Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 5th, 2026: Houthis Demand Billions From Saudi Arabia & Europe’s Aviation Bomb Scare

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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 5th, 2026: Houthis Demand Billions From Saudi Arabia & Europe’s Aviation Bomb Scare · The President's Daily Brief

0:12
It's Thursday,
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the 5th of November.
0:14
Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
0:16
I'm Mike Baker,
0:17
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:20
Alright,
0:21
let's get briefed.
0:22
First up,
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Yemen's Houthi rebels are demanding billions from Saudi Arabia
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to end the fighting.
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Oh,
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is that all?
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As the kingdom struggles to contain an increasingly aggressive enemy.
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Now I'm sure none of those billions
0:34
would end up in the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,
0:37
the IRGC.
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I'll have the details
0:41
later in the show.
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Fighter jets scramble across Europe as dozens
0:44
of passenger planes receive bomb threats,
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raising fears of a coordinated campaign
0:49
to disrupt commercial aviation.
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But first,
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today's afternoon spotlight.
0:55
Saudi Arabia went looking for a way to end its latest war with Yemen's Houthi rebels.
1:00
What came back was a demand from the Iran-backed Houthis
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for a lot of fat stacks.
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We're talking $51 billion with a B dollars
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to be precise,
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and that wasn't their only demand.
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According to a new investigation from The Wall Street Journal.
1:14
The Iran-backed militant group also wants
1:16
Saudi Arabia to officially recognize the Houthis
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as the legitimate rulers of Yemen.
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Oh,
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and,
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uh,
1:23
they want a pony.
1:25
It's a classic case of extortion from a
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group that's been attacking Saudi oil installations,
1:29
airports,
1:30
and shipping,
1:31
while expanding their control over Yemen
1:33
and its Saudi-backed internationally recognized government.
1:37
According to people familiar with the negotiations,
1:39
Saudi officials approached the Houthis
1:41
after the militants attacked oil tankers in the Red Sea
1:44
and seized territory overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mdeb Strait.
1:48
The Saudis
1:49
wanted to know what it would take to end the fighting.
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And the Houthis said,
1:54
yeah,
1:54
about $51 billion in compensation.
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They claimed for years of Saudi airstrikes and an economic blockade
2:01
during Yemen's civil war.
2:03
They also demanded political recognition
2:05
that could cement their hold on power.
2:07
Now the journal says other financial figures have since been bandied about,
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so $51 billion isn't necessarily the final price tag,
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and neither side would comment on this report.
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But the Iran-backed Houthis,
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supported and guided by IRGC personnel on the ground in Yemen,
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have good reason to believe that they're negotiating from a position of strength.
2:29
Since September,
2:29
their fighters have captured territory along Yemen's Red Sea coast
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and pushed deeper into areas held by the internationally recognized government.
2:37
Earlier this week,
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Reuters reported that they had advanced to within roughly 50 miles of Aden.
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That's the government's temporary capital.
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Their closest approach to Aden since 2015.
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Meanwhile,
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Houthi missiles and drones have struck at Saudi infrastructure,
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including oil facilities and civilian airports,
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and Thursday morning,
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the Saudi authorities issued warnings around Yanbu,
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that's a major Red Sea oil export hub.
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The Saudi-led coalition also said
3:05
it intercepted a missile aimed toward Medina.
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The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for that incident.
3:12
According to the journal,
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman doesn't want to
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make major concessions without first winning some military leverage,
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but years of Saudi airstrikes have failed to dislodge the Houthis,
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whose fighters are entrenched in difficult terrain
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and equipped with missiles and drones courtesy of the Iranian regime.
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Reversing their territorial advances could require a major ground offensive,
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and that
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would mean Saudi casualties,
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the risk of a prolonged campaign.
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And potential backlash at home,
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and the royal family
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does not want unrest at home.
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And Riyadh can't count on its allies to do the fighting.
3:49
The UAE,
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the United Arab Emirates,
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once a key coalition partner,
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withdrew amid disagreements over Yemen's future.
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Pakistan has refused to join offensive operations inside Yemen.
4:01
Turkey has discussed defensive cooperation,
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but
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not committing to fighting the Houthis directly.
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Egypt has offered assistance while limiting its role also to defensive measures.
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And despite American security ties with Saudi Arabia,
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Washington has declined direct military intervention against the group,
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though US intelligence and targeting support
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has reportedly continued.
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So that leaves Riyadh in an uncomfortable position.
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The Houthis don't need to defeat the Saudi military in a conventional battle.
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They can keep firing relatively inexpensive drones and missiles at targets that
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Saudi Arabia has to defend with costly air defense systems.
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We've seen that scenario,
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of course,
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play out during the ongoing Iran conflict
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and during the past several years of Putin's Ukraine invasion.
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And for Saudi Arabia,
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oil installations,
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airports,
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shipping routes,
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all of them are vulnerable to disruption.
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Even a missile intercepted before impact
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can trigger warnings,
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cancel flights,
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and unsettle investors.
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And for Mohammed bin Salman,
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that's a threat not just to national security,
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but to the economic transformation
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that he's spent years promoting within the kingdom.
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And of course sitting behind it all is Iran.
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Tehran has long supplied the Houthis with military support,
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with training,
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guidance,
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and cash,
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helping turn a local insurgent movement
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into a force capable of threatening commerce across the Arabian Peninsula,
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which of course
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serves the Iranian regime's agenda
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as they currently work to extract concessions from Washington
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to end the conflict and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
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Now the Houthis do have their own leadership and ambitions,
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and they aren't simply Iranian puppets,
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but they are part and parcel of that same overarching Iranian regime conundrum.
