Today's top stories

A shot in the arm for AstraZeneca, record floods in Australia, and a Turkey shock spooks stocks
AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine has received a major boost after data from a large trial showed it was safe and effective, potentially paving the way for its emergency authorization in the United States.
Miami Beach officials voted to extend an 8 p.m. curfew and emergency powers for up to three weeks to help control unruly and mostly maskless crowds that have converged on the party destination during spring break.
Investigators in a criminal probe of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s real-estate business are combing through millions of pages of newly acquired records with an eye toward identifying witnesses who can bring the documents to life for a jury.
Decades ago, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Cordelia Clark ran a restaurant out of her kitchen and parked cabs for her taxi company in her backyard because Black residents were effectively barred from owning or renting storefronts in town.
Now Evanston is poised to become the first U.S. city to offer reparation money to Black residents whose families suffered lasting damage from decades of discriminatory practices.

↑ Men pose outside the Bonus Tompson Hardware store in Evanston, Illinois, U.S., circa 1912

WORLD

↑ Dogs in carriers are transported on inflatable boats by State Emergency Service personnel during a rescue amid rising floodwaters in Sydney, Australia, March 22, 2021

Australian authorities are planning to evacuate thousands more people from flood-affected suburbs in Sydney’s west, which is set for its worst flooding in 60 years with drenching rain expected to continue for the next few days.
A dispute between Britain and the European Union over the implementation of the so-called Northern Ireland protocol - designed to prevent a 'hard' Irish border - has raised fears that the outrage it has caused among some caught in the middle could spill over into violent protest in the coming months.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed victory over COVID-19 by making Israel a "vaccination nation". Even that may not be enough when voters wearing mandatory masks cast their ballots in an election tomorrow. We look at the array of contenders seeking to topple him.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began a visit to China with a call for Moscow and Beijing to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar and Western payment systems to push back against what he called the West’s ideological agenda.