Latest / The President's Daily Brief / October 5th, 2026: The Yemen War Is Exploding Back Open & Putin’s New Strike Doctrine
Transcript
- 0:13It's Monday,
- 0:14the 5th of October.
- 0:15Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
- 0:17I'm Mike Baker,
- 0:18your eyes and ears on the world stage,
- 0:20and look at that.
- 0:21I am officially off the road
- 0:24for now.
- 0:25Alright,
- 0:25let's get briefed.
- 0:26First up,
- 0:27a major new offensive is getting underway
- 0:29against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen,
- 0:31and there are questions about whether US forces could
- 0:35at some point participate.
- 0:37Later in the show,
- 0:38President Zelensky says Ukrainian intelligence obtained
- 0:41documents showing that Vladimir Putin has
- 0:43ordered a new doctrine of attacks on a much broader range of
- 0:47civilian targets
- 0:48ahead of winter.
- 0:49Yeah,
- 0:49that sounds like something Putin just might do.
- 0:52Plus we've got the latest on the attempted
- 0:54hijacking of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv,
- 0:57with reports that the accused co-pilot had previously
- 1:00been grounded over concerns about his radicalization.
- 1:05Uh,
- 1:05and of course that makes sense,
- 1:07right?
- 1:07You're grounded because you seem kind of radical
- 1:09to be flying plane loads of Israelis,
- 1:11but,
- 1:11but sure,
- 1:12you know,
- 1:13somehow you're gonna get back in the cockpit.
- 1:15And in today's back of the brief,
- 1:16an update on that massive FBI data theft that we told you about as
- 1:20one of the suspected hackers has now been detained in Jordan.
- 1:24But first,
- 1:25today's PDB spotlight.
- 1:27The war in Yemen is picking up steam,
- 1:29and there is now a very real question about whether
- 1:31the US could eventually be pulled into that fight.
- 1:34Yemen's internationally recognized government announced this weekend
- 1:38that major military operations are underway against the Iran-backed Houthis,
- 1:42with the stated goal
- 1:44of retaking territory lost during the group's recent offensive
- 1:48and eventually restoring government control across the country.
- 1:51Now that is something that the Saudi-backed government forces
- 1:54have been unable to accomplish in the past.
- 1:57Now we've been tracking the Iranian-backed Houthi military advance closely,
- 2:00as we've reported over the past several weeks.
- 2:02Houthi forces pushed down Yemen's Red Sea coast,
- 2:05taking Mocha,
- 2:06Dubab,
- 2:06the Hannish Islands,
- 2:07and eventually reaching Param Island.
- 2:10All those gains put the group in an increasingly strong position
- 2:14around the Bab al-Mdeb Strait.
- 2:15That's the narrow passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden,
- 2:19and it is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.
- 2:22Iran has spent much of this year applying pressure around the Strait of Hormuz,
- 2:25and now the Houthis,
- 2:27Tehran's closest partner on the Arabian Peninsula,
- 2:29have expanded their position around the other
- 2:31major maritime gateway serving the region.
- 2:34It is almost like
- 2:36the Iranian regime is directing all of this.
- 2:38Reuters has reported that Iranian weapons and
- 2:40advisors help support the Houthi advance.
- 2:43Iran denies directing the group and rejects the
- 2:46characterization of the Houthis as an Iranian proxy.
- 2:49What?
- 2:49The Houthis barely know them.
- 2:51Well,
- 2:52if the Revolutionary Guard Corps says it's so,
- 2:54I'm,
- 2:54I'm sure an organization willing to slaughter thousands
- 2:57of their own citizens wouldn't lie to us.
- 2:59Regardless,
- 3:00Saudi Arabia appears to have decided that those gains cannot be allowed to stand.
- 3:04According to Axios and Reuters,
- 3:06Riyadh has been preparing a potentially major counteroffensive
- 3:10alongside Yemeni government forces.
