Latest / The President's Daily Brief / September 18th, 2026: China Is Being Pulled Into Saudi Arabia’s Houthi War & Russia’s Parliamentary Election

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September 18th, 2026: China Is Being Pulled Into Saudi Arabia’s Houthi War & Russia’s Parliamentary Election · The President's Daily Brief

0:13
It's Friday,
0:14
the 18th of September.
0:16
Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
0:18
I'm Mike Baker,
0:19
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:21
All right,
0:22
let's get briefed.
0:24
First up,
0:24
Saudi Arabia is turning to China for help as its fight
0:28
with Iran-backed Houthis intensifies and its missile defenses are depleted.
0:33
Later in the show,
0:34
Russia's wartime parliamentary vote gets underway.
0:37
With Putin's allies dominating the field and the leading anti-war party excluded,
0:42
I know this is all a bit of a shock,
0:43
but
0:44
Putin apparently isn't allowing any opposition.
0:47
Plus,
0:48
the US drops Venezuela from its drug control blacklist after more than two decades
0:52
and says Colombia could be next.
0:55
And in today's back of the brief,
0:56
a major Russian sanctions bill clears the House in the US
1:00
and now heads to President Trump's desk.
1:03
But first,
1:04
today's PDB spotlight.
1:06
We're keeping a close eye on the escalating
1:08
conflict between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia,
1:12
and the Saudis are now turning to Beijing as they look for support to contain a threat
1:17
that's getting harder to manage.
1:19
And as the White House has reportedly
1:21
rebuffed the Saudis' request for additional assistance.
1:25
The latest news comes from Reuters,
1:26
which reports that
1:27
Saudi Arabia recently appealed directly to China
1:30
for help dealing with the Houthis.
1:32
According to three Iranian sources familiar with the discussions,
1:36
Beijing then privately contacted the Iranian regime
1:39
and asked them to use their influence to rein in their proxy.
1:44
Well,
1:44
that appeal came after the Iranian-backed Houthis
1:46
made rapid advances along Yemen's Red Sea coast
1:50
and around the Bab al Mandeb Strait,
1:52
leaving Saudi oil exports and commercial shipping
1:55
increasingly exposed.
1:57
Now China has publicly called for restraint
2:00
and dialogue throughout the latest fighting,
2:03
but according to Reuters,
2:04
its private message to Tehran went further.
2:07
Beijing specifically wants Iran to use its influence with the Houthis
2:12
to prevent the fighting from spreading further
2:14
along the region's critical energy routes,
2:16
which of course is in China's self-interest.
2:19
Now,
2:20
would it be childish of me to mention that China,
2:23
while calling for restraint publicly,
2:25
has been supporting the Iran.
2:26
regime with dual use components and the
2:29
continued purchasing of discounted Iranian oil.
2:33
Beijing is still Iran's largest trading partner and its biggest oil customer.
2:37
According to Kepler.
2:39
Chinese purchases accounted for more than 80%
2:42
of Iran's seaborne oil exports last year.
2:45
At the same time,
2:46
China has enormous economic ties with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states,
2:52
and roughly half of China's oil imports come from the Middle East.
2:56
So from Beijing's perspective,
2:58
despite their support for the Iranian regime,
3:01
the Houthi situation is becoming a significant problem.
3:05
The Strait of Hormuz is already effectively closed to normal traffic,
3:09
and now the Houthis are increasing pressure around Babo Mandeb
3:12
on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.
3:15
Those are two of the most important energy choke points in the world,
3:19
and China depends heavily on both of them.
3:21
Tehran's response,
3:22
at least according to the Iranian sources who spoke with Reuters,
3:26
was essentially that the Houthi problem
3:28
can't be separated from the wider war,
3:31
well,
3:31
meaning it's not in Iran's interest to tell their proxy group to cease and.
3:35
Assist
3:36
Iranian officials reportedly told Beijing that
3:39
peace and stability in the region,
3:41
yes,
3:41
of course,
3:41
because the Iranian regime is
3:43
all about peace and stability in the region,
3:45
depend on ending the U.S.Israeli war against Iran.
