Politics

The US Department of Defense has ordered Russia to “respect NATO airspace” saying that it believes that a Russian Su-34 jet violated Turkey’s airspace earlier this week.  “We are aware of reports and can confirm that yesterday another Russian combat aircraft violated Turkish — and NATO – airspace,” Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright told Russia’s RIA Novosti on Saturday. Presstv.com reports: “We call on Russia to respect Turkish airspace and cease activities that risk further heightening instability in the region,” Wright continued.

The Washington Post absurdly declares that normalization with Cuba is “failing” because it hasn’t yet dramatically changed the country’s political system:

Yet there is scant evidence so far of a sea change in Cuba — perhaps because Mr. Obama continues to offer the Castro regime unilateral concessions requiring nothing in return.

Since I first came to New Hampshire 19 days ago, the polls have been fairly steady. Donald Trump has held a two digit lead, in some surveys as much as 20 points. Ted Cruz has often been in second, and the four candidates in the so-called “establishment” lane—Bush, Kasich, Rubio, and Christie—have bunched together at between 8 and 14 percent. There are two outlier results: In the ARG survey about two weeks ago John Kasich surged to a clear second place, with about 20 percent, and fell back to 17 last week. In the Emerson poll released last Wednesday, Jeb Bush rose to second, at 18 percent.

The final Des Moines Register poll was released over the weekend, showing Trump slightly ahead of Cruz (28-23%) and Clinton barely ahead of Sanders (45-42%). Trump and Clinton have gained ground over the last month:

Ann Selzer, whose firm conducts the polls, told me before the poll was released that the late momentum usually matters as much as the top-line results. That appears to have gone in Clinton’s and Trump’s favor. Both added supporters in January while their main rivals, Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz respectively, lost some.

As far as I know, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) is the first member of Congress to make a case against U.S. support for the war on Yemen in public. He spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations Friday: