Biden wants to make a woman the intelligence coordinator for the first time

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Avril Haines: Will she coordinate the work of the US secret services in the future?

Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP

The elected US President Joe Biden wants to appoint the experienced diplomat Antony Blinken as Secretary of State and former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate commissioner.

This was announced by Biden's transition team on Monday.

Alejandro Mayorkas is also the first Hispano to head the Ministry of Homeland Security, which is responsible for immigration, among other things.

The former vice chief of the CIA secret service, Avril Haines, is also said to be the first woman in US history to become secret service director, as Biden's transition team announced.

It would thus coordinate the work of all US intelligence services in the future.

Biden's transition team also confirmed on Monday that 43-year-old Jake Sullivan Biden would become National Security Advisor.

Sullivan was Biden's security advisor when he was Vice President.

The career diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield will therefore become her country's ambassador to the United Nations.

US media had already reported on Blinken, Sullivan and Thomas-Greenfield.

The appointment of former chief diplomat John Kerry as climate special envoy comes as a surprise.

The 76-year-old, who was US Secretary of State between 2013 and 2017 under President Barack Obama, will serve on the National Security Council in this capacity.

"This is the first time that the National Security Council will have a representative specifically responsible for climate change," said Biden's transition team.

With this, the elected president expressed that global warming was seen as an "urgent national security issue".

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