Trimming the Times: Uneasy Tripoli; Mississippi Killing

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Now that The New York Times pay wall is live, you only get 20 free clicks a month. For those worried about hitting their limit, we're taking a look through the paper each morning to find the stories that can make your clicks count.

The home page leads with another report from Tripoli, where the euphoria that greeted the rebels' arrival over the weekend has given way to a sense of unease as neither rebels nor loyalists have gained decisive control. And of course, the New York prosecutors' decision to drop charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn has high standing on the home page as well. A top-choice read for us was the in-depth feature on a horrific crime in Jackson, Miss., and the racial undertones it brings out for discussion.

World: The international section brings lots of coverage of the rebel advance into Tripoli, including a great account of the behind-the-scenes work by rebels inside the capital that preceded the invasion. Outside the Libya news, a dramatic account from Afghanistan reports that villagers there stoned to death a Taliban leader and his bodyguard after they killed a 60-year-old man for helping the government. The Memo from Stuttgart is also worth a read, as it deals with Germany's uncomfortable relationship with far-right groups that are essentially outlawed there but persist underground.

U.S.: The Times has been covering the killing of a black man by white teenagers in Jackson, Miss. pretty closely, and a great feature Tuesday gives a nuanced view of the racial undertones in the case. And in a fascinating crime story, read the account of a Miami psychic charged with cheating customers out of $40 million.

Business: The lead story on problematic hip implants is worth a click even if you don't have one, as it predicts the "biggest and most costly medical implant problem since Medtronic recalled a widely used heart device component in 2007." You can skip the news of S&P president Deven Sharma stepping down (hopefully you already read that here), and instead check out Bruce Bartlett's follow-up to Warren Buffett's Aug. 15 op-ed calling on higher taxes for the wealthy.

Science: The lengthy report on new science about flamingos is very cool, but we were a touch disappointed it didn't include a slide show. In another fascinating report, Maine lobstermen are having a boom time right now, but they could be fishing themselves out of business in the future.

Health: A funny bit of headline writing precedes the not-groundbreaking report that science has proven the existence of bisexual men. And as circumcision bans get argued in the political realm, a seemingly no-brainer column weighs the medical pros and cons of the procedure for parents.

Sports: The lead story is your best bet here, and it's a heartbreaker, as Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas broke his leg in an early preseason game against the Bears (at least the Giants won).

Opinion: In the lead op-ed, Ford Foundation president Luis A. Ubiñas and National Center on Time and Learning chairman Chris Gabrieli argue that shortened classroom time as a way of balancing public budgets is detrimental to kids.

Arts: It's a short read, but we loved the report on the statue of the pharoh Amenemhat II, which has been unveiled at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art on loan from Berlin.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

If Trump were right to blame all of his problems on messaging, perhaps the smooth-talking businessman could solve them. But he’s not.

Watching Anthony Scaramucci’s formal introduction as White House communications director on Friday, it was clear why President Trump wanted him for the gig.

Even though he’s never worked as a spokesman for anyone other than himself (and a great spokesman he was, bringing wide renown to an underachieving hedge fund), Scaramucci looked at home behind the lectern in the White House Briefing Room. Moreover, he was everything that Sean Spicer—the long-suffering press secretary who announced his resignation today—was not.

Where Spicer was nervous, tentative, and likely to stumble over his words, Scaramucci was smooth, relaxed, and confident. Where Spicer’s suits were often ill-fitting, Scaramucci was sharply tailored. Where Spicer was a career cog in the Republican machine, Scaramucci is a swaggering New Yorker who speaks in the same clunky business pidgin as the president and can drop names nearly as prodigiously too. (Goldman Sachs, Yankees president Randy Levine, and Harvard Law School were a few of Scaramucci’s mentions during his brief spell at the mic.) Where Spicer’s professions of praise for the president always seemed mousy, pleading, perhaps a little browbeaten, Scaramucci brought the sincere sycophancy that comes from truly adoring Donald Trump. When did Spicer ever say he “loves” the president?