Then US Central Command Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin is shown seated at a large wooden table and behind a microphone.

Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin tapped to head the Pentagon

Full Episode

Then US Central Command Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin, seated, looks back to his military aide while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 2015.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/File photo

If confirmed as President-elect Joe Biden’s secretary of defense, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin will be the first Black man to lead the Pentagon. And, it’s “V-Day” in Britain — “V” for vaccine — as the UK on Tuesday became the first Western nation to start vaccinating people against the coronavirus. China and Nepal have long debated the actual height of the world’s tallest mountain, which borders the two countries. But on Tuesday, they put an end to the dispute. 

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In This Episode

Biden chooses retired Gen. Austin for secretary of defense 
In this Sept. 16, 2015, photo, US Central Command Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin III testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Biden will nominate the retired four-star Army general to be secretary of defense.
Critics say Biden’s pick to lead the Pentagon upsets the civilian-military power balance
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Mt. Everest ‘grows’ 3 ft. after China and Nepal agree on official height 
Emily Mao, second from left, joined a co-living community of students in Hangzhou, China, who are studying online — often overnight — at US and Canada-based colleges and universities.
Kept from foreign universities during pandemic, Chinese students form ‘study pods’ in shared housing
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A woman wears a plaid head wrap and dress and poses near a transistor radio
Iconic ‘Ghana Must Go’ bag gets refashioned as a meditation on migration
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UK’s coronavirus vaccine campaign begins 
What’s behind the protests of Indian farmers 
Could Taiwan become Biden’s first foreign policy crisis 
Brayan Guevara identifies as Afro Latino. His family comes from Honduras.
‘I feel really good’: Afro Latino first-time voter looks forward to Biden administration
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Remembering John Lennon 40 years later