Biden makes picks for key public health roles as pandemic rages

President-elect Joe Biden has made his selections for two key public health positions, sources said on Sunday, as he prepares to take office next month as the coronavirus pandemic rages to new levels across the United States.

Biden plans to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as secretary of health and human services, two sources said, placing the Latino former congressman in a critical role battling the pandemic.

The former vice president is also expected to nominate Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person familiar with the decision said.

The choice of Becerra, 62, who also had been considered a candidate for U.S. attorney general, came as Biden faced more pressure to add diversity to his Cabinet appointments, including complaints from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about the lack of Latinos.

Becerra will lead the health agency as it struggles to handle a resurgence of the coronavirus, including record infections and a daily death toll that has exceeded 2,000 in recent days, and prepares a mammoth effort to vaccinate Americans against the virus.

Neither Becerra nor Walensky could be reached for immediate comment. A spokesman for Biden’s transition declined to comment.

More than 281,000 Americans have died from the COVID-19 disease, according to a Reuters tally.

The announcement of the choice of Becerra could come as soon as Monday, said one of the sources familiar with the decision. Biden named some top members of his health team last week, and is expected to roll out the full team this week.

“Biden is living up to his commitment to make the Cabinet a reflection of diversity,” said Robert Garcia, mayor of Long Beach, California, and a longtime ally of Becerra and Biden.

Garcia said Becerra “has a strong record on healthcare but I think it goes beyond that. The president-elect selected someone with the highest levels of integrity and intellect.”

In Congress, Becerra played a key role in passing the Affordable Care Act – former President Barack Obama’s key domestic policy achievement. In his current role, Becerra leads the coalition of 20 states defending the program better known as Obamacare, including before the Supreme Court last month.

Biden has asked Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, to stay on as chief medical adviser.

The Democratic president-elect also has named Jeff Zients, an economic adviser touted for his managerial skills, as a coronavirus “czar” to oversee an unprecedented operation to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of a new vaccine, coordinating efforts across multiple federal agencies.

Biden picked Vivek Murthy, a physician and former surgeon general who has gained prominence in recent months as co-chairman of Biden’s advisory board dealing with the pandemic, to return for a second go-around as surgeon general.

Becerra served as a Democratic U.S. representative from 1993 to 2017 before moving back to his home state to become attorney general. In that post, he succeeded Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

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Weather system to bring rain, snowfall in upper parts of country

A westerly weather system is present over western and upper parts of the country and expected to persist in upper parts till Wednesday morning, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a weather report on Monday (today).

The Mercury is expected to drop in Karachi from the next 24 hours with blowing Siberian winds from the Northeast.

Met Office has informed that a westerly weather system has approached western and upper parts of the country from Sunday night and expected to persist in upper parts till the morning of Wednesday.

Under the influence of this weather system, rain and thunderstorm with snowfall over hills is expected in Quetta, Zhob, Ziarat, Qila Saifullah and Qila Abdullah in northern Balochistan on Monday and Tuesday, the met office said.

Rain with snowfall over the hills is also expected in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Kohistan, Mansehra and Abbottabad, from Monday to Wednesday due to the westerly weather system.

Rain with thunderstorm is also expected in Bannu, Kohat, Charsadda, Mardan, Peshawar, Kurrum, Dera Ismail Khan and Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, federal capital Islamabad, Potohar region, Bhakkar, Mianwali, Khushab, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot and Lahore in Punjab from Monday (today) to Tuesday, the weather department said.

Murree and Galliyat may also receive rain and snowfall on Monday and Tuesday, according to the weather report.

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Karachi’s additional sessions judge tests positive for coronavirus

Additional Sessions Judge Karachi South Zahid Parveen on Monday tested positive for the coronavirus.

The judge after testing positive for the pandemic has quarantined herself at her house. Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the administration of the infected court has decided to test all the employees for the virus.

The number of coronavirus positive cases is increasing sharply in the country and according to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Pakistan has recorded 3,795 new cases and 37 deaths due to the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

In the past 24 hours, 37 more people succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 8,398. 1,530 patients have recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours and 2,539 patients are in critical condition including 103 reported within a day.

The total count of active cases is 55,354 and the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases reaches up to 9.7 per cent.

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Karachi’s additional sessions judge tests positive for coronavirus

Additional Sessions Judge Karachi South Zahid Parveen on Monday tested positive for the coronavirus.

The judge after testing positive for the pandemic has quarantined herself at her house. Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the administration of the infected court has decided to test all the employees for the virus.