- 3:12The Saudis have reportedly considered everything from a more limited operation
- 3:16aimed at pushing the Houthis away from the Red Sea coast
- 3:18to a much larger multi-front campaign.
- 3:21They could eventually involve more than 100,000 Yemeni
- 3:24government troops backed by Saudi air power.
- 3:28And now according to Yemen's government,
- 3:30military operations have begun.
- 3:32The Houthis meanwhile are showing no signs of backing down.
- 3:36Well,
- 3:36that,
- 3:36that could be because the Iranian regime does not want them to back down.
- 3:40Funny how that works.
- 3:41Over the weekend,
- 3:42the group claimed it launched ballistic missiles and
- 3:44drones at an Aramco facility in Riyadh.
- 3:46Saudi authorities haven't confirmed the Houthi account,
- 3:49but Reuters reported smoke and fire near an Aramco site in the capital.
- 3:54The Houthis have also claimed attacks on other Saudi energy targets,
- 3:57while Riyadh says it has intercepted a number of incoming missiles and drones.
- 4:01So this fight has obviously moved beyond Yemen itself,
- 4:04and,
- 4:05and that brings us to Washington.
- 4:07Saudi Arabia has asked the US to take part directly in the campaign
- 4:11by launching strikes against Houthi targets.
- 4:13So far,
- 4:14President Trump
- 4:15has said no,
- 4:16but that does not mean the US is sitting this one out.
- 4:19According to Axios,
- 4:20Centcom has already been providing Saudi
- 4:22Arabia with intelligence and targeting information,
- 4:25including more than 200 Houthi targets over the past two weeks.
- 4:28So America is not currently pulling the trigger,
- 4:31but it is helping Saudi Arabia identify where to aim,
- 4:34and US officials have reportedly left open the possibility
- 4:38that American forces could become directly involved if the
- 4:41Saudi and Yemeni operation begins to go badly.
- 4:44Which makes what happened Friday at Camp David especially interesting.
- 4:48Vice President JD Vance chaired a closed door
- 4:50meeting of the president's top national security officials
- 4:53to discuss both Yemen and the broader war with Iran.
- 4:57Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
- 4:59Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,
- 5:01CIA Director John Ratcliffe,
- 5:03Special Envoy Steve Witkoff,
- 5:04and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Kane were all there,
- 5:08along with other senior members of the administration.
- 5:11Axos reports the meeting lasted for 2 hours,
- 5:13and one official said
- 5:15decisions were made,
- 5:16or at the very least some of these issues were discussed in considerable depth.
- 5:20Well,
- 5:20that,
- 5:21that,
- 5:21that could be interpreted as a fairly broad statement.
- 5:24Either decisions were made,
- 5:25or,
- 5:25well,
- 5:26we certainly talked a lot about stuff.
- 5:28There's also one piece of history worth noting.
- 5:30The last comparable gathering of President Trump's national security team at
- 5:34Camp David
- 5:35came in June
- 5:36of 2025,
- 5:38and that was just days before Israel went to war with Iran.
- 5:42All right.
- 5:42Coming up next,
- 5:43Zelensky says Ukrainian intelligence uncovered Putin's
- 5:46new winter strategy for expanding attacks
- 5:49on civilian targets.
- 5:51Plus new details on the FlyDubai co-pilot.
- 5:54Reportedly he had been grounded over
- 5:56radicalization concerns before the attempted hijacking.
- 6:00And in other news,
- 6:01the world just keeps getting dumber.
- 6:03I'll be right back.
- 6:06Hey,
- 6:06Mike Baker here,
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- 7:06Welcome back to the PDB.
- 7:08Ukraine is promising to hit Russia's oil refineries harder after
- 7:12Ukrainian intelligence
- 7:14uncovered what they're calling Russia's new war doctrine.
- 7:17Reportedly,
- 7:17the Kremlin's plan
- 7:19is designed to make life for the average Ukrainian citizen much
- 7:22harder and ultimately drive them out of their cities before winter.
