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CHILE HEADED FOR POLARIZING PRESIDENTIAL RUN-OFF VOTE: Jose Antonio Kast, a hard-right former congressman, won 28 percent of the vote to finish just ahead of leftist lawmaker and former protest leader Gabriel Boric (26 percent), in the first round of voting in Chile’s presidential election Sunday.

EUROPE — VIOLENT PROTESTS AGAINST COVID RESTRICTIONS CONTINUE: Different countries, different rules, but it’s all heading in the same direction of high case numbers (1 in every 100 Austrians is Covid positive — in Germany Angela Merkel calls the situation “worse than anything we’ve seen”) and violent reactions to government attempts at managing the situation. More below.

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi is in Tehran to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, ahead of Nov. 29 talks in Vienna between Iran and the parties to the Iran nuclear deal. Grossi’s meeting also precedes what is likely to be a tense IAEA Board of Governors, with the board divided over Iran’s lack of nuclear transparency.

SEE WHO’S SIGNED UP FOR DAVOS

Global Insider obtained this complete list of delegates who had completed their registration as of Nov. 17.

The good news for WEF: Around 500 CEOs are signed up.

The bad news: Only 15 companies have been willing to send their Chief Sustainability Officers — not many when you consider the Forum’s major emphasis on green issues.

The ugly: WEF is tracking to have a similar low percentage of female delegates as previous years (15 to 20 percent), with most organizations sending just one woman or none at all.

President Joe Biden is skipping the event, and some partners including the telecoms company BT have withdrawn their participation, a company spokesperson told Global Insider.

DOZENS OF LITTLE PANDEMICS EVERYWHERE

There really isn’t a trendline anymore. Even as vaccinations rise unevenly, so are cases and deaths. Many countries where the majority are vaccinated have been opening up, but others are implementing their toughest lockdowns ever.

China: The government is maintaining a zero-Covid policy — declaring victory yet continuing the clampdown. For the 7 out of 8 Chinese who lack a passport, health matters more than the closed borders. With only around 6,000 Covid deaths in China, compared to 787,000 in the U.S., there are upsides to this approach: on a per capita basis, you’re about 520 times more likely to die of Covid in the U.S. than in China.

United States: More than a thousand people continue to die every day, and 2021 Covid deaths have overtaken the 2020 pandemic death toll, despite the widespread availability of vaccines. Around 387,000 U.S. residents have died from Covid-19 in 2021.

Colorado, Idaho and New Mexico hospitals are operating under crisis standards of care. Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin hospitals are at, or near, the brink. But even in liberal, highly-vaccinated California, businesses and public agencies are questioning if strict vaccine mandates are doable.

Australia: The biggest positive turnaround in recent months has been Down Under. Over 90 percent are now vaccinated, up from just 9 percent in July; new cases are down to around one thousand a day.

Africa: In countries like South Sudan, vaccines are not a top priority: Dealing with major floods in the absence of emergency services and social support is more urgent. More broadly, Strive Masiyiwa, head of the African Union’s Vaccines Acquisition Task Force, told Global Insider that it’s lack of vaccines rather than vaccine hesitancy that’s the problem: “At least 50 percent of our people want a vaccine: let me get to those 50 percent first. I'm not going to worry about the people who don't want vaccines whilst there are millions who do.”

EU: WHO’s Hans Kluge told the BBC that a further 500,000 people may die across the continent by March without new policy measures. Record deaths in several countries in recent weeks have tracked with low vaccination rates: Only a quarter of Bulgarians are fully vaccinated, for example. One of the key reasons for that is lack of trust in the government.

Even in countries with high vaccination rates, cases are spiking. In the past week, France jumped from around 12,000 new infections per day to 20,000. French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal declared that “the fifth wave is starting at lightning speed.” In Italy Covid parties are now a thing (leading to participants ending up on respirators).

Austria begins a 10-day national Covid lockdown, which comes on the heels of a special lockdown aimed only at the unvaccinated; that prompted 15,000 people to protest in Vienna. Austria will be the first Western democracy to make vaccines mandatory from Feb. 1. Meanwhile, 35,000 people protested in central Brussels on Sunday against the “COVID safe ticket” used to access most indoor activities, and violent protests continued for a third consecutive day in several Dutch cities.

U.K.: Faulty equipment measuring oxygen levels is now blamed for condemning thousands of Covid patients to die. Wait, it gets worse: The pulse oximeters used by Britain’s National Health Service are less accurate for people with dark skin. In the case of Black patients, around 12 percent are now thought to have been given false readings underestimating their oxygen deprivation; in some cases it was too late to save them, the Times of London reported. An official review is underway.

HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL SECURITY FORUM DOWNLOAD

In a warning sign for what might unfold at President Biden’s Summit for Democracy next month, attendees at North America’s leading security conference this weekend repeatedly expressed their fears and doubts about the health of American democracy, and questioned Washington’s commitments to countering Beijing or Moscow.

The event became “less of a celebration of President Biden’s agenda and more of a global intervention for a nation in crisis,” my POLITICO colleagues reported, with topics from Afghanistan to the Jan. 6 insurrection to congressional paralysis dominating discussions.

“We all have a vested interest in the health of American democracy. So, yeah, I think it is a real concern,” said former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, from the country’s conservative Liberal party.

Even the compliments were back-handed: the Chair of NATO’s Military Committee, Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, praised Gen. Mark Milley’s apology for his walk across Lafayette Square, making a call for apolitical militaries.

Hypersonic China: Gen. David Thompson of the U.S. Space Force offered a brief introduction to hypersonic missiles (video). “The Chinese have had an incredibly aggressive hypersonic program for several years,” he said. China fired a missile mid-flight over the South China Sea during a July 27 test flight which alarmed U.S. officials, the FT reported.

