Your Evening Briefing Newsletter: U.S. Passes Vaccine Record, But Clouds Gather

The story of America and the pandemic has been, up until recently, one of catastrophic failures stemming from a combination of bad luck, incompetence, ambivalence and even negligence, depending on who you ask. The richest nation on Earth squandered many chances to avoid the worst of the Covid-19 disaster, ending up with the most infections of any on the planet. In the process, almost 566,000 people, more than the entire population of Albuquerque, New Mexico, have perished. But in just a few months, the U.S. vaccination campaign has illustrated the kind of success its citizens used to take for granted, having surpassed 200 million shots. But the horizon is darkening again, as a fourth wave gathers amid refusals by some to play it safe a little longer (or to even get vaccinated at all). As the weather warmed last spring, an eerily similar attitude took hold across the South and West. More than 100,000 died as a result. —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   

India’s new coronavirus variant, which has a so-called double mutation, is thought to be fueling the country’s deadlier wave of infections. Second only to the U.S. in number of cases, India has been buckling under the onslaught. In Europe, a whole series of missteps led to what can only be described as a vaccine nightmare. In China, President Xi Jinping called for deeper collaboration with Germany and France in combating Covid-19. Here is the latest on the pandemic.

Institutional Shareholder Services, one of the world’s biggest proxy-advisory firms, told investors to vote against proposals filed with Goldman Sachs and other companies that are calling for independent racial audits. ISS also told shareholders to join with management at Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo in opposing racial audits at those banks, too.

While Coinbase captured the headlines this week with its market debut, the frenzy around digital tokens took its zaniest turn yet as the price of a token created as a joke went nuts. How nuts? This crazy coin is now worth almost $50 billion.

Since 2020, the boom in SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) has attracted financiers, former politicians, athletes and celebrities who were more than happy to use their fame to attract deep-pocketed investors (and some $182 billion of their money). But family offices—the discrete, sometimes secretive firms that manage the affairs of the ultra-rich—have been one of the biggest driving forces.

U.S. President Joe Biden began meeting Friday afternoon with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to discuss issues including human rights, Taiwan and supply-chain resilience. China is expected to loom large.

Boeing’s troubled 737 Max, which crashed twice, killing 346 people due to what Congress called a “horrific culmination” of failures, has more problems: Electrical flaws in the cockpit.

British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s companies seemed to be prospering until his main lender, Greensill Capital, imploded last month. But long before Greensill collapsed, it turns out that several banks had already been backing away.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow 

What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits

QAnon is here to stay. That’s clearly not the intended message of Q: Into The Storm, the six-part HBO docuseries focused on the fringe conspiracy theorists and their favorite hypotheses, but it is one you should remember all the same.

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