undue influence at universities in our country and the overtures they've tried to make to members of Congress," but stopped short of saying that lawmakers should run background checks on everyone they work with.

Morocco has agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, President Trump announced on Thursday. The Moroccan decision comes as part of a deal that includes U.S. recognition of the disputed territory of Western Sahara as part of Morocco.

Why it matters: Morocco is the fourth Arab country to move toward normalization with Israel in the last four months as part of the Trump administration's "Abraham Accords" initiative. But the deal also involves a change in long-standing U.S. policy with just six weeks left in Trump's term.

John Kerry is beginning to signal how he'll approach his new gig as President-elect Joe Biden's special envoy on climate change — including the fraught relationship with China, the world's biggest carbon emitter.

Driving the news: Kerry tells NBC News that he sees an opening to work with China even amid tensions between the countries on trade and other topics.

A Lebanese prosecutor on Thursday filed charges against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers for negligence leading to over 200 deaths in the deadly explosion at Beirut's port in August, AP reports.

The state of play: Diab, who became prime minister last January, resigned in August after the explosion, but has stayed on in a caretaker role as the country has failed to form a new government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that Israel will begin vaccinating the public against the coronavirus on Dec. 27, with plans to inoculate 60,000 people daily.

The state of play: Netanyahu said in a press conference alongside Israeli health officials that the country has received its first shipment of Pfizer vaccine doses, with more expected to arrive on Thursday.

China's foreign ministry on Thursday announced new restrictions on American officials traveling to Hong Kong in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, the AP reports.

Why it matters: The move is the latest escalation in a series of tit-for-tat measures between the U.S. and China over Hong Kong, which began when Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the once semi-autonomous region in June.

Almost 75% of the world's deaths last year were from non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer, according to the World Health Organization.

Why it matters: Worldwide life expectancy is now up to an average of 73 years — six years longer than it was in 2000. But chronic, and in some cases preventable, disease is also taking a bigger toll than it was 20 years ago.