Welcome to hardtalk. Im stephen sackur. Kahn won power in pakistan two years ago with a promise to root out corruption and take on the countries vested interest. So hows it going . Well, rising food prices and the covid pandemic have left many pakistanis feeling worse off. While the Anti Corruption drive has become a political battleground. My guest today ishaq dar was pakistans Finance Minister a former Prime Minister nawaz sharif now both of those men are trying to rally opposition to imran khan. But how much credibility do they have . Ishaq dar, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you for having me. Let us begin with your personal status, your legal status. You are a wanted man in pakistan. Are you here in london to escape the judicial process . Not really, i think you must be aware of the pakistan history. When our in pakistan over 73 years the rhetoric has been used over the last two dictatorships and the current one isnt different. Because this regime is known to be under the martial law.
Despite urgent warnings, people are traveling this holiday week at the highest levels since march, more than 1 million flying in just 1 day tonight the parts of the country most at risk as hospitals see more Record Numbers. The search for solutions. How to keep schools open safely. Why some are succeeding even as the pandemic grows. The Big New Recall by gm, almost 6 million vehicles could be on the road with dangerous airbags. Which models are affected and holiday displays for our times, my report honoring the heroes on the front lines. This is Nbc Nightly News with lester holt. Good evening, everyone there is Breaking News as we come on the air tonight. The governments General Services administration is for the first time acknowledging joe bidens win for president. Notifying the President Elect that the formal and official transfer of power can begin. The decision comes more than two weeks after biden was projected as the winner and after a series of legal an procedural defeats in Pr
had in may was the alpha variant. and that was a variant that we saw when there was vaccine breakthrough, if there was vaccine breakthrough, that it was not transmissible. remember, the alpha variant was a much less transmissible variant. so fast forward to what we were seeing at the end of june, early july, the beginning of the delta surge. and data were just emerging that demonstrated with delta a much more transmissible variant, that those vaccine breakthroughs were turning out to be able to transmit to other people. it was absolutely new science, and it was important for us, you rely on us to follow that science and change our guidance in response to that science, and that is exactly what we did. as you know, the agency which you run has come under criticism for that, people saying, oh, they changed around, they went backwards. to boil down your response, which i understand is nuanced and scientific, are you saying the guidance didn t really change, it was the nature of
the new covid variant has already rattled global markets. the dow had the worst day in more than a year. taking a nosedive and closing more than 900 points down. cnn s matt egan joins me now. matt, we saw similar trends when delta first emerged. what is happening? well the news of this variant is not going over well on wall street. it was just 48 hours ago that we were talking about how wall street economists were upgrading their forecasts for the u.s. economy and this recovery was gaining steam but this variant calls all of that into question. so we saw the dow fall 905 points, 2.5%. that is the worst day since october of 2020. that is before the election, before the vaccine breakthroughs, let alone that they were readily available. s&p 500 down 2%. two stats that sum up the mood of the market, one oil prices down 13% to around $68 a barrel and that is the worst day since april of 2020 and that is a big deal because oil is sensitive to
an informed decision about something like that. fears over the variant also rattling markets today. u.s. stocks tumbling roughly 900 points. trading just closed, an abbreviated day on wall street due to the thanksgiving holiday. we have teams covering all angles of this, but first we want to get to cnn business reporter matt egan. investors obviously concerned about this variant. what are you hearing? reporter: yeah, jessica, a brutal black friday on wall street. investors spooked by the new variant. the dow finishing down more than 900 points, 2.5% for some context. that s the worst day of the biden era. you need to go back to october of 2020, long before the vaccine breakthroughs to get a worse day than this. the s&p 500 closing down more than 2% as well, and this is a global phenomenon. we saw selling begin overnight in asia where markets closed europe. european stocks really took it on the chin. now we do have to emphasize that there s so much we don t know