Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday. |
 | | Nelson Tran, originally from Vietnam, was sworn in as a citizen in St. Paul, Minn., in 2020.Todd Heisler/The New York Times |
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1. America has grown far more diverse in the past decade after a surge in Hispanic and Asian populations, according to the Census Bureau. |
The once-in-a-decade look at race in America revealed that the non-Hispanic white population declined by 2.6 percent since 2010, the first recorded drop in that group. The Black population grew by 6 percent and the Asian population by about 36 percent during that period. Hispanics accounted for about half of the country's growth over the past decade, up by about 23 percent. |
The single biggest increase was among people who identified as more than one race. That population more than doubled. The overall U.S. population, though, grew at the slowest rate in nearly a century. |
 | | Cartridge casings littered the road on the front lines near Kandahar this month.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times |
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2. The Pentagon is moving thousands of Marines into Afghanistan to evacuate Americans and the U.S. Embassy. |
 | | Cerena Gonzales, 14, in the pediatric intensive care unit at the Children's Hospital of San Antonio.Meridith Kohut for The New York Times |
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More than 10,000 Texans have been hospitalized this week, and at least 53 hospitals' intensive care units were at maximum capacity. Texas is averaging about 12,400 new cases a day, nearly double the number recorded just two weeks ago. Hospitals in New Orleans; Jackson, Miss.; Miami; and Huntsville, Ala., have also come under strain this week as the Delta variant spreads. |
 | | Water bombers douse part of the Nk'Mip Creek wildfire near Osoyoos, British Columbia.Mike Fitzpatrick/Reuters |
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4. The summer of extreme weather rages on. |
British Columbia is battling nearly 300 wildfires at once, shrouding whole parts of the province in opaque clouds of billowing smoke. The Canadian authorities are urging residents to obey evacuation orders during the worst wildfire season since a devastating one in 2018. |
In Italy, the island of Sicily may have set a modern record for the hottest day ever recorded in Europe on Wednesday, with a monitoring station recording a scorching 48.8 degrees Celsius, or 119.8 Fahrenheit. |
And in the U.S., more than 150 million people are under some form of heat alert from the Pacific Northwest to the Northeast. Power outages only added to the misery in the Midwest. |
 | | James P. Spears has overseen his daughter Britney's finances since 2008. Associated Press |
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5. Britney Spears's father will eventually step aside from the conservatorship that governs her life. |
In an abrupt reversal after more than a year of legal battles, lawyers for James Spears said in a new court filing that, while there were "no actual grounds for suspending or removing" Spears, he intended to work with the court to assure "an orderly transition to a new conservator." They did not provide a timetable for the change. |
The pop star has called the conservatorship abusive and said she is afraid of her father, vowing not to perform as long as he remained in charge. |
 | | Workers collect coffee burned by frost in a strong cold snap in Brazil.Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters |
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6. Your daily coffee habit is about to get more expensive. |
The cost of beans is up nearly 44 percent in 2021. Extreme weather has damaged crops in Brazil, the world's largest coffee exporter; shipping bottlenecks persist; and political protests stalled exports in Colombia. Starbucks says its prices won't be affected for more than a year (it buys its supplies far in advance), but smaller roasters and cafes can't hold off that long. |
And if that doesn't put a damper on your morning routine, this story from The Times Magazine might. The Indonesian rainforest is theoretically one of the best-protected lands in the world — home to Sumatran elephants, rhinoceroses and tigers. How, then, did hundreds of illegal coffee farms come to thrive inside it? |
 | | Researchers found that a metabolic slowdown in adults doesn't occur until after age 60.Desiree Rios for The New York Times |
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7. Your metabolism slows at middle age? Think again. |
What we think we know about energy expenditure and age may be all wrong, according to a new study. Using data from nearly 6,500 people of all ages, researchers discovered that metabolism differed for all people across four stages of life: infancy until age 1, when calorie burning is at its peak; metabolism gradually slows from age 1 until about age 20; from 20 to 60, it holds steady; and after age 60, it declines by about 0.7 percent a year. |
The researchers also found that there were no real differences between the metabolic rates of men and women after controlling for other factors. |
 | | On dealing with success at a young age, Lorde said, "I try not to fret too much."Justin J Wee for The New York Times |
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8. Lorde was a teen phenom. Then she went back to living her life. |
Now 24, her sense of perspective and her self-awareness have kept her going in an often unforgiving industry. Lorde's new album, "Solar Power," is "what happens when a pop star outwits the system, swerves around its strange demands, stops trying to make hits and decides to whisper to her most devoted followers how she did it," our music critic writes. |
In Hong Kong, the boy band called Mirror has offered the city a rare burst of unity and pleasure after years of political upheaval. The group of 12 singing and dancing young men has seemingly taken over the city. |
 | | A tusk found in northern Alaska told researchers where a mammoth they named Kik had traveled.Pam Groves/University of Alaska Fairbanks |
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9. A woolly mammoth wandered across Alaska during the 28 years of his life. Scientists have created a map of his travels from more than 17,000 years ago. |
By studying signatures of elements locked in one of his eight-foot-long tusks, scientists discovered that the mammoth known as Kik spent most of his time in the Alaskan interior when he was young, but after he turned 15, he moved to the north. In the last couple of years of his life, he stayed mostly above the Arctic Circle. The findings could help solve the mystery about the demise of the elephant-like mammals. |
In other news from our Science desk, there's a small chance that an asteroid bigger than the Empire State Building could hit Earth — in 2182. |
 | | A cutout of White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal stalks the cornfield before the "Field of Dreams" game.Johnny Milano for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, it turns out that if you do build it, they will come. |
In the 1989 film "Field of Dreams," an Iowa farmer hears a mysterious voice in his cornfield telling him to build a baseball diamond on his land. Ghosts of baseball greats emerge from the crops to play ball. Tonight in Dyersville, Iowa, real baseball players will do just that. |
The Yankees and the Chicago White Sox will play on a new field near the original setting of the movie. Players will weave through the cornfield at the movie site and walk a path to their diamond. First pitch is at 7 p.m. Eastern. |
"I'm excited about running through the cornfields," said Liam Hendriks, the All-Star closer for the White Sox. "Who wouldn't be?" |
| David Poller compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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