USA

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The turbulence caused by the coronavirus pandemic didn’t deter more than 1 million people in the United States from traveling aboard planes on a single day ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

A whopping 1,019,836 people went on US flights on Friday, data released by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shows.

That’s the second-highest number of single-day travelers since mid-March, when the outbreak of COVID-19 began to cause shutdowns throughout the US and devastated the air-travel industry.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. states plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google as early as next month, according to two people briefed on the matter, potentially beating a more widely anticipated lawsuit from a different group of states led by Texas.

The pending legal actions follow an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department against Alphabet’s Google in October.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is working with more than 350 partners, including major airlines, shipping lines and logistics associations from around the world, to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to over 92 countries, as soon as doses become available, the agency said on Monday.

Etleva Kadilli, director of UNICEF Supply Division, highlighted the importance of the partnership to ensure capacity for the massive undertaking.

Washington, Nov 24 (AP-PTI) John Kerry, one of the leading architects of the Paris climate agreement, is getting one more chance to lead the fight against climate change after President-elect Joe Biden named the longtime senator and former secretary of state as climate envoy for national security.

Biden's team gave little immediate detail on Monday about how he envisioned Kerry shaping the new job, which many on social media and on all sides of the climate-action spectrum were quick to dub climate czar.

Washington, Nov 24 (PTI) US President Donald Trump on Monday asked officials to begin the transition process for President-elect Joe Biden, after the head of the federal agency responsible for this said she would provide him the necessary government resources to move in to the White House.

Trump, however, insisted that he would "continue to fight and will prevail". Trump, who lost the November 3rd presidential elections to Biden and his Indian-origin running mate Kamala Harris, has yet not conceded.

Washington, Nov 24 (PTI) US President-elect Joe Biden is planning to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yallen as his Treasury Secretary to lead his economic response to the raging coronavirus pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the world's biggest economy and led millions of Americans to lose their jobs.

A formal announcement on 74-year-old Yellen would be made soon, according to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. The Treasury Secretary is fifth in the presidential line of succession.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A suspect has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbings of two people and the wounding of three others at a church in California’s Silicon Valley that was being used as a homeless shelter, police said Monday.

“We have one suspect in custody for last night’s homicide,” the San Jose Police Department said in a Twitter post.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal prison system will be among the first government agencies to receive the coronavirus vaccine, though initial allotments of the vaccine will be given to staff and not to inmates, even though sickened prisoners vastly outnumber sickened staff, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is adding four Obama-Biden administration veterans to his top ranks as he continues to build out his White House team.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Janet Yellen is in line for another top economic policy job — just in time to confront yet another crisis.

Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s apparent choice for treasury secretary, served on the Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee during the 2008-2009 financial crisis that nearly toppled the banking system.

She became Fed chair in 2014 when the economy was still recovering from the devastating Great Recession. In the late 1990s, she was President Bill Clinton’s top economic adviser during the Asian financial crisis.