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Evidence is mounting about the dangers of the delta variant and how mask-wearing is essential to bring it under control, according to a government slideshow dated Thursday. The presentation, compiled by a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lays out what is known about the delta variant, which now accounts for the vast majority of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Earlier this week, the CDC recommended that people in COVID-19 hotspots resume mask-wearing in indoor public spaces. The agency had been criticized for making the recommendation without adequately supporting its reasons for the policy shift. But the presentation, first made public by The Washington Post , appears to do just that. CDC declined to comment late Thursday on the slideshow or its contents. The presentation shows that those who are vaccinated are three times less likely to catch COVID-19 and 10-times less likely to die from it than those who are unvaccinated. Once infected, though, vaccina...

Simple animal life may have existed in Earth's oceans 890 million years ago, according to new research. Recently discovered fossils belonging to ancient sponges might be the earliest known remnants of an animal body and pre-date other sponge fossils by 350 million years. Elizabeth Turner, a professor of paleontology and sedimentary geology at Laurentian University in Ontario, discovered what she believes are possibly the fossilized structures of sponges that once existed in reefs millions of years ago. They were found in rock samples in northwestern Canada. A study on Turner's findings published Wednesday in the journal Nature . Little is known about the earliest days of animal life's emergence on Earth because the fossil record is sparse. While scientists have used genetic evidence to suggest that sponges first appeared between 541 million and 1,000 million years ago during the early Neoproterozoic era, the lack of fossilized sponges has created a knowledge gap. Turner...

Mobs of Trump supporters attacked police officers, threatening their lives and hurling racial slurs as they stormed the U.S. Capitol, law enforcement witnesses told House lawmakers Tuesday in the Jan. 6 committee's first hearing on the attempted insurrection. "I was grabbed, beaten, Tased, all while being called a traitor to my country," Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone testified before the select committee investigating the Capitol invasion. "I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm, as I heard chants of, 'Kill him with his own gun,'" Fanone said. The four officers' testimony painted a picture of a vicious, weapon-wielding mob that was willing to assault the police in pursuit of its goal of stopping Congress from confirming Joe Biden 's electoral victory over then-President Donald Trump , who had spent weeks falsely claiming the election had been stolen from him. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who is...

TOKYO — No reign lasts forever and the end, when it finally comes, is always a shock. For the U.S. women to end here, in this fashion, though, was simply unfathomable. Simone Biles withdrew from the team competition after struggling on vault, ending whatever chance the U.S. women had to win their third consecutive Olympic title. They finished with silver, the first time since the 2010 world championships that the Americans did not win the team title at a worlds or Olympics. Russia won the gold, its first since the breakup of the Soviet Union. There were hints after qualifying that the Americans might be in trouble. They had six major errors, including three by Biles , and finished more than a point behind the Russians, a team that is much improved from 2019, when it finished nearly six points behind the U.S. women at the world championships. But there is trouble, and then there is this. In warmups for vault, the U.S. women’s first event, Biles bailed on an Amanar. The 2½-twisting some...

A star sapphire cluster worth up to $100million has been discovered in a Sri Lankan man's backyard by workmen who were digging a well. The pale blue stone was found in the garden of gem trader Mr Gamage in Ratnapura, south Sri Lanka. It weighs 510kg, a total of 2.5million carats, and was named the 'Serendipity Sapphire', the BBC reported. Mr Gamage, who only gave his first name for security reasons, said he 'stumbled upon this huge specimen' after workmen told him they had uncovered some rare stones. A star sapphire cluster worth up to $100million has been discovered in a Sri Lankan man's backyard by workmen who were digging a well. The find turned out to be a sapphire cluster, a group of stones bound together by mud or clay. Authorities took more than a year to certify the gem after spending months clearing the stone of mud and other impurities. Several high quality star sapphires fell out of the cluster while it was cleaned. Experts have not yet determined ...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said she will not file charges against two Charleston County detention deputies in the January death of Jamal Sutherland. “I understand people will have a hard time with the decision not to prosecute,” Wilson said. “Legally, though, once you see the analysis once you see all of the facts that go into these decisions, you know that there was no real choice as a prosecutor.” She said she can’t bring a case she knows she can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt. “And I cannot prove criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt in this case,” she said. Detention Sgt. Lindsay Fickett and Detention Deputy Brian Houle, who were initially placed on administrative leave then allowed to return to administrative duty, were terminated in May after the release of video showing Sutherland being forcibly removed from his cell so that he could attend a bond hearing. Wilson called Sutherland’s death a “travesty” and said it should not have happ...

