Russian President Vladimir Putin for a second time tried to tilt a U.S. presidential election toward Donald Trump, this time by authorizing efforts to attack Joe Biden’s candidacy and influence associates of Trump, U.S. intelligence officials said in an unclassified report. They rejected unsubstantiated claims by Trump and other Republicans that China tried to influence the 2020 election. U.S. officials also reaffirmed that they consider Moscow the biggest threat to national security. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the progress of coronavirus vaccines while mapping the pandemic globally and across America. 

Here are today’s top stories  

China President Xi Jinping warned that Beijing will go after “platform” companies that have amassed data and market power, potentially a sign that a crackdown on the country’s internet sector is only just beginning.

 Chinese President Xi Jinping  

Photographer: Pool/Getty Images AsiaPac

A new, hard-to-detect Covid-19 variant is spreading in a French region where patients developed tell-tale symptoms but tested negative for the virus. European Union leaders are debating the future of the embattled AstraZeneca shot (which the EU still stands by) while two member nations consider reversing themselves and using the drug.

Russia condemned the U.S. for applying diplomatic pressure on Brazil to reject its Sputnik V vaccine, saying that attempts at political meddling were costing lives. Here is the latest on the pandemic.

The White House says a coming U.S. tax plan will raise rates on corporations and the rich while providing relief for households that bring home around $110,000 per year.

The biggest U.S. banks say they will start distributing individual payouts from the third coronavirus bailout on Wednesday. With at least 10 million Americans still unemployed in the wake of a financial calamity second only to the Great Depression, many of those $1,400 deposits (along with now-continued unemployment benefits) will pay for necessities like rent and food. But for recipients who aren’t in dire straits (or interested in boosting the economy), there’s always the option of investing. Here’s how they might want to do that. 

Despite the accelerating climate crisis, the world’s three biggest consumers of coal are getting ready to boost usage by so much that it’ll be as if the pandemic-induced drop in greenhouse gas emissions never happened.

Smoke rises from the Duke Energy coal-fired Asheville Power Plant in North Carolina. 

Photographer: Charles Mostoller/Bloomberg

The pandemic has changed a lot of things, many forever. One may be how Americans shop. Those big-box behemoths (Walmart, Best Buy, Target) that kids used to get lost in are becoming fulfillment centers, where workers assemble deliveries and consumers wait outside for their trunks to be filled. Space once devoted to t-shirts and TVs will be used to pick and pack online orders. Stores will be smaller and integrated with digital operations—or risk becoming irrelevant.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow 

• New EPA chief pledges to attack environmental injustice.
• This is where you can take home the most pay after taxes.
• A copycat ETF is doing ten times better than Cathie Wood’s original.
• Boeing is testing cockpit windows in a widening 787 flaw search.
• After court rules, Uber says 70,000 U.K. drivers are now employees.
• Smokers in America will likely be extinct by 2050.
• Bill Gross says he made $10 million betting against GameStop.

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What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits

GameStop the Movie. Nine of Them in Fact

Speaking of GameStop, WallStreetBets founder Jaime Rogozinski just signed up with United Talent Agency—home to Kevin Hart and Seth Rogen. He may be looking to capitalize on sudden fame after his Reddit clubhouse launched the video-game retailer skyward. Hollywood can’t get enough of GameStop and its charred short-seller saga—studios have already commissioned nine projects based on it. Nine.

Photographer: Bloomberg 

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Bloomberg New Economy Conversations with Andrew Browne: Big Pharma joined with governments to deliver coronavirus shots in record time. The successful moonshot could spur future research into other affordable drugs to treat global diseases. Join us March 23 at 10 a.m. ET when Katalin Karikó, senior vice president of Covid vaccine pioneer BioNTech, and others discuss Vaccine Miracles and the New Promise of Science. Register here.

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