Vox Sentences: Digging up dead dictators

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Trump lifts the sanctions on Turkey; deceased Spanish dictator Francisco Franco removed from the Valley of the Fallen.

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Trump ends Turkey sanctions

President Trump announced that he would be lifting the sanctions against Turkey on Wednesday. [Washington Post / Felicia Sonmez and David Nakamura]
Sanctions were first imposed against Turkey as a congressional response to Turkish “Operation Peace Spring” into northern Syria to establish a safe zone and eliminate Kurdish forces. Trump initially supported the sanctions if “Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path.” [CBS News]
By pulling US troops out of Turkey, Trump’s actions facilitated the Turkish incursion into Syria against the Kurds. [Axios / Dave Lawler]
Now Trump says that since Turkey halted their military operation and agreed to make the ceasefire that the US helped negotiate permanent, there’s no longer a need to impose sanctions. [Wall Street Journal / Vivian Salama, Michael R. Gordon and Jared Malsin]
While justifying his actions, Trump said of his wider pullout from the Middle East, “We’re getting out. Let someone else fight over this long, blood-stained sand.” [Al Jazeera]
Trump has since called the course of events a “great outcome” for Syria and praised the ceasefire negotiations as the US passing on the mantle of handling the Middle East to the region itself. [Politico / Quint Forgey]
Vox’s Alex Ward argues that Trump’s handling of this crisis is the clearest example of the “Trump doctrine” of foreign policy. [Vox / Alex Ward]
Imposing, removing, reimposing, increasing, and decreasing: Does America have a sanctions problem? [The Atlantic / Neil Bhatiya and Edoardo Saravalle]

Spain exhumes and reburies Franco

After a year-long legal battle, the remains of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco were exhumed from their place in the Valley of the Fallen. [The Guardian / Sam Jones]
Franco will be re-interred in a public cemetery where his deceased wife is buried, situated next to the El Pardo palace of his time in power. His family unsuccessfully attempted to challenge the relocation in court. [New York Times / Raphael Minder]
The move, 44 years after Franco’s funeral, is part of the socialist government’s promise to stop glorifying the dictator and his fascist regime. [BBC]
Spain’s government says that the day-long operation was done to repay a debt to Franco’s victims, many of whom were buried in unmarked graves inside the same mausoleum that he resided in prior to the move. [Washington Post / Ciaran Giles and Aritz Parra]

Miscellaneous

How a bend in the Potomac River became a time capsule for shipwrecks. [NPR / Jacob Fenston]
After winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed faces down violence and discontent at home. [Reuters / Tiksa Negeri]
Pete Buttigieg talks climate change policy, Medicare-for-all, and his Starbucks order. [Cosmopolitan / Jessica Pels]
Governments raising the cost of everyday items have ignited protests about broader dissatisfaction across the world. [New York Times / Declan Walsh and Max Fisher]
A new book explores the fake news takeover. [Vox / Sean Illing]

Verbatim

“The whole predicate of your question is insane.” [Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during an interview about US credibility since pulling troops out of Syria]

Listen to this: The right to sell out

California athletes will soon be able to accept money from endorsements, but it’s debatable if the rest of the nation will follow suit. [Spotify]

Tim Ryan is dropping out of the presidential race to focus on the House

California’s deliberate blackouts were outrageous and harmful. They’re going to happen again.

A top Trump student loan official just resigned, calling for debt forgiveness

WHO just declared another polio virus strain eradicated. There’s one more to go.

Trump’s lawyer says he can’t be prosecuted. I asked 16 legal experts if that’s true.

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The Ugly History of Dual-Loyalty Charges

When Representative Ilhan Omar recently complained about “the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” many noted accurately that she had deployed a trope—dual loyalty—that had been used against Jews for years. But this accusation has a broader history in the United States, having been used against several religious minorities—including Muslims like Omar. Indeed, many battles over religious freedom have revolved around dual-loyalty claims. [ Read: Ilhan Omar just made it harder to have a nuanced debate about Israel ] In the 19th century, many attacks on Catholics stressed that these immigrants were pawns of a foreign power. In the 1830s, Samuel Morse—then a prominent painter and later the inventor of the telegraph—urged Americans to build “walls” and “gates” to keep out Catholic immigrants, who would always be loyal to Rome. Because these Catholic immigrants were decrepit —“halt, and blind, and naked”—they were easy to co...

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