U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill cleared its last hurdle Wednesday, with the House passing the final version. Biden plans to sign the legislation, his first major victory, on Friday. Included in the package: $160 billion for vaccine and testing programs, $360 billion in state aid, $25 billion to help restaurants, $170 billion to reopen schools, and yes, $1,400 checks for eligible Americans. A study from the Tax Policy Center found incomes of the lowest fifth of earners will jump 20%, the highest among income groups. While it’s a political victory for Biden and the razor-thin Democratic majority in Congress, the partisan vitriol over the bill foreshadows difficulty enacting the multi-trillion dollar, longer-term economic program Biden wants next. Not one Republican in Congress voted in favor of the Covid rescue bill, having attacked it as too expensive. Democrats were happy to point out the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul Republicans passed in 2017 that largely benefitted corporations and the rich. —Margaret Sutherlin

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

Here are today’s top stories  

In the intensifying vaccination fight in Europe, the U.K. accused senior European Union politicians of damaging its vaccination program by making “misleading” statements that cast doubt on the AstraZeneca shot—an escalation of post-Brexit tensions between the two sides. Meanwhile, the EU exported over 34 million vaccine doses while it has struggled to get its own population vaccinated. In the U.S., Biden is ordering 100 million more Johnson & Johnson shots. New, more easily transmitted virus variants account for 51% of New York City’s Covid cases and a new study showed the U.K. variant is in fact more deadly. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. 

The Senate confirmed Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general, filling a major position in Biden’s cabinet and ushering in a new era at the Justice Department. The 70-30 vote in the evenly divided Senate reflected substantial Republican support for the moderate federal appeals court judge. It’s something of a vindication: Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama only to have then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take the unprecedented step of refusing to take up the nomination. President Donald Trump later filled the seat.

Merrick Garland

Photographer: Pool/Getty Images North America

Inflation fears seem to be cooling for the moment after a key U.S. gauge came in below expectations. The S&P 500 notched its best two-day advance since early February, led by financial firms and producers of raw materials. Meanwhile, the U.S.budget deficit surpassed $1 trillion for the first five months of the fiscal year, as the government plowed money into the economy during the pandemic. Here’s your markets wrap.

How hot are SPACs? So hot that U.S. regulators issued a warning to investors over celebrity hyped funds. While the Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t name a star in particular, Jay-Z, Steph Curry or Serena Williams all have announced ties to blank-check companies and now the retail investor appears to also be jumping into this risky Wall Street area too.

There’s been plenty of speculation that Wall Street was finally leaving New York for South Florida, with financial power players fleeing en masse to ride out Covid-19. But, with the rise of vaccinations, Sunshine State hopes are fizzling.

It’s been 10 years since the tsunami and nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant. The area is still struggling to recover, even as the government pours billions of dollars into decontamination and rebuilding. But reconstruction efforts, from supermarkets and transport infrastructure to a cutting-edge hydrogen energy plant, have yet to entice more than a small fraction of the former population to return. 

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga visits Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 2020.

Photographer: AFP

We’re getting a clearer picture of how incomes and inequality vary among countries. The World Inequality Database, built by an international network of more than 100 academics, makes it possible to compare income inequality in 173 countries. Globalization and other trends inflated the top 1%’s share of the pie in most places, including Peru and India. 

What you’ll need to know tomorrow 

What you’ll want to read in Equality + Businessweek

The Tax Code Leaves Blacks Americans Behind

As a teenager growing up in the Bronx, Dorothy Brown thought she’d found a loophole in American racism: the U.S. tax code. The assumption carried her through an early career as a tax attorney and political appointee. After that, though, she spent a quarter century trying to prove the opposite: that although tax laws may appear to be colorblind, they still discriminate against Black Americans. 

Dorothy Brown

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