In Brief: Nation & World: 1-16-17

In Trump, man elected by Americans is president they’ll get

WASHINGTON (AP) — After 10 weeks, dozens of tweets and one rollicking news conference, Donald Trump’s transition into the White House has left little doubt that the man Americans elected in November is the president they’ll get.

The immense responsibilities of the office and the daunting decisions that await Trump when he takes office Friday have not appeared to change the confrontational, divisive Republican.

Just days away from his inauguration, Trump is still litigating old campaign fights and picking new ones with intelligence agencies and Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and civil rights movement veteran. Trump is refusing to be boxed in by the conservative ideology his party prefers and he’s battling with journalists, yet still craves their attention.

To supporters, Trump’s handling of this transition period is proof that the political novice-turned-president-elect plans to follow through on his campaign promises to take a sledgehammer to Washington’s traditional ways.

“The American people voted for change,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said. “He is the instrument of that change.”

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World diplomats tell Trump, Israel: Mideast needs peace

PARIS (AP) — Sending a forceful message to Israel’s prime minister and the incoming Trump administration, dozens of countries called Sunday on Israel and the Palestinians to revive work toward long-elusive peace — including an independent Palestinian state.

The closing declaration at a Mideast peace conference in Paris urged both sides to “officially restate their commitment to the two-state solution” and disassociate from voices that reject this. It also warned them against taking one-sided actions that could hurt talks, an apparent reference to Israeli settlement building.

While the Palestinians welcomed Sunday’s declaration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the conference “rigged” and cooked up behind Israel’s back to force it to accept conditions against national interests.

The French organizers argued the conference was necessary to keep hopes alive for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians — the solution favored by the international community for the past two decades.

Many members of Netanyahu’s coalition want to abandon the two-state solution and expand settlements, and some have even called for annexing parts of the West Bank. Trump’s campaign platform made no mention of Palestinian independence.

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Outgoing CIA chief rips into Trump on Russia threat

NEW YORK (AP) — The outgoing CIA director charged on Sunday that Donald Trump lacks a full understanding of the threat Moscow poses to the United States, delivering a public lecture to the president-elect that further highlighted the bitter state of Trump’s relations with American intelligence agencies.

John Brennan’s pointed message on national television came just five days before Trump becomes the nation’s 45th president amid lingering questions about Russia’s role in the 2016 election even as the focus shifts to the challenges of governing.

“Now that he’s going to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as opposed to talking and tweeting, he’s going to have tremendous responsibility to make sure that U.S. and national security interests are protected,” Brennan said on “Fox News Sunday,” warning that the president-elect’s impulsivity could be dangerous.

“Spontaneity is not something that protects national security interests,” Brennan declared.

Trump, who has unleashed a series of aggressive tweets against the U.S. intelligence community and his political rivals in recent weeks, did not respond to Brennan’s criticism.

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Nowhere left to run away to: The final days of the circus

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Goodbye to death-defying feats — daring young men (and women) on the flying trapeze, whip-wielding lion tamers, human cannonballs. Goodbye to the scent of peanuts and popcorn, the thrill of three rings, the jaunty bum-bum-dadadada of circus music.

Send out the clowns. The Big Top is coming down — for good.

On Saturday, officials of the company that owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that it will close in May, ending a 146-year run that dates back to a time before automobiles or airplanes or movies, when Ulysses S. Grant was president and minstrel shows were popular entertainment.

What killed the circus? There are many suspects: increased railroad costs. Costly court battles with animal rights activists that led to an end to elephant acts — and the fact that some people didn’t want to see a show without elephants.

But mostly, in an era of Pokemon Go, online role playing games and YouTube celebrities, the “Greatest Show on Earth” doesn’t seem so great.

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Kremlin counts days to Trump’s inauguration, blasts Obama

MOSCOW (AP) — With eager anticipation, the Kremlin is counting the days to Donald Trump’s inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama’s outgoing administration, no holds barred.

Careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday.

Trump’s open admiration of Putin has brought wide expectations of improved Moscow-Washington relations, but Trump has not articulated a clear Russia policy. His Cabinet nominees include both a retired general with a hawkish stance on Russia and an oil executive who has done extensive business in Russia.

At the same time, Russian officials are blasting the outgoing U.S. administration in distinctly undiplomatic language, dropping all decorum after Obama hit Moscow with more sanctions in his final weeks in office.

