Plains, Trains and Automobiles.

Profile in Stature: Bill Gates.

1. Antony J. Blinken, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s closest foreign policy adviser, is expected to be nominated for secretary of state, a job in which he will try to coalesce skeptical international partners into a new competition with China, according to people close to the process. Mr. Blinken, 58, a former deputy secretary of state under Pres…