3:49
China,
3:49
for its part,
3:50
apparently stopped short of
3:52
threatening Tehran with economic consequences
3:54
if it refused to cooperate.
3:57
But the fact that Saudi Arabia went to Beijing in
3:59
the first place tells us something about Riyadh's current position,
4:02
because the kingdom isn't only looking for diplomatic help,
4:06
it's also reportedly trying to find more weapons to defend itself.
4:10
The Associated Press reports that Saudi
4:12
Arabia is running low on missile interceptors
4:15
after repeated Houthi missile.
4:17
attacks.
4:18
Two regional officials told the AP that
4:20
Riyadh has sought air defense assistance from
4:23
the US,
4:24
France,
4:25
Britain,
4:25
Pakistan,
4:26
and Egypt.
4:27
One of those officials said the situation is complicated by the fact that
4:31
the US has also burned through significant interceptor stocks
4:35
during six months of war with Iran.
4:38
Saudi officials have not publicly confirmed that request.
4:42
And remember what Saudi Arabia has to defend there.
4:45
We're talking about military bases,
4:47
government facilities,
4:48
population centers,
4:49
and
4:49
an enormous network of oil infrastructure.
4:52
Of course some of their military facilities
4:55
are home to US personnel and key US military assets.
4:59
A key pipeline carrying Saudi crude west toward
5:01
the Red Sea has already been knocked offline
5:05
while the Houthis have been targeting Saudi infrastructure and shipping.
5:09
But there's another interesting piece to all of this.
5:12
Even as Saudi Arabia appears to be running low on some defensive weapons,
5:16
the kingdom may now be reaching deeper into its offensive arsenal.
5:21
The Wall Street Journal reports that debris found in Yemen
5:24
appears to be from a Chinese-made Dongfen-15
5:27
ballistic missile fired by Saudi Arabia.
5:30
If that assessment is confirmed,
5:31
it will be the first known time that the
5:34
Saudis have used a ballistic missile in combat.
5:37
During their long fight with the Iranian-backed Houthis,
5:40
Saudi Arabia has possessed Chinese ballistic missiles for decades,
5:44
but they've largely remained out of public view.
5:47
So Saudi Arabia is asking China
5:49
to pressure Iran into Restraining their proxy group in Yemen,
5:53
the same China that's been providing critical support to the Iranian regime,
5:57
support that has allowed Iran
6:00
to continue funding and supporting the Houthis.
6:03
And that puts Beijing in an increasingly
6:06
important position.
6:07
China has deep economic ties to Saudi Arabia,
6:10
enormous leverage through its purchases of Iranian
6:13
oil and other support to the regime,
6:15
and a strong interest
6:16
in keeping both Hormuz and Babo Mandeb open to international shipping.
6:21
Beijing has also brokered the agreement
6:23
that restored diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran back in 2023.
6:29
For Saudi Arabia,
6:30
the media challenge is much more straightforward.
6:33
The kingdom has to stop Houthi attacks,
6:35
protect its oil infrastructure and shipping,
6:38
and rebuild its missile defenses,
6:40
all while trying to keep this latest conflict from
6:43
expanding
6:44
into an even larger regional war.
6:47
Yeah,
6:47
2026
6:49
is really shaping up.
6:51
All right.
6:51
Coming up next,
6:52
Russians head to the polls for a sham election with no real opposition on the ballot.
6:58
And the US takes Venezuela off its drug control blacklist.
7:02
I'll be right back.
7:05
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Welcome back to the PDB.
8:20
Russians are heading to the polls
8:22
today for the country's first parliamentary election
8:25
since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began more than 4.5 years ago,
8:30
and President Putin is making it clear that
8:32
he wants the vote to send a message well beyond the
8:35
makeup of Russia's next parliament.
8:38
Putin has framed the election as a demonstration of national unity
8:42
and support for his war in Ukraine,
8:44
urging Russians to turn out and show their support for the country's troops,
8:49
which shouldn't be difficult for voters since the opposition
8:53
isn't on the ballot.
