Evening Briefing: A “pivotal moment” in the pandemic

July 22, 2021

By Remy Tumin and Lauren McCarthy

Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the C.D.C., in Washington on Tuesday. Pool photo by Stefani Reynolds

1. The U.S. is at "another pivotal point in this pandemic."

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the C.D.C., struck a tone of urgency about the pandemic, warning that the U.S. is "not out of the woods yet" as the highly infectious Delta variant grips communities with low vaccination rates. The warning reflects a growing concern that the gains the Biden administration appeared to have made are being erased.

While vaccines remain effective against the worst outcomes of Covid-19, including from the Delta variant and serious illness, they are not perfect shields against the virus. Here's why "breakthrough" infections still occur, and a look at whether vaccinated people should wear masks.

The Delta variant has prompted some Republicans to confront the reluctance among their supporters to get vaccinated. But at a news conference intended to promote vaccinations, they mostly attacked Democrats.

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A restaurant in Rome on Thursday.Remo Casilli/Reuters

2. Italy will require proof of vaccination or a negative test to go to a restaurant, visit a museum or attend a show, among other activities.

The move follows a similar announcement made in France last week and comes as the debate heats up over how far governments should go in restricting the life of the unvaccinated. In Scotland, the authorities did not fall in line with England and lift restrictions on "Freedom Day." Nightclubs remain closed, face masks are required and people have been told to keep working from home.

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In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologized for delays in the country's vaccine program, as half the population remains in lockdown because of outbreaks driven by the Delta variant.

Rents last month rose 7 percent nationally from a year earlier, data shows.Will Dunham/Reuters

3. The rental market has snapped back from the pandemic quicker than predicted. Renters across the country are facing sticker shock.

Rents last month rose 7 percent nationally from a year earlier. Demand for apartments and single-family rentals is rebounding — and even looking hot in some places. Meanwhile, home sales were up for the first time in five months. But if rents continue to take off, it could be bad news both for those seeking housing and for the nation's inflation outlook.

Unemployment claims also rose last week. While they remain high by historical standards, new claims are one-third the level recorded in early January.

Smoke fills the air outside Lakeview, Ore.Kristina Barker for The New York Times

4. The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon has raged for more than two weeks and is the largest fire in the U.S. this year.

Experts said several factors were contributing to the fire's size, including global warming as the Pacific Northwest emerged from an extreme heat wave, erratic fire behavior and decades of policies that allowed the underbrush fueling the blaze to thrive.

Nearly 400,000 acres have been razed — an area the size of Los Angeles — by the fire, which was set off by a lighting strike on a mountain slope.

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Afghan translators protested outside the American embassy in Kabul in June.Mariam Zuhaib/Associated Press

5. U.S. veterans are trying to help Afghan interpreters emigrate as the Taliban takes over large swaths of land.

For veterans of a war that many concluded years ago could not be won, getting their interpreters out fulfills at least one promised goal: to protect Afghans who helped in the fight. Passage for thousands of Afghans was promised under two special visa programs, but the documentation and security requirements have hindered many applicants. The House voted to expand the visa program, moving to allow more Afghans to immigrate.

In Canada, veterans are frustrated by the government's lack of action to resettle Afghans who worked with them. Some are using their own money, time and connections to get them to safer parts of Afghanistan.

Five leaders of a speech therapists' union were arrested in Hong Kong.Vincent Yu/Associated Press

6. Children's books are the latest target in Hong Kong's crackdown on political speech.

A story portraying activists as sheep and the police as wolves was published in Hong Kong last year. On Thursday, five leaders of the group behind the book, a speech therapists' union, were arrested and accused of instilling hatred of the government in children. The arrests expanded the authorities' crackdown on dissent to the most elementary level of printed materials.

Another move against opposing voices came when four senior editors and executives of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that was forced to close, were arraigned and denied bail. They are accused of colluding with foreign powers under the national security law that Beijing imposed last year.

Proteins belonging to a fruit fly are given shape by DeepMind's A.I. technology.DeepMind

7. An A.I. firm released the predicted shapes of 350,000 proteins, a boon for medicine and drug research.

The new database built by DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab in London, includes the three-dimensional structures for all proteins expressed by the human genome, as well as those in 20 other organisms, including the mouse, the fruit fly and the E. coli bacterium. The detailed biological map may accelerate the ability to understand diseases, develop new medicines and repurpose existing drugs.

Separately, dozens of websites from companies like Amazon, American Express and Delta Air Lines went offline in a widespread internet outage, but the issues were quickly resolved.

In other scientific milestones, NASA released the first detailed map of the inside of Mars down to its core, highlighting the great differences of the red planet from our own blue world.

Skateboarder Nyjah Huston of Team U.S.A. practices in Tokyo on Thursday.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

8. Lighting the Olympic caldron is one of the highest honors in sport. This year the honor goes to ….

We won't find out until the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games, which starts at 6:55 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. But The Times has correctly predicted the special person tasked with the job for the past couple of Summer Games. Here are the leading candidates and how to watch.

Our photographers on the ground bring you this look at what it has been like.

Just a day before the official kickoff, organizers fired the creative director of the ceremony over a 1990s comedic act in which he made fun of the Holocaust.

And the pandemic is weighing heavily on the Games. A rash of Covid cases is raising tricky questions about testing.

It's bare season in New York City.Sara Messinger for The New York Times

9. Yesterday, we told you about Mormons calling for more comfortable undergarments. Today, we're turning to New York City, where people are baring it all.

Blame pandemic lockdowns or global warming: New Yorkers are shedding outer garments and sporting their undergarments — only. In other words, people are running around half-naked. Bralettes, itty-bitty bandeaus and crocheted bikinis abound.

Linda Fargo, the director of women's fashion for Bergdorf Goodman, views the current parade of flesh as a lowering of the bar for civic pride. "I've never seen this look or self-expression, no matter the time and place — unless we're talking about Ibiza or St. Tropez."

And here's a probing question from our Styles reporter: Are you a Bezos? A dentist with a Lamborghini is a Bezos. A fanny pack and a pair of bootleg Dior shorts? Bezos.

10. And finally, a (safe) journey inside a shark.

Sharks are known for having rows of teeth that can be replaced by fresh ones throughout their lives, but another oddity lies farther down the digestive tract: the spiral intestine. Scientists have speculated that sharks have such intricately shaped intestines to slow down digestion, eking every last calorie out of their prey.

This week, researchers published one of the most detailed looks so far at shark intestines, revealing the complex inner geographies of more than 20 species of sharks. Taking a CT scanner to the guts, they also made a discovery. Some shark intestines function like natural versions of a valve that the inventor Nikola Tesla patented in 1920, drawing fluid in one direction without moving parts. Take a look at the 3-D images.

Have a nourishing evening.

Erin Kelly compiled photos for this briefing.

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