Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Wednesday. |
 | | An open-pit coal mine in Poland.Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times |
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1. Europe laid out a plan for a carbon-neutral future, challenging the rest of the world in the effort to fight climate change. |
The initiative puts the bloc in the forefront of the world's efforts to reach the goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. But it's just the start of what will be a bruising two-year negotiation among industry, 27 countries and the European Parliament. |
 | | A passenger from Colombia received a vaccine at Miami International Airport in June.Saul Martinez for The New York Times |
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2. Data from overseas suggests that the spread of the Delta variant will set vaccinated and unvaccinated communities on very different paths. |
The contagious variant accounts for more than half of new coronavirus infections in the U.S. Because of the wildly uneven pattern of protection, cases are rising rapidly in counties where less than 30 percent of residents have been fully vaccinated, and in states with low vaccination rates like Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Nevada. The curves have also begun shifting upward in New York City. |
Even in places like Britain, where wide swaths of the population are immunized, the Delta variant has outpaced vaccination efforts. But scientists say that Americans are unlikely to revisit the horrors of last winter, or to require booster shots in the foreseeable future. |
3. As Covid raged, so did the country's other epidemic: Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record 93,000, the largest single-year increase recorded. |
The deaths, reported by the C.D.C., rose in every state but two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, with pronounced increases in the South and West. Among the grim records: the most overdose deaths from stimulants like methamphetamine and the most deaths from the synthetic opioids known as fentanyls. |
With disruption to outreach and treatment facilities, as well as increased isolation, the pandemic was a key factor. But health experts said it was a continuation of a prepandemic pattern of escalating deaths. "It's huge, it's historic, it's unheard of," a professor of medicine said. |
 | | Senator Chuck Schumer and President Biden at the Capitol on Wednesday.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times |
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4. President Biden and Senate Democrats vowed to push through a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that would represent a transformative expansion of social and environmental programs. |
So begins their arduous drive to extend the reach of public education and health care, tax the rich and stem global warming. At a Senate lunch, Biden rallied lawmakers, needing every one of them to move forward over united Republican opposition. Crucial moderates have yet to commit. |
Democrats hope to pass both the budget blueprint and a narrower, bipartisan infrastructure plan before the chamber leaves for the August recess. A final vote would be months away. |
 | | A medical breakthrough helps Pancho speak through a brain implant.Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times |
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5. This man has not been able to speak since he was paralyzed in 2003. A scientific milestone allowed him to say his first recognizable sentence: "My family is outside." |
Electrodes implanted in his brain transmit signals to a computer that displays them on the screen — allowing him to produce words and sentences simply by trying to say them. The technology, developed by the University of California, San Francisco, could eventually help many patients with conditions that steal their ability to talk. |
In interviews over several weeks, Pancho — the nickname he is known by — communicated with our reporter through email exchanges using a head-controlled mouse. It's "a life-changing experience," he said. |
 | | Larry Nassar appeared in court in Charlotte, Mich., in 2018.Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal, via Associated Press |
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6. The ex-gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar continued to sexually abuse patients while the F.B.I. failed to to respond with urgency, a federal report said. |
Officials in the bureau's Indianapolis field office "made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond" to the allegations, the Justice Department's inspector general found in a long-awaited report, which also said that the special agent in charge of the Indianapolis field office lied to the inspector general's office numerous times. |
The report found that the former U.S.A. Gymnastics national team and Michigan State sports doctor continued to abuse 70 or more patients for more than a year after the F.B.I. learned in 2015 that gymnasts had complained about him. |
 | | Miguel Porlan |
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7. Have you tried to renew your passport lately? Good luck. |
During the most extensive travel shutdown in modern history, hundreds of thousands of Americans let their passports expire. But appointments at passport agencies are elusive because of a huge backlog, and processing time for renewals by mail is lagging by 10 weeks or more. To speed things up, some travelers are buying dummy tickets to the cheapest place outside of the country as proof of imminent travel. |
In need of some travel inspiration? We asked readers to tell us about the spots that have delighted and comforted them in a dark year. Here are 52 suggestions. |
 | | Valérie Lemercier plays the not-Celine Dion title character in "Aline."Jean-Marie Leroy/Rectangle Productions/TF1 Films Production |
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8. Cannes is buzzing about "Aline," an unofficial biopic of Celine Dion. Our pop culture reporter has to dish. |
"Let me just get this out of the way," he writes. "I'm still reeling from the instantly iconic decision of the film's 57-year-old actress-director Valérie Lemercier to play Celine Dion at every age of her life, including as a 5-year-old child." The movie is like "Bohemian Rhapsody," he writes, "if they shrank Rami Malek and made him play his own teeth." |
 | | A meadow froghopper urinates so much that it could drown itself.Philip G. D. Matthews |
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9. Among entomologists, the froghoppers' urinary powers are well understood. But the insects' suction abilities have turned out to be much more impressive. |
The froghopper, approximately the size of a Tic Tac, urinates almost constantly, using a butt catapult that diverts its waste into the air. It also has an extraordinarily strong diaphragm in a nose-like structure, like "a huge bicep" on its head, that it uses to suck nutrient-poor xylem sap. Put bluntly: If a froghopper were perched atop the torch of the Statue of Liberty, it could suck liquid through a straw from a glass on the ground. |
In other outdoor pursuits, our garden expert offers a beginner's guide to tomato pests, diseases and disorders. |
 | | Having trouble sleeping? You're not alone.Getty Images |
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10. And finally, how to fall back asleep. |
It's normal to wake up a few times during the night as the brain cycles through various stages of deeper and lighter sleep. Age can play a factor, and most people have no trouble falling back asleep. But if you find yourself tossing and turning at least three times a week for a period of at least three months, it could be chronic insomnia. |
If you've been awake for 25 minutes or longer, sleep experts advise getting out of bed and doing a quiet activity that calms your mind. Gentle stretching, breathing exercises or reading in dim light can help. (Don't read your phone.) When you start to feel tired, get back into bed. The next day, implement this routine to adjust your sleep hygiene habits. |
| Lance Booth compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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