- 7:26Ukrainian President Zelensky laid out the intel findings
- 7:29in an interview with Reuters published on Saturday.
- 7:32He says Ukrainian intelligence obtained documents showing that Putin.
- 7:35Has authorized an expanded air strike campaign against a
- 7:39much broader range of civilian targets ahead of winter,
- 7:42Zelensky said,
- 7:43quote,
- 7:43We saw documents
- 7:44and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure,
- 7:47logistics,
- 7:47and especially to attack in the cities,
- 7:49in the villages,
- 7:50everywhere,
- 7:51roads,
- 7:52schools,
- 7:52hospitals,
- 7:53end quote.
- 7:54According to Zelensky,
- 7:55the goal is to make everyday life
- 7:57across those communities so difficult that residents
- 8:00feel compelled to leave.
- 8:02Now
- 8:03consider what forcing people out of those cities could mean for Ukraine.
- 8:06Beyond the disruption,
- 8:07of course,
- 8:07to their lives,
- 8:08it would put more pressure on the government and
- 8:10strain resources in the communities taking them in.
- 8:13Zelensky also points to what's happening on the battlefield
- 8:16to explain why Putin would expand these attacks now.
- 8:19He says Russian forces are losing ground in a key frontline region
- 8:23and suffering heavier casualties.
- 8:25Essentially,
- 8:26Zelensky believes Ukrainian civilians are being made to pay
- 8:29for the Kremlin's military failures.
- 8:31For the roughly 3 million people living in Kiev,
- 8:34this is already affecting daily life.
- 8:36Russia has stepped up attacks on the capital's infrastructure,
- 8:39including bridges across the Dnipro River,
- 8:42with the bitter winter months approaching.
- 8:44And if you're looking for any indication that
- 8:46Moscow intends to ease that pressure,
- 8:48well,
- 8:49its latest warnings point in the other direction.
- 8:51The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged foreign nationals to leave Kiev,
- 8:55saying it will continue systematically striking targets in what it describes
- 8:59as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks inside Russia in recent months.
- 9:03Well,
- 9:04you know,
- 9:04I,
- 9:04to be fair,
- 9:05those attacks wouldn't have happened if Putin hadn't invaded another country,
- 9:08which brings us to how Ukraine plans to respond.
- 9:11Zelensky says Kiev will strike harder at
- 9:13the oil facilities helping finance Putin's war,
- 9:16but he is drawing a line between that
- 9:18campaign and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure.
- 9:21He told Reuters,
- 9:22quote,
- 9:23We have to respond in any way that we can
- 9:25with their attacks on our energy.
- 9:27We have to respond on their energy.
- 9:29First of all,
- 9:30oil refiners.
- 9:31What gives money to them for this war,
- 9:33end quote.
- 9:34He added,
- 9:35But we will not respond,
- 9:36of course,
- 9:37just like them
- 9:38on any civilian objects,
- 9:40end quote.
- 9:41Now,
- 9:41as you'd expect,
- 9:42it did not take long for Moscow to answer.
- 9:45By Sunday,
- 9:46the Russian Defense Ministry was promising to intensify
- 9:48strikes against Kiev and other parts of Ukraine.
- 9:51Identifying military facilities,
- 9:53defense industry sites,
- 9:54and related infrastructure as its targets,
- 9:57the ministry again described its recent strikes as a response to Ukrainian attacks
- 10:01on what it called civilian targets inside Russia.
- 10:04But for people in Kiev
- 10:06already dealing with damaged infrastructure.
- 10:08The message was that more attacks were coming.
- 10:12Now all of this leaves Washington trying to
- 10:13get the two sides back to the negotiating table
- 10:16as they promise further strikes.
- 10:18President Trump has spent recent weeks
- 10:20working to revive talks to end the war,
- 10:23now in its 5th year,
- 10:24of course,
- 10:25and it is Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.
