A piece of advice for young writers: Do not use words carelessly. Try to be precise. English provides plenty of options to achieve specificity.
This is especially important for journalists covering the Pentagon. Consider, for example, these two words: war crimes.
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war. It’s a war crime to not grant quarter to survivors of an attack.
To connect this with the news, under the laws of war, after you’ve bombed a boat and discover that two survivors are clinging to the wreckage, you must grant them quarter, i.e., you can’t just kill them.
Yet this happened in the Sept. 1 attacks by the U.S. military on a small boat off the coast of Venezuela. The two survivors were killed in a second strike, and the question now is who gave the order.
Trump’s Secretary of “War,” Pete Hegsmeth had been loudly boasting about his role in the attacks until the little matter of a possible war crime came up. Then he beat a hasty retreat, saying that the ranking officer involved — Admiral Frank Bradley — was the responsible party.
At this point, it’s worth noting that the only reason this controversy has surfaced at all is that we still have a free press, and the reporters covering the story have paid attention to the details of the case and chipped away at Hegsmeth’s ever-changing set of explanations.
Hegsmeth seems pretty nervous about where all this may be heading. They have a word in the Navy for a guy like him.
Coward.
HEADLINES:
3 key questions about the US boat strikes that killed survivors (ABC)
GOP senator: Hegseth is either lying about second boat strike or incompetent (CNN)
Concerns grow that Hegseth, White House aim to scapegoat admiral in deadly boat strike (WP)
White House says admiral ordered follow-up strike on alleged drug boat, insists attack was lawful (AP)
Hegseth and Trump on the defensive line (Politico)
For Trump, Hegseth’s Take-No-Prisoners Approach Is a Growing Liability (NYT)
Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now (Atlantic)
Trump struggles with Venezuelan dilemma as Maduro digs in and storm builds at home over potential ‘war crime’ (CNN)
Trump’s message to ‘nice’ Americans: You’re all illegal now (LAT)
Going after undocumented immigrants is a fool’s game (The Hill)
FBI in turmoil: Patel ‘in over his head,’ Bongino a ‘clown,’ report says (ABC)
After service in CIA-trained unit, alleged National Guard shooter struggled to adapt in U.S. (WP)
Trump’s Crackdown in Wake of Shooting Blocks Legal Pathways for Migrants (NYT)
Costco sues US government over tariff refunds ahead of Supreme Court ruling (CNN)
RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisers plan biggest change yet to childhood schedule (WP)
About 10 months into Trump’s second term in office, what seemed like a speed run to autocracy has now smashed into a roadblock of opposition, disapproval and a fracturing coalition. [HuffPost]
If Europe wants to start a war we are ready now, Russia’s Putin says (EuroNews)
Witkoff and Kushner meet Putin to discuss Ukraine peace plan (Axios)
Palestinians in the West Bank fear more attacks by Israeli settlers (AP)
Pam Bondi Plots Desperate New Bid to Save Trump Revenge Cases (Daily Beast)
Mormonism’s surprising boom in Africa (Economist)
A new AI technique may aid violent crime forensics (Science News)
OpenAI Declares ‘Code Red’ as Google Threatens AI Lead (WSJ)
Top consultancies freeze starting salaries as AI threatens ‘pyramid’ model (FT)
Amazon Has New Frontier AI Models—and a Way for Customers to Build Their Own (Wired)
Apple’s A.I. Chief, Who Failed to Deliver a Smarter Siri, Is Retiring (NYT)
Trump Announces 5,000% Increase In All Numbers (Onion)
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