Senate confirms Blinken as the next Secretary of State

WASHINGTON – The US Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Antony Blinken as the next secretary of state. Seventy-eight senators from both parties voted to approve his nomination, and 22 opposed. Blinken is one of Biden’s closest advisers. In 2009, when Biden was vice president, he served as his national security advisor. Later, he became deputy national security advisor from 2013-2015 under president Barack Obama and then-deputy secretary of state from 2015-2017. Blinken, 58, was born in New York to Jewish parents. Early in Biden’s primary campaign, he was tapped to lead his foreign-policy team as its top adviser. In the past year, he has represented the Biden...