U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged the chamber will “power through” to get President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan over the finish line this weekend. While Senator Bernie Sanders’ last-ditch effort to restore a minimum-wage hike to the bill fell short Friday, Democrats resolved differences over supplemental unemployment benefits. Most agreed on $300-a-week figure, less than the $400 approved by the House. The bonus would last longer under the Senate version, until Oct. 4 rather than the end of August. —Margaret Sutherlin

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

Here are today’s top stories  

After some pooh-poohed the AstraZeneca shot, it looks like the fight to keep it in the European Union is on. France backed a move by Italy to block the export of vaccines to Australia, signaling that other countries in the bloc could do the same. The war over Covid-19 restrictions continues to brew in the U.S. After Texas’ Republican governor lifted occupancy curbs earlier this week, Arizona followed suit Friday while leaving in place requirements for masks and physical distancing. Even Maine eased some limits, all despite warnings that tragedy will result from repeating the deadly errors of last spring. In one milestone, more than half of Americans 65 years old and over have gotten a Covid-19 vaccination. While more are warming to the shots, lingering hesitancy means inoculating the most vulnerable is about to get much harder. Here’s latest on the pandemic. 

Investors buying the dip dragged markets back from their lows on Friday. After sliding 10% from yet another record high, the Nasdaq ended the day up 1.5%. The S&P 500 closed higher by almost 2%. One company had a particularly crummy five days, however: Tesla fell for the fourth week in a row, pushing its market value loss to $234 billion. Ouch. Here’s your markets wrap. 

While the U.S. added 379,000 jobs in February, (well beyond expectations), a sobering 9.5 million Americans remain out of work as the economy tries to recover. There were signs of progress in the labor market: volatile leisure and hospitality hires were up and private payrolls blew past estimates. But there were key areas of weakness, especially for Black Americans who were the only group to see their unemployment rate increase. 

People wait in line for help with unemployment benefits at the One-Stop Career Center in Las Vegas last March. In the year since the pandemic struck, millions of Americans have not been able to find jobs.

China aims to complete a powerful new undersea digital cable this year that reaches all the way to France. It will be able to transmit enough data in one second for 90,000 hours of Netflix, and will largely serve to make service faster for Chinese companies doing business in Europe and Africa. But there’s one big obstacle standing in Beijing’s way: America.

There’s a Bitcoin fight brewing that the Biden White House will have to settle, and its decision could have implications for all cryptocurrency. Measures proposed by the outgoing Trump administration were meant to curtail the use of Bitcoin and its rivals to finance illegal activities. Not surprisingly, analysts say if those regulations go into effect the price of cryptocurrencies will plummet. 

China released its fourteenth five-year plan for climate change to fanfare at the National Party Congress. But when it came to greenhouse-gas emissions targets, environmentalists were disappointed again.  

The EU and the U.S. agreed to suspend tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s products, easing a 17-year dispute over illegal aid to the world’s biggest aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus.

British Airways fleet of Airbus A380s in Chateauroux, France 

What you’ll need to know tomorrow 

• Minneapolis cop charged with murdering George Floyd goes on trial.
• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was rebuked by his own party. 
• Coinbase’s CEO could net $3 billion after the IPO.  
• Yet another study shows the rich got richer during the pandemic.
• Donors who gave thousands of dollars to charity got a surprise. 
• The new White House helicopter keeps burning the lawn. 
• There’s a new battle raging in the streaming wars over football.

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What you’ll want to read tonight

World’s Worst Covid Crisis Unfolds in Brazil

More than a year after the coronavirus pandemic started, most countries are hoping they put the worst behind them. Not Brazil. Its hospitals are overflowing, its policy in disarray and its vaccine supply is severely limited. Its president scoffs at the disease, even though he had it. Now the country has a dangerous variant that’s more contagious and possibly deadlier. 

Health workers arriving with a victim of respiratory failure in the emergency care unit of Vila Xavier hospital for Covid-19 infected patients at Araraquara, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Jonne Roriz 

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