Nation and World briefs for November 7

No to Keystone: Obama kills pipeline project after 7-year review, boosting leverage on climate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ending a seven-year political saga, President Barack Obama killed the proposed Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, declaring it would have undercut U.S. efforts to clinch a global climate change deal at the center of his environmental legacy.

Obama’s decision marked an unambiguous victory for environmental activists who spent years denouncing the pipeline, lobbying the administration and even chaining themselves to tractors to make their point about the threat posed by dirty fossil fuels. It also places the president and fellow Democrats in direct confrontation with Republicans and energy advocates heading into the 2016 presidential election.

The president, announcing his decision at the White House, said he agreed with a State Department conclusion that Keystone wouldn’t advance U.S. national interests. He lamented that both political parties had “overinflated” Keystone into a proxy battle for climate change but glossed over his own role in allowing the controversy to drag out over several national elections.

“This pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others,” he said.

Although Obama in 2013 said his litmus test for Keystone would be whether it increased U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, his final decision appeared based on other factors. He didn’t broach that topic in his remarks, and State Department officials said they’d determined Keystone wouldn’t significantly affect carbon pollution levels.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson backs off claim of earning West Point scholarship

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ben Carson was not offered a formal scholarship to West Point as he wrote in his autobiography, his campaign said Friday, acknowledging the latest in a series of misstatements from the retired neurosurgeon who has surged to the top of the GOP’s presidential field.

“I guess it could have been more clarified,” Carson said in an interview with Fox News to be broadcast Friday night. “I told it as I understood it.”

Carson, a newcomer to national politics, has developed a passionate following based in part on his inspirational personal story and devotion to Christian values. The only African-American in the Republican 2016 class, Carson grew up in inner-city Detroit and often speaks about his brushes with violence and poverty during his early years.

His campaign on Friday sought to clarify a statement about the U.S. Military Academy in his breakout book, “Gifted Hands,” in which he outlines his participation with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, commonly known as ROTC, while in high school.

“I was offered a full scholarship to West Point,” Carson wrote in the 1996 book. “I didn’t refuse the scholarship outright, but I let them know that a military career wasn’t where I saw myself going. As overjoyed as I felt to be offered such a scholarship, I wasn’t really tempted.”

In a turnaround, Russia suspends flights to Egypt until security improves after crash

MOSCOW (AP) — In an abrupt turnaround, Russia on Friday suspended all passenger flights to Egypt after days of resisting U.S. and British suggestions that a bomb may have brought down a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula a week ago.

The move dealt a sharp blow to both countries’ tourism sectors amid fears about security in Egypt.

Russia’s federal aviation agency said airlines would be allowed to send empty planes to bring home travelers, but it was unclear when the Russians in Egypt, estimated to number at least 40,000, would be able to return home as planned from the Red Sea resorts including Sharm el-Sheikh.

Within hours of the Oct. 31 crash of the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 that killed all 224 aboard — mostly Russians — a faction of the Islamic State militant group claimed to have downed it in retaliation for Moscow’s airstrikes that began a month earlier against fighters in Syria. The claim was initially dismissed on the grounds that the IS affiliate in Egypt’s troubled Sinai region didn’t have missiles capable of hitting high-flying planes.

British and U.S. officials, guided primarily by intelligence intercepts and satellite imagery, suggested a bomb might have been aboard the aircraft. The Russians and Egyptians called that premature, saying the investigation had not concluded.

Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign takes new twist on ‘Saturday Night Live’

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign for president will take another unusual step this weekend when he takes a break from typical campaigning to host “Saturday Night Live.”

The appearance will put the billionaire businessman and reality TV star in rare company: Only eight politicians previously have hosted “Saturday Night Live” in its entire 40-year-old history.

And only one of those politicians-slash-guest hosts was an active presidential candidate — the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was seeking the Democratic nomination when he hosted in December 2003.

The appearance is the latest example of how Trump — who first guest hosted “SNL” in 2004 just weeks after the show he helped create, NBC’s “The Apprentice,” began airing — has been able to capitalize on his celebrity throughout his campaign, which has translated into record ratings for networks on each of the three Republican debates.

Trump has repeatedly bragged about the attention his appearances have been generating, predicting the show will have its highest ratings ever with him at the helm.

US hiring surge drives unemployment down to 5 percent, boosts chances of Fed rate hike

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. hiring swelled in October by the largest amount all year, and unemployment dropped another notch to 5 percent, increasing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month for the first time in a decade.

With Americans spending more on everything from restaurant meals and clothing to new cars, employers added an impressive 271,000 jobs last month.

That was a strong rebound from August and September, when turmoil in China and other economies overseas proved a drag on the U.S. job market.

Unemployment declined from 5.1 percent in September and is now at its lowest point since April 2008, just a few months after the Great Recession began.

Even before Friday’s report, expectations for a Fed rate increase in December were building. Fed chief Janet Yellen and other top officials said this week that the economy is generally healthy and a move at next month’s meeting is a “live possibility.”

Mormon church issues new rules aimed at members in same-sex marriages, their children

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Mormon church officials have issued a rule change that says members in same-sex marriages can be kicked out and their children must wait until they’re 18 and disavow homosexual relationships to be baptized.

The revisions triggered a wave of anger, confusion and sadness for a growing faction of LGBT-supportive Mormons who were buoyed in recent years by church leaders’ calls for more compassion and understanding for LGBT members.

“It feels like they are extending an olive branch and hitting you with it,” said Wendy Montgomery, who is Mormon and has a 17-year-old gay son. “It’s like this emotional whiplash.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disseminated the handbook changes this week to local church leaders around the world. The goal was to provide clarity to lay leaders who run congregations, church spokesman Eric Hawkins said. He noted the church has long been on record as opposing same-sex marriages.

“While it respects the law of the land, and acknowledges the right of others to think and act differently, it does not perform or accept same-sex marriage within its membership,” Hawkins said in a statement.

Project aims to help save handful of Brazil’s languages, 40 percent of which are endangered

PALMAS, Brazil (AP) — Guaricema Pataxo’s indigenous roots are the cornerstone of her identity. The 53-year-old great-grandmother lives on her Pataxo people’s reservation and makes a living by hawking their handicrafts, fully decked out in traditional regalia.

But ask her to speak Pataxo, and she can only stumble through a few basic words and phrases.

Her situation is not unusual.

Of the estimated 2,000 indigenous languages thought to have been spoken in pre-Columbian times in what is now Brazil, only around 160 survive today. Experts warn that as many as 40 percent of those remaining could be lost in the next few decades, as elders die off and young people get more access to television, the Internet and cellphones.

The pace of change has been accelerated by big agriculture’s push into the hinterland, bringing roads, electricity and outsiders to areas with a high concentration of indigenous people.

Philadelphia, birthplace of America, becomes first World Heritage City in US

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — America’s birthplace has been named the country’s first World Heritage City, putting it on par with Jerusalem, Cairo, Paris and other places recognized for their impacts on the course of human events.

The Organization of World Heritage Cities added Philadelphia in a vote Friday at its biennial conference in Arequipa, Peru.

Philadelphia, the nation’s fifth largest city, qualified because Independence Hall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Declaration of Independence was signed at Independence Hall in 1776. Four years later, the Articles of Confederation, which united the 13 colonies, were ratified. The U.S. Constitution was debated and signed at Independence Hall in 1787, with George Washington presiding.

“The universal principles of freedom and democracy set forth in these documents are of fundamental importance to American history and have also had a profound impact on lawmakers around the world,” according to UNESCO’s website.