Bugout: President Trump ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 American troops from northern Syria, ceding control of the area to the Syrian Army and the Russians while possibly opening the door to a resurgence of the Islamic State.

   The move will make it impossible to help Kurdish fighters taking a pounding from the Turks after the withdrawal of just 50 American soldiers who had been placed as a tripwire to discourage Turkey. Appearing on Fox News and CBS, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said there are just not enough American troops in Syria to deter the Turkish assault. 

  Scores of people are already dead and 100,000 civilians are on the run after just a few days of fighting. Turkish soldiers have been record on video executing captured Kurdish fighters.

  President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are ramping up threats to place punishing economic sanctions on Turkey for doing what Trump allowed them to do. Mnuchin said on ABC that the sanctions “could be starting small, they could be maximum pressure, which would destroy the Turkish economy.”

  The NY Times reported that the Kurdish fighters, who get the primary credit for breaking the Islamic State, have cut a deal with Syria and Russia to protect themselves. That means that a trusted US ally would be going over to the other side to survive.

  The Times also reports that both American special operations soldiers in the area and the Kurds they’ve been working with feel betrayed by the US government. You just don’t abandon a friend in the field.

  President Trump tweeted cavalierly amidst the unfolding humanitarian crisis, “Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them! We are monitoring the situation closely. Endless Wars!”

High Value: The situation in northern Syria is quickly escalating and deteriorating. ISIS prisoners are on the run and car bombs are going off.

   The retreating US Forces left behind what are described as dozens of “high value” ISIS prisoners they were holding in a Kurdish-run prison in Syria. In the same area, hundreds of Islamic State sympathizers and family members escaped from a low-security detention camp. 

  President Trump, who triggered this mess, tweeted the following: “The U.S. has the worst of the ISIS prisoners. Turkey and the Kurds must not let them escape. Europe should have taken them back after numerous requests. They should do it now. They will never come to, or be allowed in, the United States!”

Black Lives: Protests broke out in Ft. Worth, Texas after a white police officer shot and killed a young black woman through the window of her own home.

   The police had responded after a neighbor called to say the woman’s front door was open. Police bodycam video shows the officer shouting at the window “Put your hands up!” and firing immediately. He did not identify himself as a police officer.

The Greatest: US gymnast Simone Biles, who has been described as a “once in a generation athlete,” won gold on the balance beam and in the floor exercise yesterday in Stuttgart, Germany, setting the record of 25 for the most gold medals of any gymnast in world competition. She might just be the greatest gymnast ever.

  In the 10^th day of competition, Biles did the balance beam with a near perfect routine, took a break, then came out and did the floor. Despite stepping out of bounds, she finished well ahead of the competition.

  Biles is also known for inventing impossible new moves and having them named after her, two of them in Stuttgart. The first was a double-twisting double backflip dismount off the balance beam, named the “Biles.” The second, a floor move, consists of a double backflip with three twists. That’s “Biles II.”

  It’s hard to even picture it in your head.

The Bulletin Board: The death toll in Japan has reached 35 after a devastating typhoon brought destructive winds and flooding to the Japanese island of Honshu. … Hunter Biden, son of the former Vice President Joe Biden, is resigning from the board of the Chinese financial company he joined while his father was in office. It’s too late for both Bidens to escape the battering they’ve taken from President Trump over Hunter getting this plush position. Joe Biden says that if he’s elected president no member of his family will work for a foreign company or sit in White House meetings like a cabinet member. — Two people are dead and a construction worker is missing after the collapse of a new Hard Rock Hotel being built in New Orleans. There’s no explanation yet for the accident.

The Obit Page: Alexei Leonov, the Russian cosmonaut who was the first man to “walk” in space, has died at age 85.

  Leonov’s walk was the third major achievement for the Russians who were winning the so-called “space race” at the time. They had launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957 and the first manned spaceflight into orbit, with Yuri Gagarin, in April 1961.

  Leonov later wrote of his adventure, ““The sight was spectacular! The stars do not blink. The sun seems welded into the black velvet of the sky. The earth alone speeds along.”

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