Trump accuses Obama of derailing smooth transition

Trump made this accusation in a tweet, but did not give any details about it. It is believed that he was apparently referring to the some of the policy decisions, including those related to Israel being taken by the outgoing Obama Administration. “Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT!” Trump said in a tweet. 

Later the President-elect told reporters in Florida that he spoke over phone with Obama, who is currently on his annual vacation in Hawaii. “He phoned me. We had a very nice conversation,” he said. “Did you bring up any of your concerns about these roadblocks?” he was asked. 

“We had a general conversation. I think the secretary’s speech really spoke for itself. But we had a very general conversation; very, very nice. Appreciated that he called me,” Trump said. 

Trump has responded on Twitter in recent days to an interview in which Obama had said he was confident he could have beaten Trump if he were able to run for a third term. Trump said he has “NOT” had a smooth transition to the office. 

Trump criticises UN again 

The UN is not living up to its potential and is causing “problems” rather than solving them, US President-elect Donald Trump has said as he hit out at the world body for the second time in a week after the Security Council voted to condemn new Israeli settlements. “The UN has such tremendous potential, not living up to its potential. There is such tremendous potential, but it is not living up,” Trump told reporters in Florida on Wednesday. “When do you see the United Nations solving problems? They don’t. They cause problems,” he said. 

The outgoing Obama administration is planning a series of fresh sanctions against Russia for its alleged role in cyber hacking into servers and emails of American political parties and leaders in the run up to the general elections, multiple media reports have said. 

Quoting unnamed senior administration officials, CBS News said the new set of sanctions is likely to target the Russian intelligence agency and its official. US officials believes that the spy agency operated with the blessing of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions could be announced as early on Thursday,- CNN reported.