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Biden's Day: President Biden will participate in a G-7 virtual meeting to discuss plans to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic and rebuild the global economy. He will later deliver remarks on the importance of trans-Atlantic ties and travel to Kalamazoo, Mich., to tour a Pfizer manufacturing site.

Washington Wire: The surge of criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol is bringing a crush of public and media attention to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. That and more in this week’s column.

Internet Taxes: Groups representing tech companies including Facebook, Google and Amazon are challenging a new Maryland tax, the gross-receipts tax on digital advertising revenue.

Bob Dole: The former Republican Senate leader who was the party's presidential nominee in 1996, begins treatment for lung cancer next week.

U.S. and Iranian officials could hold discussions within coming weeks under a plan by the European Union to bring the two sides together for talks, reports Laurence Norman. The move is potentially a first step toward reviving the 2015 international nuclear agreement.

The Biden administration kicked off a round of high-level diplomacy with its European allies at a NATO meeting, where Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin aimed to soothe those bruised by former President Donald Trump’s criticism but urge them to meet defense-spending targets, report James Marson and Nancy A. Youssef.

President Biden signed dozens of executive orders in his first few weeks in office, but his administration has moved slowly on trade. Here's why: 

U.S. hospitalizations continued to decline on Thursday and new cases fell to levels last seen in late October, though bad weather is interfering with vaccination efforts in some parts of the country.

Mr. Biden will announce $4 billion in U.S. contributions to the Covax program, an international effort to get vaccines to the world’s poorest nations that was started last year by the World Health Organization and two other groups, reports Sabrina Siddiqui.

• Covid-19 likely began spreading unnoticed around Wuhan, China, in November 2019, new evidence shows.

• WHO investigators say ferret-badgers and rabbits sold at a Wuhan market possibly had a role in the spread to humans.

The winter storm that slammed Texas has left more than 14 million people without safe drinking water, with cities including Austin, Houston and San Antonio under boil-water notices—and many residents without electricity for boiling and others with pipes that are dry, Elizabeth Findell and Ken Thomas report.

• The Biden administration granted a federal emergency declaration to Oklahoma and Louisiana due to the severe weather. It granted Texas a federal emergency disaster declaration on Sunday.

Lawmakers grilled executives of Robinhood, Citadel and others involved in January’s trading frenzy at a House hearing Thursday, taking different positions on the frenzy’s implications, report Paul Kiernan and Peter Rudegeair. Further hearings are expected.

• Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev offered an apology for the company’s decision to temporarily curb trading in some stocks, including GameStop, on Jan. 28 amid extraordinary volatility.
• 🎧The Journal: Reporter Alexander Osipovich on how Robinhood’s free trading works and why Congress has questions.

Congressional Democrats are coalescing around a strategy to try to pass immigration bills piecemeal, as the administration looks for ways to enact a pathway to citizenship for 11 million immigrants without a permanent legal status, report Michelle Hackman and Tarini Parti.

• Facing an April 1 deadline to bypass the committee process for bills passed in the last Congress, Democrats are looking at two bills they hope could win Republican support in the Senate.
• One would create a citizenship path for the young immigrants, known as Dreamers, who came to the U.S. as children. A second, passed by the House last year, would offer citizenship to about a million farm workers.
• 🎧What’s News: Reporter Michelle Hackman on the Democrats' approach and the challenges.

Walmart Inc.’s pledge to lift its average hourly pay could play into both sides of the federal minimum-wage debate. Supporters of a higher minimum wage can argue the move is proof employers can afford wage increases, while opponents can say it is an example of effective free-market forces, reports Eric Morath. Walmart’s announcement isn’t an endorsement of Mr. Biden’s plan to raise the wage to $15 an hour, which is part of a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal.

• While Walmart plans to raise pay for 425,000 hourly workers from an average above $14, its minimum starting wage would remain at $11.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen defended the size of the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion relief package Thursday, saying she hopes the measure will be enacted within the next couple of weeks.

California businessman Imaad Zuberi, a major political donor, capitalized on his access to U.S. politicians to drum up business from foreign governments and foreign individuals, whom he later defrauded, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to myriad charges, reports Byron Tau.

• Mr. Zuberi gave generously to numerous high-profile politicians over the years, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

• The controversy over Sen. Ted Cruz's lightning trip to Cancun during a crisis in his state is fueling Democrats' long-term hopes in Texas. (ABC News)
• Former White House chief of staff and Republican national chairman Reince Priebus is considering a run for governor in Wisconsin. (Politico)
• It isn't clear whether the changes in political donations made by corporations after the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol represent a permanent shift away from the Republican Party, or a temporary move. (New Yorker)

This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Kate Milani, Troy McCullough, James Graff, and Toula Vlahou. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.