Vox Sentences: The ISIS advance has stopped — but for how long?

1. Is ISIS losing?

Refugees coming from the Syrian city of Kobane, now being contested by ISIS and Kurdish forces. (Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images)

• ISIS's advance once looked unstoppable. But now it's been stopped.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• For example, the Iraqi government retook the town of Jurf al-Shakar a few days ago …

  [AP]

• … and the Shia militiamen who helped them are swearing revenge against ISIS.

  [Reuters / Ahmed Rasheed and Michael Georgy]

• The first Iraqi Kurdish troops Turkey allowed to cross over to fight ISIS in Syria are arriving as soon as tonight.

  [NYT / Kamil Kakol and Kareem Fahim]

• That said, it appears ISIS outnumbers Kurdish forces two to one.

  [Financial Times / Erika Solomon and Daniel Dombey]

• Writing for the New York Times, a Kurdish fighter accuses Turkey of wanting the town of Kobane, under ISIS siege for weeks, to fall.

  [NYT / Meysa Abdo]

• US officials are worried that Turks and Iraqi Kurds are buying oil from ISIS.

  [Financial Times / Sam Jones, Piotr Zalewski, and Erika Solomon]

2. Latest on Ebola

President Obama speaks on the Ebola situation earlier today. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• President Obama defended the more cautious federal approach on Ebola and against other approaches "that aren't based on science."

  [Reuters / Tami Chappell and Roberta Rampton]

• It was pretty clear he was talking about quarantine-happy Governors Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and Chris Christie (R-NJ). The former has given more detail on how exactly he expects the quarantine to work.

  [NYT / Marc Santora and Thomas Kaplan]

• Here's how the quarantines actually work …

  [Vox / Julia Belluz]

• … and why experts think they're a bad idea.

  [Vox / Sarah Kliff]

• The outbreak in West Africa continues to get worse.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Meanwhile, the Dallas nurse with Ebola whose flight from Cleveland freaked so many people out has been treated and released from the hospital.

  [NYT / Alan Blinder]

• It's yet another sign that Ebola is much more manageable in a rich country with lots of doctors like the US, and more concerning in poor countries with little infrastructure like Sierra Leone and Liberia.

  [Vox / Julia Belluz]

3. Is inequality the Fed's job?

Fed chair Janet Yellen gives a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where she raised concerns over inequality. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

• The Fed's program of regularly buying billions in financial assets every month is set to end.

  [Washington Post / Ylan Mui]

• The program's critics allege that it's worsened inequality by funneling money to the financial sector.

  [NYT / William Cohan]

• Scott Sumner thinks it's a nonsensical allegation.

  [Scott Sumner]

• "Those suggesting the Fed’s actions are exacerbating inequality need to first make the case that those actions are not helping to offset unequal growth through faster job growth and lower unemployment than would otherwise be the case."

  [Jared Bernstein]

• The debate is particularly relevant because Fed chair Janet Yellen highlighted inequality as a problem for the broader economy in a speech two weeks ago.

  [Janet Yellen]

• Michael Strain thinks the speech was inappropriately partisan for a Fed chair; it's not her job to worry about inequality.

  [Washington Post / Michael Strain]

• Jonathan Chait notes that former Fed chair Alan Greenspan wasn't exactly shy about advocating tax cuts for wealthy people and Social Security privatization.

  [NY Mag / Jonathan Chait]

• Mike Konczal argues, contrary to Strain, that monetary policy affects inequality and vice versa, and so it's more than appropriate for the Fed chair to care about inequality.

  [Roosevelt Institute / Mike Konczal]

• One way the Fed could fight inequality: print money and send it to people directly rather than using it to buy financial assets.

  [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

4. Misc.

• An unmanned Antares rocket intended to resupply the International Space Station exploded six seconds after liftoff; no injuries were reported.

  [Vox / Joseph Stromberg]

• For Iran, a nuclear deal is more than a security goal — it's an economic imperative.

  [NYT / Thomas Erdbrink]

• Five states where you should be a little more skeptical of polling.

  [Bloomberg View / Jonathan Bernstein]

• A town in Massachusetts is considering banning tobacco products.

  [Washington Post / Hunter Schwarz]

• Lowering the New York City speed limit will save lives but a New Yorker writer thinks it "demonizes speed." Sure.

  [Brooklyn Spoke / Doug Gordon]

• Attention, philosophy nerds: Tom Stoppard wrote a play named after David Chalmers's "hard problem of consciousness."

  [Culture Whisper]

• A survey of female MIT students finds that 17 percent say they've been sexually assaulted.

  [Washington Post / Catherine Rampell]

5. Verbatim

• "I don’t think the kids I grew up with really understand the disadvantages they face. They believe that if they work hard and play by the rules, they will make it to the next level."

  [Isaac Solano to Washington Post / Tina Griego]

• "The average polling error in statewide races in Alaska since 1998 is 7.2 percentage points."

  [FiveThirtyEight / Harry Enten and Nate Silver]

• "Pennsylvania’s liquor code mandates only two options for illegal alcohol: destruction or donation to a hospital."

  [Bloomberg / Romy Varghese]

• "Taylor Swift employs a whole new squad of sounds and studio tools to deliver the now-classic Taylor Swift message: I love you so much, and I will kill you if you fuck with me."

  [Grantland / Molly Lambert]

• "That pregnancy has a profound effect on the brain and mental function of women seems increasingly certain. But the idea that it’s a purely negative effect is a myth that’s in the process of being debunked."

  [NY Mag / Christian Jarrett]

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