Trump hits new low in public opinion — but he's still beating Hillary Clinton

The number of Americans who say they hold positive views of President Donald Trump has dropped to its lowest point since his inauguration, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday.
But the survey offered Trump at least one potential bit of solace: He’s still beating Hillary Clinton.
Just 36 percent of those reached by pollsters said they have either very or somewhat positive feelings about Trump, 2 points lower than in the poll’s June iteration. But at 36 percent, Trump still finished 6 points higher than Clinton, his 2016 Democratic opponent, about whom just 30 percent of respondents said they feel either very or somewhat positive.
The 2016 rivals were nearly deadlocked among those with negative feelings. Fifty-three percent of those polled said they hold either very or somewhat negative feelings toward Clinton, while 52 percent said the same of Trump.

Warren co-sponsoring Sanders's 'Medicare for All bill'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday she is co-sponsoring Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) "Medicare for All bill," the latest Democrat to back a signature Sanders campaign issue.
Warren joins Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and even more moderate Senators like Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who this week said that the idea deserves attention.

Feinstein faces growing storm on the left

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has dominated California politics for more than a quarter of a century. But facing blistering criticism that she’s out of touch with the progressive left following her recent comments about President Donald Trump and DACA, it’s increasingly looking like the Democratic lawmaker will face a major primary challenge if she runs for a fifth full term.
At times, the senator has been highly critical of Trump. But her recent suggestion that, given time, Trump “can be a good president” — and her concession Tuesday that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program might be on shaky legal ground — have emboldened her critics and turned a spotlight on her reelection plans.

Why Democrats are snubbing their Alabama Senate candidate

He’s cash-poor, outgunned and flying under the radar. Doug Jones, the Democrat running in the Alabama special election for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old Senate seat, is no Jon Ossoff.
Unlike Ossoff, the Georgia special election candidate who recently gained national prominence — and collected more cash than any House candidate, ever — due to his initial positioning as the face of the anti-Trump resistance, Jones has declined to make his opposition to Donald Trump the centerpiece of his campaign...
In Ossoff’s case, the Georgia candidate was vaulted into national prominence when groups like the liberal Daily Kos blog noticed him as he ripped into Trump early in 2017, months before the closely watched June special election. The site endorsed Ossoff, and started directing money to him — the candidate ended up raising an unprecedented $23 million from Democrats all over the country.
But groups like Daily Kos still have no plans to back Jones and give him a much-needed lift in a conservative state the president won by 28 percentage points last year. "We haven’t decided to get involved in this race. Alabama is obviously a tough state for any Democrat, but with Trump’s nose-diving approval ratings and Democrats’ string of successes in special elections this year, we’re keeping a close eye on this — especially if [Roy] Moore winds up as the GOP’s nominee,” said Daily Kos political editor Carolyn Fiddler.

Democrats Already Gave Up On ’50 State Strategy’ Promise

The Democratic Party can’t expect to be perceived as the party of the people while they won’t bother to try to represent people in areas of the country they’ve written off as Republican territory. Allowing Republicans to go unchallenged in states where they have been traditionally dominant allows them to dedicate their resources on competitive areas. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) argued that sometimes it is best to stay out of elections, which directly contradicts the 50 State Strategy promise: “There are just certain races where it is not helpful to be attached to the national D.C. Democrats. It is the calculation you make in even the most competitive swing district,” Meredith Kelly, the communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told the Huffington Post in April 2017.
This statement is reminiscent of the Clinton campaign’s mistake of ignoring Wisconsin and Michigan during the 2016 election. By assuming that some areas of the country are foregone conclusions, Democrats dig their own grave with apathy and hopelessness. Unfortunately for Democrats, voters have taken notice.

Jacindamania spreads as Jeremy Corbyn urges New Zealand's Ardern to 'do it for us'

Since being elected to lead New Zealand Labour last month, Ardern – the party’s youngest ever leader – has enjoyed a wave of popular support labelled “Jacindamania” that has transformed the run-up to the election in two weeks’ time.
Last week polling put Labour ahead of the incumbent National party for the first time in over a decade, with a resurgent opposition under Ardern up from 26% to 43%. National was on 41%.
The ballooning levels of excitement over Ardern’s invigorating leadership of the formerly morose Labour party have been compared to Corbyn’s “youthquake”, which saw Britain’s Labour party experience a surge of support from young voters in the recent general election.
Political commentator Bryce Edwards said last month: “At this point the Labour party seems to have gone from a grey, old party with a lot of doom and gloom about them, to a party of Corbynesque excitement; and similar support,” referring to the unexpectedly strong electoral showing in the UK.

US airstrikes on Syria mosque compound violated international law, UN says

Three days before striking the mosque compound, the U.S. team knew about the target, but it didn’t do enough to verify it, the report said of the March 16 attack in al-Jinah.
“The Commission therefore concludes that United States forces failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, in violation of international humanitarian law,” the report says.
After the attack, the U.S Central Command (CENTCOM) said that the strikes targeted al-Qaida militants gathering in a building across the street from the mosque, but eyewitnesses reported that the victims of the strikes were civilians gathered in a religious building. Following an investigation, CENTCOM later said they identified the building as a valid military target without fully knowing its religious nature.

The West might hardly believe it, but it now seems the Syrian war is ending – and Assad is the victor

The Brits already seem to have got the message. They slyly withdrew their military trainers last week – the men intended to prepare David Cameron’s mythical “70,000 rebels” who were supposedly going to overthrow the Assad government.
...So while we’re all waiting for Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un to start World War Three, we’ve not spotted that the military map of the Middle East has substantially, bloodily changed. It will be years before Syria and Iraq (and Yemen) are rebuilt, but the Israelis, so used to calling on Washington for help, may have to go back to Putin again to clear up the mess they’re in.

While defeat of Isis dominates global attention, al-Qaeda strengthens in Syria

Al-Qaeda is creating its most powerful stronghold ever in north-west Syria at a time when world attention is almost entirely focused on the impending defeat of Isis in the east of the country. It has established full control of Idlib province and of a vital Syrian-Turkish border crossing since July. “Idlib Province is the largest al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11,” says Brett McGurk, the senior US envoy to the international coalition fighting Isis.

The al-Qaeda-linked movement, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which used to be called Jabhat al-Nusra, has long been the most powerful rebel group in western Syria. After the capture of east Aleppo by the Syrian army last December, it moved to eliminate its rivals in Idlib, including its powerful former Turkish-backed ally Ahrar al-Sham. HTS is estimated to have 30,000 experienced fighters whose numbers will grow as it integrates brigades from other defeated rebel groups and recruits young men from the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have sought refuge in Idlib from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.