India’s lagging vaccine drive is amplifying its Covid surge—the world’s worst.

All of the country’s more than 900 million adults are eligible for shots, but demand is far outpacing supply as the Indian health system is struggling with record numbers of new cases. The state of Maharashtra, home to the financial capital Mumbai, said there wouldn't be fresh doses until late May, and elsewhere local leaders are asking anyone under 45 to avoid crowding hospitals. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, had sought to vaccinate 300 million people by August, and the country's experience with mass inoculation and its large homegrown vaccine manufacturers initially made leaders optimistic. Yet just 1.8% of the population was vaccinated as of Friday, and the ferocious coronavirus surge devastating the country is intensifying. The situation has many in India losing hope. “People want to get vaccinated. We’re desperate in this situation,” said Hasiba Amin, a 30-year-old social-media coordinator in New Delhi. For months, while cases in India remained low, local vaccine makers exported many Covid-19 shots to other, mostly developing nations, but those shipments have halted almost entirely. The companies are now seeking to ramp up production, but shortages of the necessary raw materials pose another challenge. The U.S., U.K., France and Germany have pledged to provide various forms of aid. But some public-health experts say most Indian states lack the cold storage and distribution networks needed to ramp up vaccinations even if production were to increase sharply.

Here are some ways people can help India battle its Covid-19 surge.

What the U.S. census results mean for the 2022 midterm elections.

Data reported by the U.S. Census Bureau this week shows that political power in the 435-seat House of Representatives will be shifting further to states in the South and the Mountain West. Population changes over the past decade means that Texas is gaining two seats in the chamber, and Florida, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon are each set to gain one. California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan are each set to lose a seat. The once-a-decade changes are expected to favor Republicans not only because GOP-leaning states are gaining representation but also because their state legislatures have significantly more control over the drawing of new congressional maps, a process known as redistricting. That is set to renew scrutiny of the practice of gerrymandering, which involves drawing congressional maps in ways that favor a particular party or constituency. Republicans will be in charge of drawing new maps in 187 districts, compared with 75 for Democrats. In Texas, for example, where Donald Trump gained in popularity last fall, Republicans are expected to try redrawing maps in some heavily Hispanic districts to benefit their party, with Democrats already voicing opposition. Many of the new maps are likely to be litigated, as the Democrats' razor-thin House majority has raised the stakes for next year's midterms, and pandemic-related delays have shortened legislators’ timetables to finalize maps before primaries begin.

Apple is giving users more privacy controls—and looking to boost its digital-ad business in the process.

Advertising that appears in the tech giant's App Store is expected to bring in $2 billion in revenue this fiscal year, a fraction of the $274.52 billion the company made overall last year. But under the iPhone maker's new privacy tools, that ad business is poised for a boost that could eventually give Apple an advantage in the $400 billion global digital-ad industry. With the company’s new privacy update, advertisers targeting iPhone users will get more data about ad performance if they buy Apple’s ad space than if they buy through third parties. The new rules let users opt out of being tracked by apps for advertising purposes, meaning advertisers will have less data about who sees their ads. When targeting users who opt out of tracking, advertisers that use third-party platforms have to wait days for insights on their campaigns. And when that arrives, they’ll receive only aggregated information, like the total number of users who took an action after an ad. But if advertisers do business directly through Apple, they'll get access to richer data—and in nearly real time—such as which versions of their ads users saw and which search keywords ads appeared on. Apple's advertising business largely caters to app makers, which can bid to appear atop the search results in its App Store, but the company is planning to expand its ad offerings and could fetch higher prices if demand grows for its ad space. Competition with Google and Facebook over digital advertising dollars would be fierce, however, largely because those two rivals hold detailed troves of user data—the use of which for advertising purposes Apple has long criticized.

1,000 — Roughly the number of sailors who were abandoned at sea last year, though maritime officials say the true figure is much higher. When ship owners run out of money, crew members often wind up stranded from home without food or pay, despite a range of international rules and treaties.

95% — The share of all Covid-19 doses that have come from China, the U.S., the European Union, India and the U.K. Those five members of the "vaccine club"—a group of 13 jurisdictions that make both the key ingredients as well as final vaccines—increasingly rely on each other in ways that could make export restrictions problematic, even as supplies in some regions dwindle.

0.6% — The percentage that the eurozone economy shrank in the first quarter of this year, compared with the final three months of 2020. As the EU's initially sluggish vaccination campaign ramps up, however, many are optimistic that the worst of the pandemic's economic pain in the region is over.

