USA

25 Jan 2021; MEMO: The new US administration of Joe Biden has suspended the request of immunity for former Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem El Beblawi in a torture case brought to courts by US citizen Mohamed Soltan, the legal reporter for the Washington Post Spencer Hsu tweeted on Saturday.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for efforts to promote education for all.

In a video message to mark the International Day of Education, Guterres paid tribute to the resilience of students, teachers and families in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, at its peak, forced almost every school, institute and university to close its doors.

Although this disruption has led to learning innovations, it has also dashed hopes of a brighter future among vulnerable populations, he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday will formally reinstate COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-U.S. travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders, according to two White House officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the order, also confirmed Sunday that South Africa would be added to the restricted list because of concerns about a variant of the virus that has spread beyond that nation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn’t bother trying to break one by one into the networks of each department.

Instead, they got inside by sneaking malicious code into a software update pushed out to thousands of government agencies and private companies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the House prepares to bring the impeachment charge against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, a growing number of Republican senators say they are opposed to the proceeding, dimming the chances that former president will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol.

House Democrats will carry the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol late Monday evening, a rare and ceremonial walk to the Senate by the prosecutors who will argue their case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top aides to President Joe Biden have begun talks with a group of moderate Senate Republicans and Democrats on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as Biden faces increasing headwinds in his effort to win bipartisan backing for the initial legislative effort of his presidency.

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (APP): The Biden administration says it will review last year’s US-Taliban agreement under which American forces are to leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counter-terrorism guarantees.

Pakistan played a key role in facilitating the start of reconciliation talks between warring Afghan parties that led to the peace agreement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration will work closely with Israel on regional security issues and to build on the country’s regional normalization agreements, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Israeli counterpart, according to a statement on Sunday.

“They discussed opportunities to enhance the partnership over the coming months, including by building on the success of Israel’s normalization arrangements with UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco,” according to a statement on Sullivan’s call on Saturday with Israel’s Meir Ben Shabbat.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration next week will release more policies it believes are needed to tackle climate change and is urging China to toughen one of its targets on greenhouse gas emissions, his top climate advisers said on Saturday.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate will start former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial during the week of Feb. 8, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said on Friday.

"Both the House managers and the defense will have a period of time to draft their legal briefs just as they did in previous trials," Schumer said from the Senate floor.

"Once the briefs are drafted, the presentation by the parties will commence the week of Feb. 8," Schumer said.