The morning of June 6, 1984 started like any other for the Stringfellow family on their farm in Greenville, Alabama . Greenville, the county seat of Butler County, had a population of around 7,600 in 1984. Known as Camellia City after it petitioned for the camellia to become Alabama’s state flower in 1959, Greenville may have seemed like an ideal quiet place to raise a family. Betty woke up early because she had to be at the Waffle House restaurant by 7:00AM sharp for the start of her shift. After getting ready, she quietly left the house. She did not want to wake her twelve-year-old daughter Sherry who was sleeping on the couch after giving up her bed to her stepdad’s aunt who was in town visiting for the week. Shortly after 9:00AM Sherry noticed her stepdad Raymond was backing his red pickup truck down the driveway. She raced out of the house, shoes in her hands, asking if she could go with him into town. At around 9:30AM the pair stopped at the First National Bank so Raymond could s...

Jayden McCarthy abused his position to carry out a series of serious offences against young children at the age of 16, including the rape of one child and molesting a further eight. A "dangerous" teenage paedophile who abused nine nursery children over a three-week period has been sentenced to 14 and a half years. Apprentice Jayden McCarthy abused his position to carry out a series of serious offences against young children at the age of 16. A trial at Exeter Crown Court heard sick McCarthy, now 18, raped one child and molested eight others. Judge David Evans - who said the defendant committed "blazingly obvious incidents of sexual assault" - sentenced him to a total of 14.5 years youth detention. Victims' family members clapped as the judge jailed him. He will serve seven years behind bars and will be strictly monitored on release and faces a further three year period on licence. Jayden McCarthy is escorted into Exeter Crown Court for sentencing, after being fo...

The UK recorded 29,173 coronavirus cases and 28 deaths on Sunday, almost one week since Freedom Day went ahead - making it the fifth day in a row that cases have dropped The number of coronavirus cases has dropped for the fifth consecutive day as the UK recorded 29,173 new infections and 28 deaths. The number is down from Satuday's 31,795, while July 20 saw 46,558 infections, followed by 44,104 on July 21, 39,906 on July 22 and 36,398 on July 23, according to official Government data. There were 28 deaths recorded within 28 days of positive test, down from 86 reported on Saturday and 64 on Friday. The Public Health England statistics come almost a week since England's lockdown ended on Monday July 19 as the government controversially decided to go ahead with the fourth and last step of its roadmap to ending restrictions. Brits up and down the country were jubilant as "Freedom Day" last Monday effectively brought lockdown rules to an end for the first time since the Co...

Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, 77, died of natural causes in a California hospital on Saturday at 1:43 am, according to California prison officials. He was awaiting a death sentence at Corcoran State Prison. Alcala was convicted of killing seven women in the 1970s, with five murders in California and two in New York. His youngest murder victim was just 12-years-old, whom he abducted as she made her way to ballet practice in Los Angeles in 1979. He later earned the moniker ‘the Dating Game Killer’, and was known for biting his dead victims' naked bodies before photographing them in sexually explicit poses. He has been linked to over 130 women and children’s deaths, although his exact number of victims remains unknown. Alcala’s first known committed crime occurred in 1968, when an eye-witness called police after seeing him lure an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro into his Hollywood apartment. Alcala appeared as Bachelor Number One on the show winning the affections of...

