“It’s a very volatile part of the world, but so far it’s been pretty amazing what’s gone on recently. Lost no soldiers, didn’t have a soldier hurt. We didn’t have a finger broken. It’s pretty unusual, and we have thousands of soldiers that have moved out or are moving out of various areas … Let someone else fight over this long bloodstained sand.” Trump has lifted all sanctions against Turkey and says the situation is under “very good control.” Here’s the latest from CNN.

+ “Now we have to hear the American president calling us children and saying that this is just a quarrel in a sand-box with Turkey. It is so mortifying to hear these words. We Kurds fought ISIS, the most dangerous terrorist group of the twenty-first century, on behalf of the entire world. On March 28, when we defeated the Caliphate, I remember all the Western heads of state congratulating our forces. Where are they now?” NYRB: A Dispatch from Kurdish Syria.

+ “Rare visits to two prisons for former residents of Islamic State-held territory in northeastern Syria by The New York Times this week laid bare the enormity of a growing legal and humanitarian crisis that the world has largely chosen to ignore.” ‘What Is Going to Happen to Us?’ Inside ISIS Prison, Children Ask Their Fate.