Agency Reporter 

The United States Mission in Nigeria says Nigeria is not included in the visa bond pilot programme, which was issued by the outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday.

In a statement, the U.S. mission said the limited six-month visa bond pilot programme, beginning Dec. 24, affected 15 African countries, excluding Nigeria.

The 15 African countries affected are Angola, Liberia, Libya, Burkina Faso, Congo, Djibouti, Burundi, Eritrea, Mauritania, Gambia, Susan, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe and Cape Verde.

The visa bond programme will require applicants for tourist and business visas from some African countries to pay up to $15,000 bond (country dependent) in addition to visa fees.

The U.S. mission said the new rule was put in place to address the high rate of Nonimmigrant overstay following visa expiration and/or completion of purpose in the U.S.

Read Also: ‘How Nigerians can visit 163 countries without visa’

“The Department and our embassies and consulates overseas conducted an in-depth analysis to identify and address root causes of overstays.

“The State Department is considering additional steps to address overstays, including piloting a limited visa bonds program to test the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds as means to ensure the timely departure from the United States of certain travelers.

“This is in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” the statement read.

According to the mission, the U.S. is committed to combating visa overstays and making sure travelers to the United States respect laid down laws./

“The implementation of this pilot builds on our engagement with foreign governments in recent years and will ensure continued progress to reduce overstay rates,” the U.S mission said.

Agency Reporter

US President-elect Joe Biden has introduced veteran diplomats and policymakers who will make up his national security and foreign policy team, saying: “America is back, ready to lead the world.”

Biden, 78, at an event in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, presented his choices for secretary of state, national security adviser, homeland security secretary, intelligence chief, UN ambassador and climate change envoy.

“It is a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure,” Biden said as the six men and women stood behind him wearing face-masks on the stage of the Queen Theatre.

Read Also: Biden presidency and U.S.-Nigeria relations

“It is a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.”

Biden said that after he is inaugurated on January 20 and Donald Trump leaves the White House, the US will “once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies.

“These public servants will restore America’s global leadership and moral leadership,” the former vice president said in a jab at Mr Trump’s go-it-alone “America First” policies.

Biden’s remarks came shortly after Trump suffered further setbacks in his unprecedented effort to overturn the results of an American presidential election with unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

Agency Reporter

South Korea has decided to withdraw its candidate Yoo Myung-hee from the race for World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General (DG), Washington Trade Daily has reported.

Myung-hee is South Korea’s trade minister and its candidate for the top job at the WTO following the resignation of Roberto Azevedo.

Nigeria’s candidate in the WTO race Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had secured the popular vote by a wide margin on October 28,  but was not named DG because the United States (U.S) opposed her candidacy.

The two women are the last candidates standing and the eventual winner will set a record as being the first woman to lead the WTO.

However, there are speculations that the U.S. might change its stance following Donald Trump’s failure to get re-elected as president.

After the October 28 meeting, the WTO also said Okonjo-Iweala had the best chance of getting a consensus.

Read Also: Okonjo-Iweala to wait as WTO cancels meeting on appointment

Washington Trade Daily quoted sources as saying South Korea has notified the U.S. of its decision and is expected to make it public “in the coming days”.

“Washington refused to accept the recommendation made by the selection panel chaired by General Council Chair Ambassador David Walker that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala is the candidate most likely of the two to attract consensus because she clearly carried the largest support by members in the final round and clearly enjoyed broad support from members from all levels of development and from all geographic regions and has done so throughout the process.

“Yoo from Korea failed to receive enough support from members of all levels of development -1e., the developed, developing and least developing countries, as well as geographically in comparison to the “largest” support received by Ms Okonjo-Iweala,” the report read.

The November 8 general council meeting scheduled to consider the appointment of the next DG was also postponed.

PENNSYLVANIA and Nevada have certified Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory in their states, dealing more blows to President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results.

Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar certified Biden’s 80,555-vote victory in Pennsylvania, which was announced in a tweet by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf.

