Good morning, I'm Mark Sovel, filling in for Taylor Wilson, and this is five things you

need to know Friday, the 21st of July, 2023.

Today, we hear the latest on extremism in the U.S. military, plus the commanders have

a new boss, and get ready for Barbanheimer Weekend.

Two years ago, after the attack on the Capitol Building, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin

ordered a crackdown on extremism in the military.

Did anything come of it?

USA Today National Correspondent Will Carles covers extremism and has been investigating.

Thanks for joining us, Will.

Thanks for having me on.

How is the military defining the term extremism in this instance?

Well, that is one of the things that has changed in the last couple of years.

Two years ago, the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued these four immediate actions

he called them.

And the first one of them was to redefine what extremism means and to sort of take

quite a vague definition as codified in the military roles and to make it more clear

what people can and cannot do.

And one of the most striking points of the new definition is that, for example, merely

liking a tweet or retweeting a tweet or liking a Facebook post that is racist or that

is extremist in some way can be considered engaging in extremist activity.

So they've really tightened the definition of what people who are serving can and cannot

do.

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