Superpower repositioning

March 11, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

More than at any time since the end of World War II, American politicians and voters seem to want a less expansive US role in the world.

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The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi officially confirmed Thursday that she will not become Myanmar's next president. Unofficially, she has vowed to be the de-facto leader by calling the shots from behind the scenes, and party members said Thursday that's how things will work in Myanmar's first democratically elected government in more than a half century. The party nominated two Suu Kyi loyalists for the post including the front runner Htin Kyaw (pronounced Tin CH-yaw), a 70-year-old Oxford graduate. The nomination will be followed by a vote among legislators later this month before the new president is installed April 1.

Fighting for Florida and beyond, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled in an intense debate over who's the true friend of American Hispanics, trading accusations over guest worker programs "akin to slavery" and the embracing of "vigilantes" against immigrants. They had even worse things to say about Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Facing off Thursday evening, just six days before Florida gives its verdict on the presidential race, Clinton faulted Sanders for repeatedly voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill; he faulted her for opposing a 2007 effort to let people who were in the country illegally obtain driver's licenses.

Hoping to capture a high-profile target, Somali forces hopped off helicopters a couple of miles from an Al Shabab-controlled town, slipped through the dark and got into a fierce firefight that reportedly killed more than 10 Islamic extremists, US and Somali officials said. US forces were serving in an advisory role and provided the helicopter transportation for the mission, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. The US forces accompanied the Somali troops on the mission, but did not "go all the way to the objective," he said.

China has written to diplomats and UN officials urging them not to attend a Geneva event on Friday where the Dalai Lama will speak, reasserting that it opposes his appearance at all venues due to his "separatist activities." Reuters reported in October that China is waging a campaign of intimidation, obstruction and harassment that Western diplomats and activists say is aimed at silencing criticism of its human rights record at the United Nations.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and dozens of other Silicon Valley tech giants filed a brief this week with the US Supreme Court in support of the Obama administration's immigration plan to shield immigrant families from deportation. “I hope we find the compassion and courage to give everyone a fair shot, to treat everyone with respect and dignity, and do what we can to make this world better for all people – not just people who look like us or live near us,” Mr . Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook Tuesday. The brief goes on to spell out the economic case for allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.

Scientists from one of the United Kingdom’s top universities have joined calls for Britain to stay in the European Union. The call arrived Wednesday in the form of a letter addressed to the editor of The Times, a London-based newspaper. It was signed by Stephen Hawking and 150 other top scientists in Cambridge, who cited concerns a British exit from the EU (dubbed Brexit) would be “a disaster for UK science."

After decades of recovery, the Louisiana black bear – the furry beast that inspired the creation of teddy bears – is now officially off the lists for threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The US Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell attributed the good news to partnerships with private landowners and their work to preserve forestland vital to the survival of the bears during her announcement at the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Louisiana, in the heart of black bear territory.

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