Now 11 days into an expanding military campaign, President Trump and his officials have given conflicting indications on how long the United States intends the war to last.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said responsibility for a strike on an Iranian girls’ school was under investigation.

© Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

President Trump’s embrace of military action in Iran was spurred by an Israeli leader determined to end diplomatic negotiations. Few of the president’s advisers voiced opposition.

© Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times

Even as the president considers an attack, his State of the Union address offered little more than a brief repetition of vague talking points from recent days.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The remarks differ from what Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is said to have told the president in high-level White House meetings.

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The top negotiators plan to meet in Geneva on Thursday for last-ditch talks, debating a new proposal that could create an off-ramp as two carrier groups massed within striking distance of Iran.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The rare gathering focused on the Western Hemisphere underscored potential implications of the Trump administration’s “Donroe Doctrine.”

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

Top military leaders from 34 countries plan to discuss improving efforts in the Western Hemisphere to fight drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

He helped take down the Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

The classified session for congressional leaders and the top members of the intelligence, defense and foreign policy panels came two days after the military operation.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

In remarks aboard Air Force One, President Trump threatened Colombia and its president, described Cuba as “ready to fall” and reasserted his desire to acquire Greenland.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Phillip Noyce’s political drama is a searing critique of American interventionism that feels all too pertinent today

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Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) was a “quiet American”, says Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) to a French policeman. “A friend,” he adds, as the lifeless corpse of Pyle stares back at him with a wretched expression.

This is the scene that opens Phillip Noyce’s Vietnam-set political drama before the film flashes back a few months earlier to 1952 Saigon, where Fowler, an ageing Englishman, lives leisurely as a journalist reporting on the first Indochina war. When Pyle, a young American aid worker advocating for US intervention, falls for Fowler’s 20-year-old Vietnamese lover, Phượng (Đỗ Thị Hải Yến), the jaded reporter’s tranquil existence begins to unravel.

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© Photograph: Album/Alamy

© Photograph: Album/Alamy

© Photograph: Album/Alamy

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed congressional leaders on Tuesday about the monthslong military campaign targeting people suspected of being drug traffickers at sea.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

The 92-year-old actor made the announcement again as he received an award at the Red Sea international film festival in Saudi Arabia

Michael Caine has offered an update on his possible retirement from acting at the Red Sea international film festival in Saudi Arabia, appearing to call time on his career for the fourth time.

Taking to the stage to accept a lifetime achievement award, the actor said: “I kept going until I was 90, which was two years ago, and I thought to myself I’m not going to do anything else because I’ve had all the luck you can get.”

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© Photograph: Balkis Press/ABACA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Balkis Press/ABACA/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Balkis Press/ABACA/Shutterstock

The details could raise questions about who was responsible for a follow-up strike on Sept. 2 — the commander who ordered it or the defense secretary.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Gen. Dan Caine is making the trip as President Trump is said to have approved plans for covert action in Venezuela.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

Lawmakers and narcotics experts say that the Trump administration’s efforts to tie Venezuela to the U.S. fentanyl crisis are misleading.

© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

The moves to fire or sideline generals and admirals are without precedent in recent decades and have rattled the top brass.

© Photographs by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; Kenny Holston/The New Times; Win McNamee/Getty Images; Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Kent Nishimura for The New York Times; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images;