Nevada’s Supreme Court also certified the state’s results on Tuesday and Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak will issue a proclamation declaring the winner of the state’s six Electoral College votes.

This came as United States (U.S.) General Services Administration (GSA), on Monday, told Biden that the Trump administration was ready to begin the formal transition process, according to its Administrator, Emily Murphy, in a letter to the Democrat candidate’s team.

Murphy’s letter was the first step the administration has taken to acknowledge Trump’s defeat, more than two weeks after Biden was declared the winner in the election.

The letter signals that Murphy would formally sign off on Biden’s victory, a normally perfunctory process known as ascertainment. The move will allow the transition to officially begin, permitting current administration agency officials to coordinate with the incoming Biden team, and providing millions in government funding for the transition.

Trump tweeted that he gave the green light to GSA to formally launch the presidential transition process.

The president, however, refused to concede and pledged “to keep up the good fight” as his campaign alleges widespread voter fraud.

Read Also: Biden names foreign policy team

The Pennsylvania and Nevada certifications are the latest in a series of defeats for Trump, who has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, to have won the November 3 election.

His campaign team has filed lawsuits and demanded recounts and audits across several battleground states, efforts that have gotten him no closer to a second term.

The Pennsylvania certification is the official declaration that Biden won in the battleground state, which carries 20 Electoral College votes. Wolf said he’s signed the certificates of ascertainment for the electors, who will cast their votes for Biden when they meet on December 14, unless a court intervenes.

Among the other contested battleground states, Georgia certified its election results last week and Michigan on Monday. Arizona is slated to certify on November 30 and Wisconsin by December 1, after a recount in two counties as requested by Trump. That will make it impossible for the president to stop Biden from reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

Trump and his allies continue to challenge the outcome of the Pennsylvania vote, despite numerous court defeats and what legal experts have said is a lack of evidence needed to invalidate votes.

The president-elect yesterday introduced his nominations for high-profile national security and foreign policy roles, as he continued to chart his course toward his inauguration.

The officials Biden has selected, most of whom will require Senate confirmation, appeared with him and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at an event in Wilmington, Del.

Biden’s choices include: Antony J. Blinken, a longtime foreign policy adviser, to be secretary of state; and Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016, to become the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. If confirmed, Mayorkas would become the first Latino to run the agency that manages the nation’s immigration policies.

Others are Avril D. Haines, deputy director of the C.I.A. from 2013 to 2015, to be director of national intelligence. She would be the first woman to serve in her role, the top job in the intelligence community, if she wins Senate confirmation.

Agency Reporter 

The Biden transition team has announced a number of appointments to senior foreign policy positions yesterday.

According to the announcement, Antony Blinken will serve as the Biden Administration’s Secretary of State; Alejandro Mayorkas will serve as Secretary of Homeland Security; Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence; Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor; and John Kerry as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

Biden said upon the announcement of his foreign policy team: “We have no time to lose when it comes to our national security and foreign policy. I need a team ready on Day One to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table, rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity, and values. This is the crux of that team. These individuals are equally as experienced and crisis-tested as they are innovative and imaginative. Their accomplishments in diplomacy are unmatched, but they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet the profound challenges of this new moment with old thinking and unchanged habits — or without diversity of background and perspective. It’s why I’ve selected them.”

Blinken has been a key advisor to President-elect Biden closest advisors on foreign policy and was a key figure in the Obama Administration. He was opposed to the plan to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, but has stated that Biden would not punish Israel for such a move by withholding aid.

“Now, let me be clear about one thing, because the vice president can clear about it himself. He would not tie our military assistance to Israel to any political decisions that it makes,” Blinken said.

“Israel’s security is challenged on a daily basis. They face existential threats every single day. And he’s made clear that he would not tie our military assistance to this. So that’s the one thing he’s… explicitly ruled out. Now, that’s probably the greatest point of leverage. Well, again, it’s in our interest that Israel have the means to secure itself. And that’s not something he would touch.”