Top general feared Trump might launch nuclear war, new book says
CBSN
Before President Trump left office, the nation's top military officer feared Mr. Trump might create a crisis that would allow him to declare a national emergency and stay in power, despite losing the election. That fear prompted General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to make secret calls to his counterpart in China, according to a forthcoming book.
Milley was so worried Mr. Trump might start a war with China that he placed a secret call to his Chinese counterpart assuring him the U.S. had no intention of striking, according to the book "Peril" by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
"If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time," the authors quote Milley as saying. He made a second call to China after the storming of the U.S. Capitol, saying, "We are 100% steady. Everything's fine."
Zhytomyr, Ukraine — Exactly 1,000 days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry accused Ukrainian forces on Tuesday of firing six U.S.-made and -supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian region of Bryansk. If confirmed, it could be the first time Ukrainian troops had taken advantage of President Biden easing restrictions over the weekend on Ukraine's use of the U.S.-made missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russian territory.
President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-made and supplied missiles deeper into Russia — a major policy shift announced over the weekend after months of intense lobbying by Kyiv — has drawn a furious response from Moscow. While there was no immediate reaction directly from the man who launched the nearly three-year war on his neighboring nation, lawmakers aligned with President Vladimir Putin in Russia said Monday that the move was unacceptable and warned it could lead to a third world war.
Tel Aviv — After more than a year of bombing and homelessness, Gazans are looking to a new administration in Washington for help. President-elect Donald Trump's election victory has raised hopes and fears among the five million residents of the Palestinian territories — the warn-torn Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Johannesburg — It's often called the forgotten conflict, but the civil war that has torn Sudan apart for 19 months is fueling the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. In just over a year and a half, 13 million people have been displaced from their homes. At least one overcrowded camp for displaced civilians is already dealing with famine, while other parts of the country are suffering though famine-like conditions.