air force general don alston, former commander of the intercontinental ballistic missile force.an awful lot about the dangers of nuclear confrontation. general alston, did kim jong un blink? >> good morning, jon. i think that kim gets three things out of this visit. i think that it reflects his understanding of the urgency and the stakes that are involved in the process. he needs china to succeed china can enhance stability as the process moves forward. he needs china if this process doesn't work well for him to try to reclaim some stability as necessary unless china refuses to allow kim get some sustenance that right now is being denied to him by all the players who are in working with the united states to provide maximum pressure. i think in addition to that, he gets to raise his profile as a statesman, gets to burnish this image that he is going to meet with two heads of state prior to -- prior to him having the most important meeting of his life with president trump. he will meet with the president of south korea and, of course, this past weekend visit with xi. i think that

general don alston, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> and right now, staggering new numbers on the syrian cival war. with the syrian observatory saying more than half a million people have been killed since the war began seven years ago. about 85% of those were civilians. while millions of others which amount to half the prewar population, have been forced to leave their homes. all this as defense secretary mattis warns syria about the use of chemical weapons. >> we made it very clear that would be very unwise to use gas against people, civilians on any battlefield. russia was the frame work guarantor that assad would get rid of it. either russia is incompetent or in cahoots with assad. >> secretary mattis implying that any use of chemical would spark military action from the u.s. as it did last year when president trump ordered a strike on a syrian air base. >> massachusetts democratic senator elizabeth warren ruling out a 2020 presidential run despite lots of speculation about her future political plans. warren is pushing back on calls for a dna test to prove her native american heritag