- 10:29But there's a disagreement with Kiev that does have to be navigated.
- 10:32You may recall when I discussed here on the
- 10:34PDB how President Trump urged Ukraine just last month
- 10:37to refrain from hitting Russian oil installations,
- 10:40saying those attacks were sending global diesel prices surging.
- 10:44Zelensky though is making clear that Ukraine intends to continue.
- 10:47He says he has received no indication
- 10:49that Putin is interested in serious peace negotiations
- 10:52or even a narrower ceasefire
- 10:54covering energy infrastructure.
- 10:56From his perspective,
- 10:57Moscow has given him no reason to hold back.
- 11:00The logic from Ukraine is hard to argue with.
- 11:02If Putin continues attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure
- 11:05in an effort to create a crisis for
- 11:07the civilian population during the upcoming winter.
- 11:10What exactly is the incentive to unilaterally
- 11:13agree to not attack Russia's energy infrastructure,
- 11:16besides a pricing issue,
- 11:17the infrastructure that
- 11:18most effectively feeds Putin's war machine,
- 11:20by the way.
- 11:21Asking Zelensky to allow his country to
- 11:23be attacked while not attacking Putin's infrastructure,
- 11:26just so he can perhaps lower the price of diesel in the US is a bit of a non-starter
- 11:31during wartime.
- 11:32So
- 11:33you ask,
- 11:33where do those talks stand as of now.
- 11:35The Trump administration has proposed another round of trilateral
- 11:38discussions with Ukraine and Russia and the United Arab Emirates
- 11:42in the coming weeks,
- 11:43but Zelensky said the exact date and location
- 11:46for those technical level conversations
- 11:48had not yet been set.
- 11:50All right,
- 11:51I want to return now to the attempted hijacking
- 11:53of a Fly Dubai flight bound for Israel,
- 11:56where the brave actions of the captain and
- 11:58passengers helped prevent a deadly terrorist attack.
- 12:02New reporting suggests the danger may have
- 12:03been taking shape long before Wednesday's departure.
- 12:06Well,
- 12:06yes,
- 12:07usually these types of events
- 12:08don't just materialize out of thin air.
- 12:11The Omani co-pilot accused of carrying out the attack has now been identified
- 12:15as Hammam al-Khamami.
- 12:16Uh,
- 12:17that's easy to remember.
- 12:18And according to Israel's Channel 12,
- 12:19the questions about him extend well beyond what
- 12:21happened inside that cockpit on that day.
- 12:24As you'll remember from our coverage last week,
- 12:26Israeli news sources said the co-pilot stabbed the captain
- 12:29during an apparent attempt to hijack the aircraft.
- 12:32The plane then plunged
- 12:33over 17,000 ft before the captain was able to open the cockpit door,
- 12:37and passengers helped overcome the alleged attacker.
- 12:40The flight eventually landed safely in Saudi Arabia,
- 12:43and the passengers were later flown to Israel.
- 12:46But that left a question that we raised at the time.
- 12:48How did the man accused of threatening those passengers' lives
- 12:51come to be entrusted with their safety in the first place?
- 12:54Well,
- 12:55according to Channel 12,
- 12:56Al Khamami had flown that Dubai to Tel Aviv route several times before.
- 13:01Israeli authorities are now checking whether
- 13:02he was behind the controls on that same route
- 13:05just days before Wednesday's attack.
- 13:07So this wasn't simply a question of how he got assigned to one flight.
- 13:10How had he kept flying to Israel without raising an alarm?
- 13:14Good question.
- 13:15It turns out that Israeli authorities had his name.
- 13:18FlyDubai submitted his crew list
- 13:20before Wednesday's departure,
- 13:22just as it's required to do.
- 13:24Al Khamami was on that list,
- 13:26and nothing in it triggered a security concern.