8:54
Russians showing up to vote will have a
8:56
choice between Putin's candidates who support his policies.
8:59
And Putin's candidates who support his policies.
9:02
Now for those of you who don't follow Russian elections closely,
9:07
the election process
9:09
will have voting running through Sunday
9:11
with roughly 111 million eligible voters
9:14
choosing all 450 members of Russia's lower house of parliament,
9:18
which is known as the State Duma.
9:20
Half of those 450 seats are distributed among political
9:24
parties based on their share of the nationwide vote,
9:27
while the other half are won by individual candidates running in local districts.
9:32
And no surprises here,
9:34
Putin's United Russia party
9:36
currently controls more than 2/3 of the Duma
9:39
and is once again expected to dominate the vote.
9:42
Now there are 9 other parties competing on the nationwide ballot
9:45
which could give the impression that there's diversity
9:48
of platforms being presented to the public,
9:51
but despite their different names and political labels,
9:54
all 9 broadly support Putin's policies.
9:57
The Communist Party,
9:58
for example,
9:59
may occasionally criticize aspects of the government.
10:02
But has remained firmly behind the invasion
10:05
alongside the ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
10:08
and the Social Democratic
10:10
Adjust Russia Party.
10:11
Even the New People Party,
10:13
which initially presented itself as a younger and
10:16
more liberal alternative when it entered parliament in 2021,
10:20
has since embraced Putin's policies.
10:22
The major exception
10:23
is Yabloko,
10:25
a liberal party and the only registered political party in Russia that
10:28
openly opposes Putin's war.
10:31
And you can probably guess the repercussions
10:33
of taking that stance in Putin's Russia.
10:36
Yabloko was initially approved to participate in the election,
10:40
but Russia's Supreme Court stepped in and removed
10:42
the party from the nationwide ballot in August,
10:45
citing,
10:46
well,
10:46
several reasons,
10:47
including its opposition to the war,
10:49
which the court said
10:50
amounted to seeking a violation of Russia's territorial integrity.
10:54
Authorities have also barred most Yabloko candidates
10:57
from competing in individual constituency races,
11:00
although a small number do remain on the ballot,
11:03
and the crackdown
11:04
goes well beyond the election.
11:05
Yabloko's deputy chairman was sentenced to 7 years in prison in June
11:10
over comments about the war,
11:12
while another senior party member was sentenced to
11:14
more than 11 years just last month.
11:17
In short,
11:18
the Kremlin moved to ensure that the country's leading anti-war party
11:21
is largely excluded from the weekend vote.
11:25
And of course all of this comes as the costs of
11:28
the war are becoming increasingly difficult to insulate from ordinary Russians.
11:33
The country is dealing with economic stagnation and pressure on living standards,
11:37
while Ukrainian drone attacks have repeatedly
11:39
struck oil refineries and other infrastructure
11:42
deep inside Russia.
11:44
We've also been tracking Putin's declining approval numbers and
11:47
other signs of growing public fatigue with a war that
11:50
is now approaching the 5 year mark.
11:53
Still,
11:54
the Kremlin appears determined to prevent that frustration
11:57
from translating into a serious political challenge,
12:00
and as I mentioned,
12:01
is urging Russians to use the occasion
12:03
to demonstrate their unity and support for the war.
12:07
Notably,
12:07
the election will also extend into occupied Ukrainian territory.
12:11
For the first time in a Russian parliamentary vote,
12:14
Moscow is including residents of four Ukrainian regions
12:18
that it illegally annexed back in 2022,
12:21
along with Crimea,
12:22
which Russia seized in 2014.
12:25
Ukraine meanwhile has condemned the voting in those.
12:27
Territories
12:28
and is urging foreign governments not to recognize the results.
12:32
OK,
12:33
I want to shift now to Venezuela.
12:34
The US has made a significant concession based on the country's perceived efforts
12:39
to combat the drug trade.
12:41
For more than two decades,
12:42
the US determined year after year
12:44
that the regime in Caracas led by then dictator Nicolas Maduro.