Moscow calls Obama’s team a “bunch of geopolitical losers” engaged in a last-ditch effort to inflict the maximum possible damage to U.S.-Russia ties to make it more difficult for Trump to mend the rift.

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Widow of slain Oregon standoff leader carries on his mission

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Leaders of an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in rural Oregon were driving to a public meeting a year ago when police shot and killed one of them at a roadblock.

Now, LaVoy Finicum’s widow and their children are planning to hold that meeting later this month in the same town, John Day. Speakers are slated to talk about the Constitution, property rights and other issues.

“It is the anniversary of my husband’s death. We want to continue with his mission,” Jeanette Finicum told The Associated Press. “The people within counties and states should decide how to use those properties, not the federal government.”

LaVoy Finicum was the spokesman for several dozen occupiers during the 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and has become a martyr for the movement to transfer ownership of federal lands to local entities. The U.S. government owns nearly half of all land in the West, compared with 4 percent in other states, according to the Congressional Overview of Federal Land Ownership.

Finicum’s cattle brand, an L connected to a V with a floating bar, adorns bumper stickers, black flags and T-shirts seen at conservative gatherings.

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Central US Ice storm falls short of dire forecasts

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sleet and drizzle glazed swaths of the central U.S. on Sunday, extending icy weather that some meteorologists acknowledged fell short of dire forecasts.

Much of the region remained under an ice storm warning on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as stretches continued getting pelted by rain, often in areas where temperatures hovered around freezing. A National Weather Service ice storm warning for the Kansas City and St. Louis areas expired Sunday afternoon as temperatures exceeded freezing. An identical warning remained in effect until Monday morning to the north, as the storm pressed into Nebraska and Iowa.

The freeze made roads harrowing. In Kansas near Kansas City, two troopers escaped injury when their vehicles were struck while working a crash along northbound Interstate 635. And in central Nebraska, authorities believe icy conditions contributed to a fiery crash involving two tractor-trailers shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday on Interstate 80, forcing a three-hour closure of 15 miles of Interstate 80. There were no injuries.

Authorities say ice contributed to a southwestern Kansas wreck Saturday night that killed a 35-year-old Oklahoma man and injured several others. The Kansas Highway Patrol said Thay Torres-Ocacio of Guymon, Oklahoma, died after the sport utility vehicle in which he was riding went out of control on an overpass and eventually overturned several times.

Some people lost power amid the storm. Nearly 11,000 electric customers were without power in Oklahoma, nearly all in northwestern part of the state. Woodward County Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer said Sunday that the county was likely the hardest hit. He said that as some power is restored, the ice that’s bent tree limbs begins to melt and the limbs snap back into place, sometimes knocking down additional power lines.

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Thousands rally to resist Republican health law repeal drive

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — Thousands of people showed up in freezing temperatures on Sunday in Michigan to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders denounce Republican efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, one of dozens of rallies Democrats staged across the country to highlight opposition.

Labor unions were a strong presence at the demonstration in a parking lot at Macomb Community College in the Detroit suburb of Warren, where some people carried signs saying “Save our Health Care.”

Lisa Bible, 55, of Bancroft, Michigan, said she has an autoimmune disease and high cholesterol. She said the existing law has been an answer to her and her husband’s prayers, but she worries that if it’s repealed her family may get stuck with her medical bills.

“I’m going to get really sick and my life will be at risk,” said Bible, an online antique dealer.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to overturn and replace the Affordable Care Act and majority Republicans in Congress this week began the process of repealing it using a budget maneuver that requires a bare majority in the Senate.

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Crisis warnings sound as EU gears up for new migrant wave

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Tens of thousands of people seeking better lives are expected to trek across deserts and board unseaworthy boats in war-torn Libya this year in a desperate effort to reach European shores by way of Italy.

More than 181,000 people, most so-called “economic migrants” with little chance of being allowed to stay in Europe, attempted to cross the central Mediterranean last year from Libya, Africa’s nearest stretch of coast to Italy. About 4,500 died or disappeared.

Hundreds already have taken to the sea this month, braving the winter weather. In the latest reminder of the journey’s perils, more than 100 people were missing off Libya’s coast over the weekend after a migrant boat sunk.

Some European leaders are warning of a fresh migration crisis when sea waters warm again and more people choose to put their lives in the hands of smugglers.

“Come next spring, the number of people crossing over the Mediterranean will reach record levels,” Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country holds the European Union’s presidency, predicted. “The choice is trying to do something now, or meeting urgently in April, May…and try to do a deal then.”