Ms Dingley's mother Ria Bryant confirms the records are being sent to the consulate in Bordeaux as police say the discovery of the bones "is too recent and they must be properly analysed". The dental records of missing British hiker Esther Dingley are being sent to French authorities following the discovery of possible human remains in the Pyrenees. Ms Dingley, 37, was last seen walking alone in the mountains near the French-Spanish border on 22 November last year . She was due to return from a three-day solo trek and travel home to the UK with her partner Dan Colegate but never returned. Her mother Ria Byrant, 74, told The Sunday Times that French police have requested her daughter's dental records after local police announced on Friday that they may have discovered human remains near her last known location. "The dentist is sending a scan of Esther's teeth. We have to send it to the consulate in Bordeaux," she told the newspaper. Ms Bryant moved to the...

Latest NHS salary plan fails to offset past drop, as teachers and police furious at wage freeze. Pay for nurses and other NHS staff in England will have fallen in real terms by more than 7% since 2010, even if they accept the latest offer from the government, according to new analysis that will fuel rising anger about public sector pay deals. Figures produced by the TUC show that remuneration for nurses, community nurses, medical secretaries, speech therapists, physiotherapists, paramedics and radiographers will have dropped by between 7.3% and 7.6% in real terms in just over a decade, even after factoring in the 3% rise offered last week. The Royal College of Nursing, which represents 450,000 nurses, is to consult its members next month for their views on the offer and, if they are overwhelmingly negative, may proceed to an “indicative ballot”, opening up the possibility of some form of industrial action . A senior RCN source said that while this was a remote possibility, it was “not...

You start your day hearing wild news. Jupiter has just swallowed Saturn. And it doesn’t stop there. Jupiter is on its way to swallow every planet in the Solar System. How big would Jupiter get? What would you see from Earth? Would Jupiter get rings like Saturn? Jupiter has swallowed a planet before. Around 4.5 billion years ago, a protoplanet slammed into the young Jupiter. The protoplanet was 10 times the Earth’s mass, made of rocky and icy material. Jupiter’s core broke apart, and denser material mixed with hydrogen and helium. A few billion years later, the heavy material settled back into the dense core that we see today. Swallowing a single planet is one thing, but could Jupiter eat up all seven? In this scenario, you’re going to see the planets get swallowed from largest to smallest. Although we’re saving Earth for last. But before we start plunging our Solar System into chaos, let me tell you about chaos in a non-hypothetical world, the internet. I search it a lot. And I know th...

The show director of the Olympics opening ceremony has been dismissed, one day before the event is due to be held. Footage of Kentaro Kobayashi from the 1990s recently emerged in which he seems to be making jokes about the Holocaust. Japan's Olympic chief Seiko Hashimoto said the video ridiculed "painful facts of history". The dismissal is the latest in a string of scandals to hit the Games. It comes days after a composer quit the team creating the ceremony after it emerged he had bullied classmates with disabilities at school. In March, creative chief Hiroshi Sasaki quit after suggesting that plus-size comedian Naomi Watanabe could appear as an "Olympig". He later apologised. And in February, Yoshiro Mori was forced to step down as the head of the organising committee after he made remarks about women that were criticised as "inappropriate". Mr Mori was quoted as saying women talked too much and that meetings with many female board directors would ...

An ancient meteorite dating back 4.6 billion years that landed in England earlier this year is likely a remnant of cosmic debris left over from the birth of the solar system, experts say. A fragment of the priceless charcoal-black object, no more than two inches wide, was found by chemist Derek Robson on the second day of a ground search back in March, near the village of Woodmancote in Gloucestershire. The 'incredibly delicate' sample, which resembles loosely held-together concreted dust and particles, was found lying in the imprint of a horseshoe in a field. Experts received special permission from Tewkesbury Council to organise the search in March this year during the Covid lockdown after the meteorite was seen shooting through the skies just before 10pm on February 28. The fragment found in Woodmancote is part of the same meteorite that deposited another 300g chunk on the driveway of a family home in nearby Winchcombe, also in Gloucestershire, which has just been assessed ...