Briefly

UNITED STATES

Biden selects first black Pentagon chief

US President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Lloyd Austin, who led US troops into Baghdad in 2003 and rose to head the US Central Command, as the first African-American secretary of defense, US media reported on Monday. A veteran of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the retired four-star army general, 67, beat out the favorite for the job, former undersecretary of defense Michele Flournoy, amid pressure on Biden to nominate more minorities for positions in his cabinet. CNN, Politico and The New York Times cited unnamed sources familiar with the decision, after Biden said earlier on Monday that he had made his choice and would announce it on Friday.

JAPAN

Suga readies $700b top-up aid package

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday that Japan would compile an additional economic package worth over $700 billion to mitigate the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials said the proposals, the first aimed at combating the pandemic since Suga took office in mid-September, had been crafted to make provisions for hospitals and nursing homes to acquire more beds for COVID-19 patients, and to provide financial aid for struggling businesses that have had no choice but to furlough employees as the economy deteriorated.

AUSTRALIA

Laws to make tech giants pay for news

Australia's government was expected to reveal legislation in Parliament on Wednesday that would make Facebook and Google pay for journalism. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday that the legislation to create the News Media Bargaining Code will be scrutinized by a parliamentary committee following its introduction and before lawmakers vote on it next year. "This is a huge reform," Frydenberg told reporters. "This is a world first. And the world is watching what happens here in Australia." Facebook has warned it might block Australian news content rather than pay for it. In the past, Spain and France have both failed to make Facebook and Google pay for news through copyright law.

AFGHANISTAN

Civilian deaths rose despite Taliban talks

Deaths of Afghan civilians in airstrikes jumped from 2017 after the United States loosened its criteria and escalated attacks on the Taliban, according to a report on Monday. The number of civilians killed annually in US and coalition airstrikes soared by 330 percent to nearly 700 civilians in 2019, said Neta C. Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University. The US pulled back on airstrikes after striking a peace deal with the Taliban in February this year. But the Afghan Armed Forces stepped up their own as they entered talks with the rebels. In the three subsequent months, as Afghan-Taliban talks continued in Doha, the toll intensified, with 70 civilians killed and 90 injured.

INDIA

Chemicals linked to mystery illness

Indian authorities are investigating if organochlorines used as pesticides or in mosquito control caused the death of one person and hospitalization of 400 others in Andhra Pradesh state in the past few days, an official said on Tuesday. The unknown illness has affected more than 300 children, with most of them suffering from dizziness, fainting spells, headache and vomiting. They have tested negative for COVID-19. Federal lawmaker GVL Narasimha Rao, who is from the state, said on Twitter that he had spoken with government medical experts and that the "most likely cause is poisonous organochlorine substances".

Agencies - Xinhua