In a memoir of his time in the Trump Administration, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster recalls telling his wife he could not understand Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “hold” on President Trump.

The same book insists that during McMaster’s 13 months, the United States did much to revise its global strategies to face a changing world.

McMaster writes of struggling to help the president avoid mistakes, like responding to Putin’s flattery in embarrassing ways. Yet McMaster says he was not one of the officials around Trump who believed their job was to protect the country from his erratic or dangerous moves.

McMaster is both a scholar–author of Dereliction of Duty, an acclaimed history of U.S. military decision making in the Vietnam war–and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I had been on the receiving end of policies and strategies developed in Washington that made no sense to me when I was in places like Baghdad or Kabul,” he said in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. So when offered the top NSC job, he accepted. “I saw it as an opportunity to help a disruptive president disrupt a lot of what needed to be disrupted in the area of foreign policy and in national security.”

That’s at least part of the story he’s telling in his new book – At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House.

The other part recounts moments when McMaster had to navigate the fact that Trump himself was manipulated by aides at home and dictators abroad.

Speaking ahead of the release of his book August 27, he said he wouldn’t serve in a Trump administration again. “If President Trump was re-elected, of course I wish him [the] best and I want him to succeed. If our next president is Kamala Harris, I wish her the best, wish her to succeed,” he said on Morning Edition. “But I think my opportunity to serve in the Trump administration is used up.”

He does however urge others to serve and do the best they can.

On his working relationship with Trump, McMaster writes in an excerpt from his book: “I was the principal voice telling him that Putin was using him and other politicians in both parties in an effort to shake Americans’ confidence in our democratic principles, institutions and processes. Putin was not and would never be Trump’s friend. I felt it was my duty to point this out.”

But Trump made his own judgment calls, often taking a contrarian viewpoint.

“You know what President Trump was driven by is actually, I think, what President Obama was driven by and President George W. Bush was driven by when they were early in their administrations with Putin,” McMaster said. “Putin is a great liar. He’s a great deceiver.” He offers each new president flattery and the prospect of global cooperation. “So I would alert the president to this. He often didn’t want to hear it.”

McMaster talked of competing interests within Trump’s inner circle, from White House adviser Steve Bannon’s influence to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson often breaking protocol and working around McMaster’s National Security Council.

He characterized high level jobs in the White House in one of three ways.

“The first category are people who go into the administration to help the elected president determine his or her own agenda.” McMaster saw his role in this way.

“The second group of people come into any White House or any administration to advance their own agenda. The third group of people are people who are motivated mainly by the desire to protect the country and maybe the world from the president. And I think in the Trump administration, that second and third category of people were quite large.”

One of the dysfunctional moments McMaster describes in his book involves remarks Trump was giving in May 2017 at NATO headquarters in Belgium. Trump, like his predecessors, wanted to push NATO nations to spend more on their own defense. When McMaster learned that Trump had cut a line from his prepared speech affirming the U.S. commitment to defend its allies, he pressured a reluctant Tillerson and Mattis to join him in dissuading Trump from such a move. While they convinced him to modify the speech, Trump’s skepticism of the NATO alliance has never gone away.

In his current presidential campaign, Trump has again repeated that he might not support those NATO allies who aren’t meeting their commitment to spend 2% of their GDP on defense.

The radio version of this interview was produced by Lilly Quiroz, and the digital version was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.

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Messaging app Telegram has said its chief executive has “nothing to hide” after French authorities detained Pavel Durov at the weekend for alleged failures in content moderation.

In a surprise move that has escalated the global debate over free speech and raised tensions with Moscow, the Russia-born billionaire was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport when he arrived in the country on his private jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday evening, according to French news agency AFP.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has confirmed an active investigation into Durov, and French media have reported he is alleged to have failed to moderate adequately criminal activity on the platform.

In a statement on Sunday, Dubai-based Telegram said its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving”, adding that it was abiding by EU laws including the Digital Services Act. The legislation, which came into force this year, requires platforms to police harmful content and disinformation more closely, or risk penalties or being restricted in the bloc.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram said. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”

Durov’s detainment marks the most drastic national action against a social media chief to date and threatens to further ignite global debate over whether platforms should prioritise online safety or free speech. Free speech proponents such as Elon Musk have been hitting out at French authorities, with the billionaire owner of rival platform X posting the hashtag “#freepavel” on his platform.

French authorities had been investigating whether Telegram’s moderation failures had helped facilitate illegal activity including terrorism, drug peddling, money laundering, fraud and child exploitation, according to several French television outlets. Some reports suggested there had been a warrant out for Durov’s arrest, but Telegram on Sunday said the entrepreneur “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe”.

Durov has been known as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia” after co-founding the country’s most popular social media network, VKontakte, in his native St Petersburg in 2007. He fled Russia in 2014 after allegedly refusing to comply with Moscow’s demands for access to the data of Ukrainian users protesting against a pro-Russia administration.

Founded in 2013, Telegram has exploded in popularity, nearing 1bn users and becoming one of the key communication tools in conflict zones and humanitarian crises such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Durov has taken a hands-off approach to moderation and cast the app as unassailable by governments. However, some researchers have warned that it has become a hub for illicit activity and extremism as a result.

While Durov now has dual French-Emirati citizenship, his Russian roots prompted some lawmakers in Moscow to call for his release and suggest the arrest was politically motivated, while the Russian embassy in France said it had requested consular access to Durov.

In recent years, Durov has tried to distance himself and the app from Russia, amid claims by critics that the Kremlin might still have links to or leverage over Telegram.

“He thought his biggest problems were in Russia and left . . . he wanted to be a brilliant ‘citizen of the world’, living well without a homeland,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a prominent rightwing commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

“He miscalculated. To our common enemies, he is still Russian — unpredictable and dangerous, of different blood.”

The city declared a disaster emergency, stating in the declaration that the landslide has also forced road closures and caused flooding.

Ketchikan Gateway Borough Mayor Rodney Dial said that in his 65 years, he has “never seen a slide of this magnitude.”

The officials said one person was killed and three others were hospitalized with injuries suffered during the slide. Of those injured, only one has been released from the hospital as of late Sunday.

“Friends, is with a heavy heart we relay that a landslide in the city has taken a life, caused several injuries, damaged homes and impacted our community,” Dial said in the statement. “As we work through this, please keep the affected families in your prayers.”

City officials are warning over the potential of another landslide and have ordered the mandatory evacuation of some residents. An emergency shelter has been erected and stocked with supplies at the Ketchikan high school, they said.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy of Alaska said late Sunday that he has declared a disaster declaration and has directed all state agencies to provide the city with “what ever assistance is needed.”

With posting pictures online of utility poles that had been toppled by tons of earth and felled trees, local KPU Electric said the landslide had caused power outages in the city.

It said many homes and businesses had power restored by 8 p.m. but that those without electricity would remain that way until the landslide was cleared.

“There are six poles down that cannot be repaired at safely at this time,” it said in a statement.

“Praying for everyone in Ketchikan right now,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said on X.

Located in the Southeast Alaska Panhandle, Ketchikan is home to about 8,200 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.