12:48
was not doing enough to meet its international drug control obligations.
12:52
President Trump has now taken them off of that blacklist.
12:56
He made that change official in the government's annual assessment of
13:00
the countries most heavily involved in producing or transporting illegal drugs.
13:04
The latest version of that assessment was
13:06
published by the State Department on Wednesday.
13:09
Now Washington still considers the country a major transit hub for narcotics.
13:14
What has changed is what the US believes that
13:16
Venezuelan authorities are doing about it,
13:19
as I've discussed here on the PDB over the past several months.
13:22
Washington has of course been working with
13:24
the interim government led by Dulcie Rodriguez,
13:27
who
13:27
previously served as Maduro's vice president.
13:30
That cooperation,
13:32
according to President Trump,
13:33
is now paying dividends.
13:35
He specifically pointed to an operation
13:37
led by Venezuelan authorities that
13:40
killed a notorious Trendar Arragua leader,
13:43
the gang known as TDA,
13:44
one of the most notorious transnational gangs.
13:47
The president says he now expects Rodriguez's government to build on that progress
13:51
by dismantling narco-terrorist groups and stopping
13:54
more drugs from moving through Venezuela.
13:57
And well,
13:58
Colombia could be next,
13:59
with President Trump hinting that its new conservative government in Colombia
14:03
may have a path off that blacklist as well.
14:06
Washington placed the country in the
14:08
quote failed demonstrably category last year.
14:11
After the Trump administration concluded that Bogota
14:14
was not doing enough to combat cocaine production,
14:17
that came during a bitter period in relations between Washington and Colombia
14:22
under former President Gustavo Petro,
14:24
with cocaine production
14:26
a major source of friction between the two countries,
14:29
but Colombia now has a new president,
14:30
and Washington sees an opportunity
14:33
to rebuild that partnership.
14:35
Colombian President
14:36
Aviardo Espriel took office in August,
14:39
promising a security crackdown.
14:41
Trump endorsed him during the election and
14:43
now says that Colombia is positioned to reclaim its place
14:46
as America's
14:47
foremost security partner
14:49
in the hemisphere.
14:51
Now his government will have to prove it's serious about dismantling
14:55
the drug networks that have operated inside Colombia for decades.
14:59
Trump says that means aggressively eradicating coca crops
15:02
and targeting the narco-terrorist organizations responsible
15:05
for producing and trafficking cocaine.
15:08
If Colombia delivers that progress over the coming year,
15:11
the president says he will consider lifting its failed designation as well.
15:16
Again,
15:16
Venezuela's removal from the failed list does not mean that Washington
15:20
no longer considers it a major part of the drug trade.
15:23
It remains on a separate list of major drug producing or drug transit countries
15:28
alongside Colombia,
15:29
Mexico,
15:30
every country in Central America,
15:32
several nations across South America
15:34
and the Caribbean,
15:35
as well as 6 countries in Asia,
15:37
including China.
15:38
Did I miss anyone?
15:40
All right,
15:40
coming up in the back of the brief,
15:42
the House approves new sanctions targeting Russian officials
15:45
and key sectors of Moscow's economy.
15:48
More on that
15:49
when we come back.
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In today's back of the brief,
18:04
Congress is putting Russia and the countries
18:06
helping support Putin's war on notice.
18:08
After more than a year of negotiations,
18:10
the House has approved a sweeping sanctions package,
18:13
sending it to President Trump for his signature.
18:16
The measure cleared the House Wednesday by a vote of 262 to 159
18:21
after passing the Senate 86 to 11 last month.
18:24
The president is expected to sign it
18:27
now.
18:27
Aside from increasing pressure on Russian President Putin's regime.
18:31
The bill carries considerable symbolic weight.
18:33
It's named after the late South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham,
18:37
one of Washington's most outspoken Russian hawks,
18:40
who spent more than a year building the package before his death back in July.
18:44
The bill also represents Washington's most
18:46
ambitious new effort to support Ukraine
18:49
since Trump returned to the White House,
18:51
breaking nearly two years of congressional gridlock
18:55
following the 2024 emergency aid package.