3,300 — The approximate number of people Myanmar authorities currently have under detention, with most held at undisclosed locations, leaving family members to wonder whether they are even still alive. The military, which took power in a Feb. 1 coup, has killed more than 740 protesters in the streets in an effort to crush opposition.

40% — The increase in graduate-level applicants for degrees in public health for this fall compared with last year. The pandemic has inspired a wave of students to pursue careers in the field, with some citing the valor of front-line workers and the importance of communicating health information as key motivators.

44th — The current U.S. ranking on the annual World Press Freedom Index, which evaluates independent news-gathering conditions across 180 countries. While the press situation in the U.S. was rated "fairly good," the index found that 73% of the countries it examined either blocked, seriously impeded or constrained journalists, with the pandemic increasingly serving as a pretext for limiting information.

California's governor is facing a recall election. What happens next?

Sixth time appears to be the charm in California. After five failed attempts, Republicans have successfully garnered more than the 1.5 million signatures necessary to force a recall election of Democrat Gavin Newsom this fall. The effort, which could end up costing the state as much as $400 million, gained steam as frustrations mounted over Newsom's Covid-19 restrictions and has drawn national attention. Some of the most prominent Democratic leaders, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, have spoken out against the move. California has a history of recall elections shaking up state politics: A recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 helped clear the way for movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, to win the office.

How did the recall get started?

The original petition was written before the pandemic hit and doesn't mention Covid-19 restrictions. Started by Orrin Heatlie, a retired sheriff's deputy, it was largely focused on common gripes of conservatives in California: high taxes, layers of regulation and policies favorable to immigrants. By last November, when a judge extended the deadline to gather signatures due to the pandemic, the campaign had garnered only around 56,000 signatures. But after photos emerged that month of Newsom dining maskless with friends at a high-end Napa restaurant while he urged Californians to avoid gatherings ahead of the holidays, the effort took off. Within weeks, nearly 450,000 additional signatures were added, and major Republican donors began providing resources to the recall effort.

Who's running against him?

A handful of prominent Republicans have joined the race. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has touted his ability to get elected in a Democratic city, is running. So is businessman John Cox, who has used his wealth to fund several unsuccessful campaigns for a range of state and national offices, including outside California. Most recently, Cox lost to Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial election, 62% to 38%. Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympic gold medalist turned reality TV star, also announced her candidacy last week. For a filing fee of $3,916.12, though, any registered voter in California can become a candidate in what could be the most closely watched election of 2021. The 2003 recall effort drew 135 candidates, and some longtime political operatives in the state believe that this year’s field could be even larger, with plenty of attention seekers plugged into social media leveraging the race to build public profiles. An election date hasn't been set, but it will likely be this fall.

What are the chances Newsom loses?

Voters’ ballots will pose two questions: whether Newsom should be recalled, and who should succeed him if so. If more than 50% of voters answer 'yes' to the first question, any of the other candidates could be elected with a plurality of votes. A poll from the Public Policy Institute of California in late March found that 56% of voters opposed the recall, and 53% of registered voters said they approved of the job that Newsom was doing. No Republican currently holds statewide office in California, and President Trump received 34% of the vote last November, indicating that the GOP is facing an uphill climb. When Gov. Gray Davis was recalled 18 years ago, he had a 26% approval rating.

Ahead of the release of her forthcoming novel "While Justice Sleeps," I spoke with political activist Stacey Abrams for WSJ. Magazine about her writing process, her former pen name and why she never lets her characters be defined by their Blackness. I also asked her about what she's been into lately.

This week's Take a Break is all her:

What she's had on repeat: "Freedom Songs From the Heart of America," a compilation of songs about the country featuring Nina Simone, Willie Nelson and blues singer Keb' Mo': "I find it helps me decompress, but it's also just a lovely sort of through-line of how we think about this nation through the eyes of so many people who are so divergent."

What she's been watching: "Lupin," a Netflix series about a French gentleman thief: "I really love television, so at the end of my day I try to give myself just an hour of fun television."

What she's been reading: Ring Shout, a novel by P. Djèlí Clark: "I make sure I read a chapter of a book every night."

How she's been working out: Bodyweight exercises, her treadmill or her rowing machine: "I like rowing. It doesn't like me as much as I like it, so we're trying to become friends."

Today's newsletter was curated by Tyler Blint-Welsh in New York, in collaboration with colleagues in New York and London.

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