After marathon negotiations, the U.S. House approved a $550 billion infrastructure bill, giving President Joe Biden what he badly wanted: a large, bipartisan accomplishment. The legislation, passed earlier by the Senate, now goes to Biden for his signature.

Efforts to negotiate agreements to slow global warming at the United Nations climate talks in Scotland face a big hurdle: getting the world’s biggest polluter — China — on board. Negotiators are trying to nail down an agreement on international carbon-market trading.

Europe is again an epicenter for the coronavirus, raising questions about the region’s efforts to recover from the pandemic despite an abundance of Covid-19 vaccinations.

The UN Security Council called for an end of hostilities in Ethiopia, while rebel and opposition groups announced a plan to forge a political alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Delve into these and more of Bloomberg’s best stories from the past seven days in this edition of Weekend Reads. 

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What’s in the $550 Billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
The legislation the U.S. House passed Friday is designed to  revitalize the nation’s transportation and utility infrastructure, mostly over the next five years.  Laura Davison and  Steven T. Dennis detail what’s in the bill.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s struggle to deliver on Biden’s two biggest policy priorities has illustrated the divisions within her party at a time Democrats desperately want to show they can govern.

Green Trillions Face ‘Acid Test’ After Bankers Toast COP Pledges
Banks, investors and insurers representing $130 trillion in assets have now committed to decarbonizing their business by mid-century. But as  Tom Metcalf and  Alastair Marsh outline, the gaping question remains whether financiers accustomed to making billions on fossil-fuel deals will have the willpower to stop. 

Favoring Fossil Fuel

Oil, gas and coal-related financing has amounted to more than double the amount of green debt issuance since 2016

Source: Bloomberg League Tables

China’s Deafening Silence Speaks Loudest at Global Climate Talks
The ongoing COP26 climate talks have been hampered by the subdued participation of China. The world’s second-biggest economy has stayed out of pacts to tackle methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, and reduce funding for fossil fuels.

Why the Low-Key Methane Pledge Is a Big Deal for the Climate
As leaders at the UN summit discuss how to slow climate change, a key deal is taking place on the sidelines: the Global Methane Pledge.  John Ainger and  Akshat Rathi write that it’s perhaps the biggest single thing governments can do to keep alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Russia’s Dirty Gas Is Keeping Europe From Freezing Over
European politicians went into COP26 talks as climate heroes, but the continent is deeply reliant on natural gas that comes with supersized methane emissions.  Aaron Clark and Laura Millan explain why.

Red States Steer Biden’s Policies Into a Wall of Trump Judges
Biden’s immigration agenda has faced one setback after another from court challenges led by Republican states. Peter Blumberg outlines why it’s no accident the rulings were issued by judges appointed by ex-President Donald Trump — whose policies Biden was trying to reverse.

What China’s Top-Secret Communist Party Meeting Is All About
President Xi Jinping is huddling his ruling Communist Party one last time next week before likely defying precedent to secure a third five-year term in power at next year’s twice-a-decade party congress.  Jenni Marsh details what’s at stake.

China is Leveraging its Vaccine Diplomacy Beyond Covid Shots
After becoming the world’s top exporter of Covid-19 vaccines, China is now making an aggressive overseas push for its vaccines against other diseases such as Japanese encephalitis and pneumonia, competing with giants including Pfizer and Merck & Co.

• Authorities are ring-fencing Beijing against Covid-19 outbreaks in more than half of China’s provinces, as the capital prepares to host political leaders and the Winter Olympics in less than 100 days. 
• Read here how a leading political commentator waded into the debate about the country’s Covid Zero approach.

Delta's Revenge

Mainland China braces for the broadest outbreak since Wuhan

Source: National Health Commission

Note: data shown are aggregated numbers reported between Oct. 18 to Nov. 3

Covid Deaths Are in the Millions But Autopsies Only in Hundreds
Pathologists are pushing to resurrect a dying practice — the autopsy — to get a clearer picture of the virus’s aftermath. Jason Gale profiles a group of scientists on a mission to understand where in the body the coronavirus goes and what it does in each of those places.

Abiy was commenting in a statement on Wednesday to commemorate the start of the Tigrayan conflict. It’s been less than a year since he declared military victory over the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the ethnic-based party whose forces now threaten the capital, Addis Ababa, and that dominated Ethiopia until Abiy took office in April 2018.

Best of Opinion This Week

• Climate Deals Always Fail Before They Succeed: David Fickling
• Markets Can Help Fix the Climate: Michael Bloomberg, Mark Carney
• Kremlin Politics Are Bad for Russia’s Health: Clara F. Marques
• China Is Permanently Damaging Its Marketplace: Shuli Ren
• Trumpism Without Trump Entices Virginia, New Jersey: Tim O'Brien

Supply Chain Crisis Risks Taking World Economy Down With It
Last year the global economy came to a halt. This year it got moving again, only to become stuck in one of history’s biggest traffic jams. Bjorn Van Roye,  Brendan Murray and  Tom Orlik report on the extremity of the problem.

Flashing Red

Across services and industry, gauges show U.S. supply shortages

Sources: Bloomberg Economics, ISM, BLS, Census Bureau

Facebook to Shut Down Use of Facial Recognition Technology
Facebook parent Meta Platforms will no longer use facial recognition for shared photos and videos, saying it needs to weigh the benefits against growing concerns about the technology. The move, Kurt Wagner writes, comes after years of intense scrutiny from regulators and privacy advocates, who say the company has been reckless with user data. 

• U.K. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries warned that Facebook and its chiefs are on course for criminal prosecution for failing to rein in the harmful effects of its platform.

And finally … China has censored any mention of tennis star Peng Shuai’s purported account of a decade-long affair with former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli. The revelations come at a sensitive time in China’s political calendar as top party officials are set to meet.