Mike Baker

What comes next will depend on how far this coalition is willing to go and how Russia chooses to respond as its shadow fleet finds fewer and fewer places to hide.

And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Wednesday, the 28th of January.

Now, if you have any questions or comments, including perhaps you've got some tips on how to get rid of a hoarse throat, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com.

I'm thinking gargle with salt water, maybe some hot tea with lemon, maybe a little bit of bourbon.

How about that?

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I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow.

Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

It's Monday, the 26th of January.

Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin.

I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

All right, let's get briefed.

First up, a major shakeup inside Beijing as Xi Jinping purges China's top general amid allegations that he leaked nuclear weapons secrets to the US.

I'll have those details.

Later in the show, even as Ukrainian and Russian officials met to discuss peace, Moscow continued its assault, launching air attacks and knocked out power from more than one million Ukrainian civilians.

But first, today's afternoon spotlight.

We're following up on a story we first touched on in this weekend's PDB Situation Report, and now the picture coming out of Beijing is far clearer and far more serious.

China has purged one of the most powerful figures in its military leadership.

Zhang Youxia, China's highest-ranking uniformed officer and vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, has been removed amid allegations that he leaked sensitive nuclear weapons information to the U.S.,

Now, his sacking represents a stunning political rupture at the very top of the Communist Party.