Vox Sentences: We’re bombing Libya again

Donald Trump finally discovers some publicity is bad publicity; fighting heats up in Aleppo; the Obama administration starts bombing Libya to fight ISIS.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

At long last

(Joe Mahoney/Getty Images)

• He just can't help himself. Donald Trump has spent the better part of the last 72 hours attacking Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a slain American soldier, after they spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week.

  [Vox / Ezra Klein]

• Trump's first line of attack — that Ghazala Khan might have been forbidden by her husband from speaking at the convention — prompted Ghazala to publish a heartbreaking essay about her son in the Washington Post.

  [Washington Post / Ghazala Khan]

• But other than the Khans themselves, no one looks good here. Not Donald Trump, who, at one point, issued a statement that said in the space of a sentence that Trump had read the Constitution and that Khan had no right to say he hadn't.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Not the people who joyously bought pocket Constitutions over the weekend, only to find out after the fact they'd purchased the version annotated by right-wing Christian conspiracy theorist Cleon Skousen.

  [The Intercept / Naomi LaChance]

• Not elected Republicans, many of whom have sternly rebuked Trump and praised the Khans (Sen. John McCain's statement was the strongest of all) but none of whom have revoked their endorsement.

  [Sen. John McCain]

• And not Hillary Clinton, whose rebuttal of Trump ended up reinforcing the idea that American Muslims need to prove they aren't terrorists.

  [Vox / Tara Golshan]

• It could be worse for Trump. He could be getting asked some hard questions about his campaign's lobbying to soften the Republican platform line on Ukraine (though, as Vox's Zack Beauchamp points out, Trump's not quite as ignorant about Ukraine as the media's saying).

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• There will be time for all of those questions at the debates. As long as Trump shows up. Which, given that he's already complaining that the debate schedule is unfair because it conflicts with 2 NFL games, may not happen at all.

  [The Atlantic / David A. Graham]

A tire fire in Aleppo

(Mohamed al-Bakour/AFP/Getty Images)

• Syrian rebels have launched a heavy offensive to retain the city of Aleppo, where about 300,000 civilians are under siege from government forces.

  [Al Jazeera ]

• The eastern part of the city has been completely surrounded by government forces. American doctors, there to help their Syrian colleagues, have been horrified by what they've seen.

  [NYT / Anne Barnard]

• The government of Bashar al-Assad (with the help of the Russian military) has reportedly opened some routes in northern Aleppo for civilians to leave — though hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in the city.

  [AP / Bassem Mroue]

• Assad and Russia's big advantage: They have air power, and the rebels don't. But rebels (and sympathizers) have created an impromptu no-fly zone by setting piles of tires on fire, creating a thick smoke screen.

  [Washington Post / Max Bearak]

• A group of Syrian rebels also downed a Russian helicopter on its way back from Aleppo Monday. Russia maintains the helicopter was delivering humanitarian aid to the siege victims — something rebels deny.

  [BBC ]

• It's not known exactly who downed the helicopter. But the US has been arming rebels in the area — including giving them weapons that can take helicopters down.

  [Reuters / Lisa Barrington and Dmitry Solovyov]

War in Libya, the sequel

(Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

• The US has started a bombing campaign in Sirte, Libya, targeting ISIS camps in a country that's become a North African stronghold for the group.

  [NYT / Helene Cooper]

• (Earlier this year, Tarek Kahlaoui explained how the post-Qaddafi power vacuum in Libya became fertile ground for ISIS.)

  [Newsweek / Tarek Kahlaoui]

• The US is responding to a request by Libya's recognized government to help them take out ISIS in the region.

  [CNN / Holly Yan]

• But — just like the 2011 war to unseat Qaddafi — the US government hasn't asked Congress whether it can go to war in Libya. Instead, it argues, its efforts in Libya are part of the war on terror, and therefore covered by the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed on September 14, 2001.

  [The Intercept / Alex Emmons]

• A possible split to watch: President Obama's would-be successor Hillary Clinton accepted this logic in 2011. Her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, very much did not, and has continually pressed for a new congressional authorization for military action against ISIS.

  [Yahoo / Olivier Knox]

MISCELLANEOUS

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson found out last fall that his grandfather, a prominent black sociologist, had been targeted by the US government during the Red Scare. [LAT / Brian Bennett]

• In the 1920s, getting monkey or goat testicles transplanted to boost your sex drive was a hot cosmetic surgery. No, for real.

  [Vice / Roisin Kiberd]

• The US isn't getting a universal basic income anytime soon. But here's a set of policies that could get it closer.

  [The Nation / Mike Konczal]

• Did Beyoncé kidnap Sia and force her to write songs? It'd be irresponsible not to ask questions.

  [BuzzFeed / Ryan Broderick]

• The DC restaurant Lincoln is removing nearly 10 million pennies from its penny-decorated floor to "pay a couple of bills."

  [Washingtonian / Jessica Sidman]

VERBATIM

"I don’t even read positive reviews unless they are absolutely certified by eight different people to not contain one thing that could upset me." [Jonathan Franzen to Slate / Isaac Chotiner]

• "[Trump] boasted there were 1,000 people standing outside on the Wells Avenue side in 104-degree heat, listening to him on loudspeakers. (There weren’t; there were at most 50, according to a city firefighter who was outside, and the temperature never hit 100.)"

  [Roanoke Times / Dan Casey]

• "This is just a blatant excuse to put Channing Tatum in some King Triton-looking getup and hose him down so he’s glistening properly. I will be preordering my tickets."

  [Jezebel / Kelly Faircloth]

• "It is with sadness that we announce the death of our College cat, Simpkin, who passed away peacefully over the weekend … He was a truly terrible mouser, a sometime successful bird-catcher, and a loyal and faithful companion to many students, fellows and staff. He never married."

  [Hertford College]

• "Newspapers all over Idaho, as well as media outlets nationwide, had reported on the debunking of the Syrian gang-rape story, but some in Twin Falls saw the focus on the mistaken details—the ethnicity of the perpetrators, the presence of a knife—as a way to sweep a true story of Islamic violence under the rug."

  [Slate / Michelle Goldberg]

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