Your Monday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here's the latest. |
 | | Kirsten Luce for The New York Times |
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1. The U.S. population over the last decade grew at the slowest rate since the 1930s, the Census Bureau said. |
With immigration leveling off and a birthrate on the decline, the nation may be entering an era of substantially lower growth, demographers said. |
The total population was 331,449,281 in 2020, up by just 7.4 percent over the previous decade. The South and the West drew Americans away from struggling small communities in high-cost, cold-weather states in the East and the Midwest. |
The Census Bureau data is used to reapportion seats in Congress, based on new state population counts. Six states gained congressional seats: Colorado, Florida, Montana, Oregon, North Carolina and Texas. California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and West Virginia lost seats. |
 | | Atul Loke for The New York Times |
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2. India's coronavirus crisis deepened as the number of new reported cases set a global record for the fifth consecutive day. |
The world is coming to the rescue. On the way are oxygen generators from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, raw material for coronavirus vaccines from the U.S. and millions in cash from companies led by Indian-American businessmen. |
 | | Elaine Thompson/Associated Press |
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3. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a New York gun control law. |
The court has turned down countless Second Amendment appeals since it established an individual right to keep guns in the home for self-defense in 2008. |
The New York law requires people seeking a license to carry a gun outside their homes to show a "proper cause." California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island have similar laws. |
The Supreme Court has not issued a major Second Amendment ruling since 2010. |
 | | Xavier Burrell for The New York Times |
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4. A new federal inquiry into an American city's police force. |
The inquiry is the second time in a week that the Biden administration has opened a civil investigation into a city's police force, as it seeks to apply stricter oversight of local law enforcement departments amid a national outcry over police violence. |
The Justice Department last week opened an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, a day after Derek Chauvin, a former officer, was convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd. |
 | | Sean Rayford/Getty Images |
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5. North Carolina officials issued emergency declarations in the case of a Black man killed by sheriff's deputies. |
Harry Daniels, a lawyer for the family, said that based on witnesses' statements, it appeared that Mr. Brown had been shot from behind while driving away from sheriff's deputies. |
A spokesman for the sheriff's office said that seven of the department's 55 full-time deputies were placed on paid administrative leave after Mr. Brown's death. |
 | | Mel Haasch |
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6. How Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg became foes. |
The leaders of Apple and Facebook don't see eye to eye on privacy issues. Their opposing positions have now exploded into a high-profile battle with the release today of a new iPhone feature that could have big implications for both companies. |
Mr. Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, has disputed that his business will be hurt by Apple's policy. But if large numbers of users opt out, it will be harder for the company to target people with ads. |
"This is a huge step in the right direction, if only because it's making Facebook sweat," said a director at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. |
 | | Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times |
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7. Europe wants to welcome U.S. tourists again. But how, and when? |
Locked-down tourists — as well as airlines — cheered after the head of the European Commission told The Times that the bloc wanted to allow vaccinated visitors from the U.S. this summer. |
The announcement came after diplomats from Europe's tourist destination countries argued for weeks that the bloc's criteria for determining whether a country is a "safe" origin, purely based on low Covid-19 case counts, are becoming irrelevant as vaccine campaigns progress. |
There are few details, but comments from various E.U. officials suggest that some form of "vaccine passport" may be used. For those of you eager to buy plane tickets, here's what we know so far. |
 | | Pool photo by Chris Pizzello |
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8. Ratings for the Oscars telecast plunged. |
Anthony Hopkins, who was at home in Wales when he was named best actor for his role in "Father," posted a video of his acceptance speech a few hours later. At age 83, he became the oldest actor to win the award. |
China imposed a virtual blackout on news that Chloé Zhao had become the first Chinese to be named best director, for "Nomadland," but fans evaded the censors on social media by blurring out her name and turning images on their sides. |
 | | New Delhi on Nov. 1, 2019, left, and on April 20, 2020.Manish Swarup/Associated Press |
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9. One of the pandemic's silver linings. |
In a complex chain of unforeseen consequences, one result of the global coronavirus crisis is more water flow to South Asia, researchers say. Here's how it unfolded: |
- The lockdowns last year reduced emissions of soot and other pollutants in South Asia as people drove less and the generation of electricity was reduced.
- That meant less soot was deposited on the snow in the high peaks of the Karakoram and other mountain ranges. Pollutants on snow absorb sunlight, emit heat and cause faster melting.
- So without soot, the slower snowmelt into the Indus River basin of Pakistan and India — where more than 300 million people get their water — will make water supplies last longer throughout the coming year.
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 | | Marcus Westberg |
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10. And finally, Sweden in springtime. |
The photographer Marcus Westberg, who previously shared images of Sweden as a wintry wonderland, showcases a warmer version of his home country as it is bathed in ever-increasing amounts of summer sunlight. |
He explored the natural world he grew up in "partly to understand why it comforts me so much," he writes, adding, "Much of what I was to discover came about simply by my being more present, more curious." |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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