5:49
The Houthi conflict with the Saudis doesn't exist in a bubble.
5:52
The Houthis in large part,
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are a creation of the Iranian regime.
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If Saudi Crown Prince MBS decides to pay the extortion fee,
6:00
whether it's 51 billion or some other amount.
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You can expect a significant amount of that money
6:06
to flow back into the Iranian regime's bank account
6:09
and pockets of IRGC commanders.
6:13
All right,
6:13
coming up next,
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dozens of passenger flights across Europe are targeted by bomb threats,
6:18
forcing military aircraft into action as investigators
6:21
search for whomever is behind the disruptions.
6:25
I'll be right back.
6:26
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Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin.
8:35
Across Europe,
8:36
passenger jets have been diverted,
8:38
fighter aircraft scrambled,
8:39
and bomb squads are deployed to search planes following
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a wave of bomb threats targeting commercial aviation.
8:46
And while none of the threats have produced an actual explosive device,
8:50
the scale of the disruption is raising questions about whether
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someone is deliberately trying to overwhelm Europe's aviation security systems.
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According to Reuters,
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at least 25 passenger flights received bomb threats Thursday,
9:03
affecting airlines and airports across more than a dozen European countries.
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Now,
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I'm no Poirot,
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but 25 bomb threats in one day,
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well,
9:11
that does sound a bit like a coordinated effort to disrupt commercial aviation.
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Some aircraft were forced to make emergency diversions.
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Others were escorted by military fighter jets while passengers
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were evacuated and security teams searched aircraft for explosives.
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Among the most dramatic incidents was an Aer
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Lingus flight traveling from Dublin to Rome.
9:31
The Airbus A320 was approaching Paris
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when its pilots received instructions to divert following a bomb threat.
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French fighter aircraft were scrambled to escort the passenger jet
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to a military air base at Evrou west of Paris.
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All 151 passengers and 6 crew members were evacuated safely,
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while military bomb disposal specialists searched the aircraft.
9:55
Meanwhile,
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Italian fighter jets escorted a Finnair flight from Helsinki
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into Rome's Fiumicino Airport after a similar threat.
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And in Bulgaria,
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3 Ryanair flights arriving from Madrid,
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Copenhagen,
10:08
and London were targeted.
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Bulgarian military aircraft escorted the planes,
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with 2 landing in Sofia
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and the 3rd diverting to Plovdiv.
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Additional threats affected flights traveling to Prague,
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Warsaw,
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Brussels,
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Vienna,
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and Milan,
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among other destinations.
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Authorities reported no explosives in the aircraft searched,
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and several threats were quickly determined to be hoaxes,
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but Thursday's incidents weren't isolated.
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On Tuesday,
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at least 7 flights and a cruise ship received similar threats,
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forcing security inspections and disrupting operations
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at airports across Europe.
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A Polish passenger jet traveling from London to Warsaw
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was diverted to another airport outside the Polish capital.
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A Ryanair flight from Dublin to Rome was escorted by Italian fighter jets,
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and another aircraft arriving in Spain from Manchester
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was searched after landing.
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Those threats also turned out to be false.
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In fact,
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the disruptions actually began on Monday when a Wiz Air
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flight traveling from London to Bulgaria was diverted to Budapest.
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After receiving a bomb threat,
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Hungarian fighter jets were scrambled to escort
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that aircraft safely to the ground.
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Now,
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3 days later,
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the threats have expanded into a much larger international security problem,
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and investigators are trying to determine what they're dealing with.
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Several of the threats have reportedly arrived through anonymous emails,
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sometimes
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targeting multiple flights,
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but authorities have not identified those responsible,
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and there's no confirmed evidence that
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all the incidents are connected.
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Still,
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the circumstances resemble the kinds of disruptions that
11:43
European security officials have increasingly warned about.
11:47
In recent years,
11:47
Western governments have accused Russia of
11:49
conducting so-called hybrid warfare operations,
11:52
including cyber attacks,
11:54
sabotage,
11:54
and
11:55
other activities
11:56
designed to destabilize European countries
11:59
without triggering a conventional military confrontation.
12:02
Iran has also faced accusations of plotting attacks
12:05
and conducting intelligence operations on European soil.
12:09
And just this week,
12:10
unidentified hackers targeted refrigeration systems
12:13
at food centers across Europe
12:15
and a blood storage facilities in France,
12:18
disrupting operations
12:19
and threatening critical supplies.
12:22
Now investigators have not established any connection between
12:25
those cyber attacks and the aviation threats,
12:28
nor is there evidence linking Russia or Iran or any other foreign government
12:33
to the bomb warnings.
12:34
But security specialists say the aviation incidents illustrate
12:38
how a relatively simple operation can inflict widespread disruption.
12:42
Repeated false alarms obviously stretch emergency resources
12:46
and place enormous pressure on aviation authorities
12:49
who must treat every credible threat as potentially real.
12:53
For now,
12:54
every aircraft searched has been cleared
12:56
and no explosives have been discovered.
12:59
And that my friends is the PDB afternoon bulletin
13:02
for Thursday,
13:03
the 5th of November.
13:04
If you have any questions or comments,
13:06
well,
13:06
just reach out to me at PDB@hefirstv.com
13:10
and to listen to the show ad-free,
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you can do that.
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It's very simple.
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Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief
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by visiting
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I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow.
13:21
Until then,
13:22
stay informed,
13:23
stay safe,
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stay cool.
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