The number of coronavirus positive cases is increasing sharply in the country and according to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Pakistan has recorded 3,795 new cases and 37 deaths due to the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

In the past 24 hours, 37 more people succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 8,398. 1,530 patients have recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours and 2,539 patients are in critical condition including 103 reported within a day.

The total count of active cases is 55,354 and the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases reaches up to 9.7 per cent.

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Google removes some IAC browser extensions for 'policy violations'

Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Sunday it has removed a number of browser extensions of online conglomerate IAC/InterActive Corp for “policy violations” and is reviewing “enforcement options.”

“We continue to have conversations with IAC related to Chrome Web Store policies and we have already removed a number of their extensions for violating our policies”, a Google spokesman said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

“We’re reviewing the remaining extensions and our enforcement options, and have not made a decision regarding IAC’s status on the store”, the statement added.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Google was deciding whether to impose severe penalties on IAC over what Google concluded were “deceptive marketing practices”.

The report added that Google determined that IAC misled users about its browser extensions and that the Alphabet unit could go as far as banning those products from its Chrome browser.

In the statement to Reuters, Google’s spokesman did not specify which precise policies it felt were violated by IAC and did not mention what exact options it was considering.

An IAC spokeswoman disputed that the extensions violated Google policies. “Google has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from us to advertise and distribute these products in the Chrome Store,” she told Reuters in an emailed statement.

“There’s nothing new here - Google has used their position to reduce our browser business to the last small corner of the internet, which they’re now seeking to quash,” the statement added.

Google’s investigators found that IAC’s browser extensions often promise functions they do not deliver and steer users toward extra ads, the WSJ reported, citing sources and documents.

Google so far has not acted on the internal recommendation of its Chrome trust and safety team regarding IAC in part because the two are rivals in some categories and because Google executives are concerned penalties could be viewed as anti-competitive, the newspaper reported on.wsj.com/2JZcHf1.

The IAC spokeswoman said Google had approved its extensions in the Chrome Store for years as part of the companies’ partnership agreement.

“Google exercises significant control over what we do with these products”, she said in the statement. 

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Oil prices stumble as coronavirus resurgence forces more lockdowns

Oil prices fell on Monday as a continued surge in coronavirus cases globally forced a series of renewed lockdowns, including strict new measures in Southern California in the United States, the world’s top oil consumer.

Brent crude oil futures were down 20 cents, or 0.4%, at $49.05 a barrel by 0401 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate oil futures fell 20 cents, or 0.4%, to $46.06 a barrel.

Both benchmarks gained for a fifth consecutive week last week.

“Crude pared earlier vaccine roll-out gains after Los Angeles county had another record high in coronavirus cases and South Korea raised their alert level,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

“COVID restrictive measures and lockdowns across the globe seem poised to keep crude prices heavy in the short term.”

The restrictions in California call for bars, hair and nail salons and tattoo shops to close again.

The southern German region of Bavaria announced on Sunday it would impose a tougher lockdown from Wednesday until Jan. 5, while South Korean authorities heightened social distancing rules for the capital Seoul and surrounding areas that would last until at least the end of the month.

Also weighing on prices, U.S. energy firms last week added oil and natural gas rigs for the 11th time in 12 weeks as producers return to the wellpad even as most are cutting spending this year and next.

Iran, meanwhile, has instructed its oil ministry to prepare installations for production and sale of crude oil at full capacity within three months, state media said on Sunday.

“Adding to the pressure on oil prices is the potential Iranian increase to production in three months. Iran is optimistic the U.S. will ease restrictions if they return back to the 2015 nuclear deal,” Moya added.

Still, rapid demand recovery in China and developments in COVID-19 vaccines capped price losses.

China’s exports in November rose at their fastest pace since February 2018, helped by strong global demand and as the recovery in manufacturing in the world’s second-largest economy outpaced those of its major trading partners.

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SHC grants bail to two accused in Dr Maha Shah death case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday granted bail to two accused in a case related to the death of Dr Maha Shah in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority.

As per details, the SHC after nullifying the judgment of the Karachi city court granted bail to Junaid and Waqas. Both were granted bails against a surety bond of Rs200,000 each.

The Sindh High Court termed the police investigation report defective.

The female doctor had committed suicide by shooting herself in the head in Defence area of the metropolis on August 19.

Police had initially said that the doctor had allegedly committed suicide by shooting herself in her home. However, they later filed a case against her friends Junaid Khan, Waqas, Dr Irfan Qureshi and two others on the complaint of her father, who claimed that they had abused his daughter and intoxicated her, which led to her death.

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