
Why the Delta variant is spreading so much faster than other coronavirus strains
CNN
Worldwide, there is an alarming surge in coronavirus cases -- and health experts say a key factor in this latest wave is the highly contagious Delta variant.
The variant is spreading about 55% faster than the alpha strain that was first identified in the United Kingdom late last year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) -- and that strain spreads about 50% faster than the version that first began infecting people in late 2019. "We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of Covid-19 on steroids," Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden's Covid Response Team, told CNN last week.
The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”

Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.