18:59
And I want to stress here that this is not simply another round of sanctions
19:02
targeting a handful of people around Putin.
19:05
The bill goes after Kremlin officials,
19:07
banks,
19:07
and key pillars of Russia's war economy.
19:10
It also targets Moscow's so-called shadow fleet,
19:13
the illicit network of tankers
19:15
that the Kremlin uses to keep Russian energy moving around the world
19:19
while evading Western sanctions.
19:21
But the most consequential part of this package may be what it does outside Russia.
19:26
The bill directs Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100%.
19:30
On goods from countries ranking among the five largest importers
19:34
of Russian oil and natural gas,
19:36
now that's aimed squarely at major Russian
19:39
energy customers such as China and India.
19:42
The choice for those countries would be pretty straightforward
19:45
continue purchasing cheap Russian energy
19:47
or risk paying considerably more
19:50
to sell their own goods in the American market.
19:53
There are some exceptions here.
19:55
Those smaller countries that account for less than 15%
19:58
of Russia's natural gas exports
20:00
can avoid some penalties
20:02
if they take significant steps to reduce those purchases.
20:05
The legislation also allows Washington to penalize governments helping
20:09
Moscow circumvent the oil sanctions already in place.
20:13
Now,
20:14
as those of you who followed the war in Ukraine know,
20:17
the White House has not always moved in one direction here.
20:20
Trump has criticized blank check aid packages,
20:23
and he initially resisted this legislation
20:26
out of fear of stoking Russia's aggression.
20:29
But now he's preparing to sign it.
20:31
So you ask,
20:32
well,
20:32
what changed?
20:33
That's a good question.
20:34
Well,
20:35
rather than committing billions more in direct aid,
20:37
this bill gives Trump another way to confront Moscow,
20:41
using America's economic power against Putin's war machine
20:44
and the countries that are keeping it funded.
20:47
The turn came after lawmakers included something that the president wanted
20:50
a 5-year extension
20:52
of existing sanctions against Iran.
20:55
Republicans overwhelmingly supported the final bill,
20:58
while Democrats split sharply.
21:00
58 joined Republicans in supporting the legislation.
21:03
Another 152 opposed it,
21:06
warning that
21:07
Trump could use the new tariff authority against American allies in Europe
21:11
and potentially raise prices at home.
21:14
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would continue
21:18
supporting the Ukrainian people until victory is won,
21:21
quote,
21:21
but this bill does not provide a path to secure that.
21:25
Other Democrats disagreed,
21:26
such as Representative Steny Hoyer,
21:29
warning that if Congress failed to.
21:30
The bill,
21:31
there would be
21:32
cheers in the Kremlin
21:34
and tears in Kiev,
21:35
end quote.
21:36
Oh how poetic.
21:37
Ukrainian President Zelensky has been making the same case.
21:40
He spent months lobbying Congress
21:42
and made a direct appeal to senators shortly
21:45
before they approved the package last month.
21:47
Zelensky acknowledged that the legislation was not perfect,
21:50
but argued that during a war it can be better to quote,
21:54
make a not so perfect decision
21:56
than to do nothing.
21:58
The legislation now will land on the president's desk for a decision.
22:03
And that my friends,
22:03
is the president's daily brief for Friday,
22:05
the 18th of September.
22:07
If you have any questions or comments,
22:08
and I hope you do,
22:09
just reach out to me at PDB@thefirstv.com.
22:13
And lest we forget,
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as if I would let you,
22:15
every Friday evening,
22:17
and it's Friday at 10:00 p.m.
22:18
on the first TV.
22:19
We launch a brand new episode of our extended weekend show,
22:22
the PDB Situation Report.
22:25
You can also catch it and past episodes on our YouTube channel.
22:28
Just wander on over to YouTube and
22:30
search up at President's Daily Brief.
22:32
It's also available on podcast platforms everywhere.
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I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB
22:39
afternoon bulletin.
22:40
Until then,
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stay informed,
22:43
stay safe,
22:44
stay cool.