Vox Sentences: President Obama visited a mosque. You’ll never guess what happened next.

Obama sure knows how to pick which mosque to visit; Donald Trump wants a do-over; and ever more guidance for pregnant women about the Zika virus.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

No one could have predicted this would result in controversy

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

• Today, President Obama traveled to the Islamic Society of Baltimore — the first mosque he's visited as president — for a speech against Islamophobia.

  [The White House]

• This is not a hugely bold move. President George W. Bush did the same thing six days after 9/11.

  [New York Times / David E. Sanger]

• Of course, by some measures Islamophobia is worse now than it was then.

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

• Some Muslim Americans criticized the president for coming so late in his presidency. But the young woman who introduced him offered a pretty powerful argument that this is the time when his vocal support is most needed.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• The Islamic Society of Baltimore has been under stepped-up security since it received violent phone threats last spring.

  [Baltimore Sun / John Fritze]

• But the government hasn't always protected the Islamic Society from Islamophobia. Indeed, the government has sometimes been the perpetrator. The FBI placed the mosque under surveillance in 2010, after a member was arrested in a terrorist sting operation.

  [Mediaite / Lindsay Ellefson]

• Mosque surveillance by FBI informants has been one of the most controversial tactics of the war on terror. It often crosses the line into entrapment, with informers urging members to consider violent acts they wouldn't otherwise commit.

  [The Guardian / Paul Harris]

• But, of course, the Islamic Center's recent history was enough for conservatives to cast aspersions on Obama for visiting a radical hotbed.

  [Think Progress / Jack Jenkins]

GOP debates to get much more boring

Twitter / Donald Trump

• Donald Trump wants a do-over of the Iowa caucus.

  [Vox / Tara Golshan]

• He's accusing Ted Cruz of cheating — partly due to a very sketchy email Cruz's campaign sent to supporters during the caucuses, in which they falsely claimed that Ben Carson was suspending his campaign.

  [Gawker / Jordan Sargent]

• Holding a revote is obviously unprecedented and just as obviously ridiculous.

• It would also come too late for at least three candidates: 2008 Iowa winner Mike Huckabee, who dropped out Monday evening; 2012 Iowa winner Rick Santorum, who dropped out Wednesday afternoon...

  [The Atlantic / Clare Foran]

• ...and Rand Paul, who dropped out in the morning (but who will probably be one of the more interesting Republicans to watch after 2016).

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• Paul's departure means that the next Republican debates (this and next weekend) will sound even more monotonous than usual, since he was a lone dissenter on foreign intervention and civil liberties.

  [FiveThirtyEight / Clare Malone]

Ask any sexual partners if they have traveled to Florida recently

Vox / Javier Zarracina

• Four counties in Florida, including Miami-Dade, are under a public health emergency after the government has confirmed 9 cases of Zika virus throughout the state.

  [AP]

• More alarmingly, authorities concluded another case of Zika, in Texas, was the result of sexual transmission — the first time this has happened during the current outbreak.

  [CNN / Sandee LaMotte]

• The CDC has updated its guidance to pregnant women to urge them to use condoms or abstain from sex if their partners may have visited Zika-infected countries. (In other countries this sort of advice is being given, arguably more appropriately, to the men.)

  [Vox / Julia Belluz]

• Women in Zika-infected countries have it much worse. Their governments are urging them not to get pregnant, but have lousy track records at actually helping women avoid pregnancy.

  [Vox / Emily Crockett]

• In Brazil, in fact, the outbreak of Zika is causing some people to reconsider the country's ban on abortion.

  [NYT / Simon Romero]

MISCELLANEOUS

Washington, DC, is starting a pilot program to pay people not to commit violent crime. It sounds nuts, but when Richmond, California, tried it, murders fell dramatically. [AP / Ben Nuckols]

• Jonas Savimbi's family is suing the makers of Call of Duty that should interests fans of both first-person shooters and '80s anti-Marxist African guerrilla movements.

  [BBC / Justin Pearce]

• Google's top trending question about Bernie Sanders the night of the Iowa caucuses was, "Is Bernie Sanders vegan?" Sorry, herbivores — not only does he love meat, he even wrote a foreword to a meat cookbook.

  [Washington Post / Elise Viebeck]

• Some American Idol winners, like Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, turn into huge stars. But most don't. Here's what happens to them.

  [Fusion / Kelsey McKinney]

• Women can officially serve in every military combat role. Two generals are now calling for them to register for the draft as well.

  [NYT / Michael S. Schmidt]

VERBATIM

"How does a photographer achieve authenticity in an age where authentic culture increasingly is built around irony? More broadly: Is the project of organizing human experience into databases of generic happy faces and sad faces still relevant to us in 2016?" [The Walrus / Jonathan Kay]

• "While Sanders frequently repeats and laments the statistic that one in five American children live in poverty, neither he nor Clinton has put forward a specific plan to address it. And neither spends much time talking about food stamps, housing subsidies, or the Earned Income Tax Credit, all essential programs for the poor."

  [New Republic / Clio Chang and Samuel Adler-Bell]

• "A total of 12 people voted for Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore in Monday night's Iowa caucuses. That's across the entire state. Twelve. One of them is Troy Bishop. He lives in Des Moines, and he's anything but disheartened by Gilmore's dismal showing at the polls. He said the former Virginia governor actually did better than he expected."

  [Huffington Post / Jennifer Bendery]

• "That very weekend, Esposito and Bridges got married. Esposito invoked spousal immunity, and never testified in the case against her husband. I am 90 percent sure this was a plotline in Boardwalk Empire?"

  [Vice / Sarah Jeong]

• "Starting a family with anyone can be scary, what with all of the doctors appointments and special classes you have to take, but from the very beginning I not only had my husband with me, I had my girlfriend too."

  [Hello Giggles / Lizzie Leis]

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