Ipsos’ 2021 annual study for Halifax reveals that 83 percent of 22,000 people surveyed across 28 countries (mostly democracies, but also China and Saudi Arabia) believe that the world needs new international agreements and institutions led by democratic countries.

AFRICA — BIDEN TO HOST SECOND U.S.-AFRICA LEADERS SUMMIT: President Biden will convene leaders from across the African continent for the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit next year. A date has not been set.

RUSSIA — IS AMERICA’S TOOLBOX FOR RUSSIA EMPTY? The Economist argues that Vladimir Putin has shifted from autocracy to dictatorship: “politics has been banned” is its simple conclusion. Datapoints include the number of political prisoners jumping from 50 to over 400 since 2014: Those jailed range from university leaders to Alexei Navalny. A third of the state budget now goes to internal security and military — and the civilian security and intelligence forces outnumber active duty military.

But what have sanctions — the main policy tool applied by democracies against Russia and its elites — achieved? Not a lot. They haven’t bankrupted any oligarchs; they haven’t stopped Putin amassing troops in and near Ukraine, nor have they meaningfully raised the cost of supporting dictatorial allies such as the Lukashenko regime in Belarus.

As Fiona Hill told the New Statesman magazine, "We want them to go away, and they can’t afford to go away," she said. “Biden’s in a bind.”

Global Insider discussed the issue Friday during the Chicago Council’s weekly World Review, with former NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder, Council on Foreign Relations’ Carla Robbins and FT’s Philip Stephens (watch here). Putin remains an effective destabilizing force, but that’s all he can manage. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner. I mean, that's basically Putin,” said Robbins, who noted there has been one useful outcome from the Biden-Putin Geneva summit in June: “We haven't had a major supply chain hack.”

What’s next in efforts to contain Putin? “I think a U.S.-German policy towards Russia would go a long way” to minimizing Putin’s impacts, Stephens said.

CHINA — PENG MYSTERY BRINGS BEIJING OLYMPICS INTO FIRING LINE: As one IOC member, Canada’s Dick Pound, warned that the Peng Shuai case may "spin out of control," — other Olympic officials said a video call with the star convinced them she’s safe. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reiterated his call for a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China next year, while urging U.S. athletes to "kick their commie asses" during the Games in protest of human rights abuses.

TAIWAN — MORE INCENDIARY RHETORIC: “Those who play with fire on the Taiwan issue will have to pay the price.” Zhang Jun, Chinese ambassador to the U.N.

HAITI — DESCENDING INTO ANARCHY: The best news is that 2 of 17 abducted members of a missionary group have been freed in Haiti, their Ohio-based church organization announced Sunday. For everyone else in Haiti, reality now includes an escalation of mass kidnappings and gangs powerful enough to blackmail the government.

AUSTRALIA — DISHWASHERS ARE MAKING $65 AN HOUR: Labor shortages are a southern hemisphere issue too, as high-end Sydney restaurants have been discovering.

TECH — CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR SOCIAL PLATFORM EXECS: British media regulator Melanie Dawes is recommending that social media executives face criminal liability to prevent adults messaging children on their platforms.

CLIMATE — CONGO COBALT POWER STRUGGLE: “The quest for Congo’s cobalt, which is vital for electric vehicles and the worldwide push against climate change, is caught in an international cycle of exploitation, greed and gamesmanship," report Dionne Searcey, Michael Forsythe and Eric Lipton for the New York Times.

Global Insider investigated America’s critical mineral dependence here.

COMPETITION — U.S. CHAMBER VS. LINA KHAN: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce now openly says it is in a political war against Khan’s anti-monopoly efforts at the Federal Trade Commission. “It feels to the business community that the FTC has gone to war against us, and we have to go to war back,” said Chamber president and CEO Suzanne Clark.

THE GREAT YACHT SHORTAGE: It’s enough to have a billionaire crying into their crystal champagne flute.

TECH TOWNHOUSE: Inside the Capitol Hill townhouse where Big Tech’s critics feel at home.

CONFIRMED: The U.S. Senate has confirmed Meridian International Center President Lee Satterfield to be Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

PLAYING BALL: Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) — one of Donald Trump’s allies — is embracing diplomacy in the Senate as well as abroad, and helping to install Democratic loyalist Rahm Emmanuel as ambassador in Tokyo.

PHILANTHROPY — WHAT DOES MACKENZIE SCOTT OWE? Philanthropy insiders and experts question her processes and complain about a lack of transparency. Scott is transforming lives and communities by giving away a fortune she doesn’t believe she deserves, without using the typical intermediaries or necessarily giving to well-organized causes. Her biggest problem appears to be that her wealth (based on a 4 percent stake in Amazon) is growing faster than she can give it away (though she distributed $9 billion in little more than one year).

Food for thought: The recipients of Scott’s giving don’t seem to have a problem with her approach. Perhaps the philanthropy industry’s real problem with Scott is that they’re annoyed she’s not going to them — the do-good insiders — to help dish out her pie.

ONE FAVOR TOO MANY: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak — sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud 2020 in one of the world’s largest financial scandals — has withdrawn his request for a multimillion-dollar property from the Malaysian government, which he said he was entitled to for his time in government service.

PODCAST — Stuff the British Stole: Thank you for the railways, and welcome to another side of history, from the hosted by Marc Fennell for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, now in its second season.

SHORT READ — Cracking the dam of dictatorship: John Stapleton argues that Biden’s Summit for Democracy needs concrete outcomes; from agreeing to tying trade deals to democratic advances to leaning on partners as well as adversaries.

Thanks to editor Ben Pauker, Suzanne Lynch and Stuart Lau.