- 13:29But there was something Israeli authorities didn't know.
- 13:31His previous employer,
- 13:33Oman Air,
- 13:34had barred him from flying over concerns about his radicalization.
- 13:37Let me just repeat that.
- 13:39Uh,
- 13:39there was something Israeli authorities didn't know.
- 13:42His previous employer,
- 13:43Oman Air,
- 13:44had barred him
- 13:45from flying over concerns about his
- 13:47radicalization.
- 13:49Well,
- 13:49that brings us to the question at the heart of this latest update.
- 13:52Who was supposed to be checking?
- 13:53According to Channel 12,
- 13:54Israel's Transportation ministry is legally required
- 13:57to make sure that foreign airlines properly vet the pilots they send to Israel.
- 14:02But the report says the ministry is not
- 14:04checking whether those airlines are doing so.
- 14:06Neither the Shin Bet nor Mossad checked the backgrounds of foreign pilots either.
- 14:10Well,
- 14:10that seems to be a bit of a security problem.
- 14:13Anonymous security sources cited by Channel 12 had
- 14:16a blunt description of what that meant.
- 14:18When it came to foreign airline crews,
- 14:19they said Ben Gurion Airport had become a lawless zone.
- 14:24Those same sources called the failure exposed by
- 14:26Wednesday's terror attack a colossal security screw up.
- 14:29That's a technical term.
- 14:30They said its scale was as large as the miracle
- 14:33that allowed the captain and several heroic passengers to
- 14:36overcome Al Khamami and save the 180 people aboard.
- 14:40To convey just how serious they believe those failures were,
- 14:43the sources reached for a comparison that carries enormous weight,
- 14:46obviously in Israel.
- 14:47The 7th October 2023 Hamas attacks,
- 14:50when in the source's words,
- 14:52all the facts were out in the open
- 14:53and nobody looked.
- 14:55According to those sources,
- 14:56Al Khamami had been planning the attack for a long time,
- 14:59quote,
- 14:59and yet Israel didn't have a scrap of information on him.
- 15:02The failure of simple due diligence on several parts is rather striking.
- 15:06You have a pilot for Oman Air who was grounded by the airline
- 15:10for concerns of his radicalization,
- 15:13and somehow
- 15:14he was then hired eventually by Fly Dubai.
- 15:17Eh,
- 15:17maybe he won't be radical for Fly Dubai.
- 15:19Normally,
- 15:20and I'm just spitballing here,
- 15:21you'd think a commercial airline pilot with a
- 15:23history of radicalization would be permanently grounded.
- 15:27And then once hired by Fly Dubai,
- 15:29there was no system in place,
- 15:30apparently
- 15:31with Israeli security to simply vet each airline
- 15:34pilot and proposed for flights to Israel.
- 15:36Investigators still have to establish exactly what Al Khamami planned,
- 15:40what warnings existed,
- 15:41and who could have acted on them.
- 15:43But getting those answers brings us to another obstacle.
- 15:46Israeli investigators have yet to be given access to him.
- 15:49Al Khamami is under investigation in the United Arab Emirates,
- 15:53and Channel 12 reports
- 15:55that Israeli investigators are relying for now on
- 15:58material supplied by Emirati and Saudi authorities.
- 16:02All right.
- 16:03And in today's back of the brief,
- 16:04the FBI may have caught a break in that massive
- 16:07data theft that we covered last week on the PDB.
- 16:10A suspected member of the group behind the breach has been detained,
- 16:13reportedly in Jordan
- 16:15and is reportedly cooperating with investigators.
- 16:17More on that
- 16:18when we come back.
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- 18:20In today's back of the brief,
- 18:21an update on that massive FBI data theft we told you about last week.
- 18:26A suspected member of the Shiny Hunter's hacking group
- 18:29has now been detained in Jordan,
- 18:30and sources
- 18:31tell Reuters he's cooperating with the FBI.
