Today’s Paper
Alternative Reality Times
Analysts are divided over whether the killing was meant to force a settlement or to invite a wider war that a weakened Washington can no longer fight on its own terms.
Hollis Crane, the 48th president, was killed Friday. He had governed for sixteen months on a promise of decisive strength abroad.
Hollis Crane Jr., the president’s son and senior adviser, was hurt but appeared on camera within the hour, vowing an “appropriate” reply.
At least ten civilians were killed when a salvo of unguided rockets fired from Cuba fell on the northern outskirts of Miami before dawn, local officials said. A second volley struck Orlando, damaging several rides at a major theme park that had not yet opened for the day.
By the Miami and Havana bureaus
With its long-range air power degraded, Washington has turned to swarms of low-cost drones against ports and refineries in two Gulf monarchies that declared for Iran, a shift one official called “fighting cheap because we have to.”
By the Gulf desk
Iran says a single cyberweapon left America’s strategic forces unable to launch. Weapons scientists are skeptical that any one tool could do so cleanly, but concede the architecture of an aging command network leaves room for doubt.
By the science desk
The Hawaii legislature voted to begin separation from a mainland it called “a target we did not choose to become,” and opened talks with China for security guarantees. The vote is almost certainly unconstitutional. It is also, lawmakers there argued, a question of survival.
By the Honolulu bureau
By the graphics desk
With fuel diverted and shelves thinned, cooks from Sacramento to Savannah are rediscovering the wartime stew: dried beans, whatever grain is left, an onion if you have one. It is not nostalgia. It is arithmetic. And, three readers insisted, it is still delicious.
5 MIN READ
For a generation, Americans asked how others should behave under bombardment. The question has quietly turned around. What we believed about deterrence, proportion and mercy was easy to hold when we were the ones holding the long-range arm.
Guest Essay
Spared in the exchange, Israel finds itself courted rather than threatened. A cabinet split pits those who see an opening to realign against those who argue neutrality is the only safe reading of a board no one can yet predict.
By the Jerusalem bureau
A cheap drone that works is worth more than a costly missile that cannot be launched. The economics of this war invert the moral vocabulary we are used to. The weaker party is suddenly the efficient one, and efficiency, history warns, is rarely merciful.
Guest Essay