Envoys appointed by Obama to be recalled

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has issued a blanket mandate requiring politically appointed Ambassadors installed by President Barack Obama to leave their posts by Inauguration Day, the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand said. “I will be departing on January 20th,” Ambassador Mark Gilbert said. The mandate was issued “without exceptions” through an order sent in a State Department cable on Dec. 23, he said. The order threatens to leave the U.S. without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in nations like Germany, Canada and Britain, The New York Times had reported. —Reuters