- 18:34The suspect is Saif al Dinadr,
- 18:36known online as Ray.
- 18:38Oh,
- 18:38just Ray.
- 18:39He was detained by Jordanian authorities on Tuesday and is reportedly now helping
- 18:43investigators work through electronic devices and
- 18:46digital communications tied to the group.
- 18:48And that of course could be significant
- 18:50because the more we learn about this breach,
- 18:52well,
- 18:53the worse it looks.
- 18:54Shiny Hunters has claimed it stole somewhere between 2
- 18:56and 3 terabytes of information connected to the FBI,
- 19:00including data on virtually every employee at the bureau,
- 19:03along with current and former job applicants.
- 19:06Reuters examined a sample of about 5000 records and found names,
- 19:10home addresses,
- 19:11phone numbers,
- 19:12dates of birth,
- 19:13Social Security numbers,
- 19:14and emergency contacts.
- 19:16But it looks like it didn't stop there.
- 19:18The files reportedly included information identifying FBI personnel,
- 19:22working sensitive intelligence and counterintelligence assignments
- 19:26involving China,
- 19:27Russia,
- 19:27Iran,
- 19:28Hezbollah,
- 19:28and drug cartels.
- 19:30As well as employees involved in human intelligence collection
- 19:33and electronic surveillance,
- 19:35now here's a tip.
- 19:37I'm not an FBI investigator,
- 19:38but if that is actually the case,
- 19:41you now have to operationally assume that all
- 19:43of those sensitive intel and counterintelligence cases and operations
- 19:47could be compromised.
- 19:49There was also medical and psychiatric information in the stolen material.
- 19:53The FBI has not publicly confirmed the full scope of
- 19:55the breach or exactly how the hackers got in.
- 19:58Investigators are still trying to determine whether an FBI system itself was
- 20:02compromised or whether the data was accessed through a third party.
- 20:06Internally though,
- 20:06the bureau has reportedly been operating under the assumption
- 20:10that information on all FBI employees may have been exposed,
- 20:13and now Shiy Hunters appears to be under pressure.
- 20:16Another suspected member of the group was arrested in the Netherlands in September
- 20:20after Khadr was detained in Jordan.
- 20:22Reuters says the group's dark website disappeared,
- 20:25and the account Shiny Hunters had been
- 20:26using to communicate with reporters went silent.
- 20:29The group later resurfaced with a very different tone,
- 20:32reportedly
- 20:33telling Reuters it wanted no further escalation with the FBI
- 20:36and suggesting that Shiny hunters could be backing down entirely.
- 20:40Of course none of that undoes the damage they've already done.
- 20:43If sensitive personnel files were stolen and particularly
- 20:46if they included information on intelligence and counterintelligence officers
- 20:50and their assignments or possible operational activity,
- 20:53that data can't simply be pulled back.
- 20:56Foreign intelligence services,
- 20:57criminal groups,
- 20:58or anyone else who obtained copies
- 21:00could find it of enormous value.
- 21:03And that,
- 21:03my friends,
- 21:04is the President's Daily Brief for Monday,
- 21:06the 5th of October.
- 21:07Now,
- 21:07if you have any questions or comments,
- 21:08please reach out to me at PDB@hefirsttv.com.
- 21:12And I hope you had a chance to catch our weekend show.
- 21:14You know that's the PDB Situation Report.
- 21:17Great guests included the renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
- 21:21He and I talk a lot of smart guy stuff,
- 21:23although I did have to go slow so
- 21:26he could understand my insight into the meaning of the universe.
- 21:29You can catch it and past episodes of the
- 21:31PDB Situation Report on our much loved YouTube channel.
- 21:34Just head on over to YouTube and search up at President's Daily Brief
- 21:37and of course wherever you get your podcast stuff.
- 21:40I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin.
- 21:44Until then,
- 21:45stay informed,
- 21:46stay safe,
- 21:47stay cool.