USA

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Over three dozen nations have pledged or contributed over $439 million to help secure peace in conflict-stricken states, the United Nations said, a sum that falls far short of the hoped-for $1.5 billion.

Member states met via videoconference, committing to “the importance of investing in peace,” according to a UN statement.

“Including funds received for 2020, 39 Member States have contributed or pledged over $439 million for peacebuilding in support of the Fund’s 2020-2024 Strategy,” the statement said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations will stress on Wednesday the importance of U.S. re-engagement with the 193-member world body in order to challenge efforts by China to “drive an authoritarian agenda.”

Veteran diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield is due to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for her confirmation hearing. She is a 35-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service who has served on four continents, most notably in Africa.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of people in South Sudan in need of aid has jumped from 7.5 million last year to 8.3 million, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.

The landlocked country has a total population of just over 11 million.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) blames years of conflict, climate change and now COVID-19 for the hike. Those in need include 310,000 refugees and asylum seekers.

"Conflict, insecurity and natural disasters have displaced nearly 4 million people since 2013," the office said.

NEW YORK, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 million on Tuesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global case count reached 100,032,461, with a total of 2,149,818 deaths worldwide, as of 2:22 p.m. local time (1922 GMT), the CSSE data showed.

25 Jan 2021; MEMO: US President Joe Biden has appointed Palestinian-American Maher Bitar as the senior director for intelligence programmes at the National Security Council (NSC), Politico newspaper reported.

Bitar served as general counsel to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee and played a huge role in former President Donald Trump's first impeachment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Antony Blinken as America’s top diplomat, tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden’s commitment to reverse the Trump administration’s “America First” doctrine that weakened international alliances.

Senators voted 78-22 to approve Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, as the nation’s 71st secretary of state, succeeding Mike Pompeo. The position is the most senior Cabinet position, with the secretary fourth in the line of presidential succession.

(AP) --- From a wood-paneled library in his Boston mansion, new climate envoy John Kerry is talking the U.S. back into a leading role in global climate action, making clear the nation isn’t just revving up its own efforts to reduce oil, gas and coal pollution but that it intends to push everyone in the world to do more, too.

FULTONDALE, Ala. (AP) — James Scott has never lived anywhere other than a two-story house on hilly Darlene Drive north of Birmingham. Home will never be the same after a tornado smashed the structure into pieces, killed another teen and left the community devastated in the middle of the night.

Standing in the middle of the destruction Tuesday, the 19-year-old stared blankly at the rubble for a few moments, seemingly unsure what to do next.

“It’s time to regroup and start clean,” he said. “It’s the best I can hope for.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are preparing to push ahead quickly on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package even if it means using procedural tools to pass the legislation on their own, leaving Republicans behind.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held their first conversation as counterparts Tuesday in a phone call that underscored troubled relations and the delicate balance between the former Cold War foes.