“President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in December that the president would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if a deal between Washington and Tehran could not be reached,” CBS News reports.

“Two months later, CBS News has learned that internal discussions between senior figures in the U.S. military and intelligence community have started to contemplate the possibility of supporting a fresh round of Israeli strikes on Iran. American deliberations have focused less on whether Israel could act than on how the United States might assist, including the provision of aerial refueling for Israeli aircraft and the delicate matter of securing overflight permission from countries along the potential route.”

New York Times: “These are among several secretive nuclear-related sites in Sichuan Province that have expanded and undergone upgrades in recent years.”

“China’s buildup complicates efforts to revive global arms controls after the expiration of the final remaining nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia. Washington argues that any successor agreements must also bind China, but Beijing has shown no interest.”

Wall Street Journal: “Some sleuths have resorted to studying body language as they try to pierce the veil of secrecy. They pointed to footage showing Zhang facing away from Xi as the leader walked past after a legislative session last year, to speculate about souring ties between the men.”

“Xi’s motives for ejecting Zhang may never be definitively known. But that hasn’t stopped foreign academics, officials and business executives from trying to find out—and some are turning to arcane tea leaf-reading techniques dating back to the era of Mao Zedong.”