Latest / The President's Daily Brief / October 12th, 2026: Deadly Houthi Attack Could Bring America Into the Yemen War & Trump Calls for Zelenskyy's Replacement

Transcript

October 12th, 2026: Deadly Houthi Attack Could Bring America Into the Yemen War & Trump Calls for Zelenskyy's Replacement · The President's Daily Brief

• 0:13
  It's Monday,
• 0:13
  the 12th of October.
• 0:15
  Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
• 0:17
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 0:17
  your eyes and ears on the world stage.
• 0:20
  Alright,
• 0:21
  let's get briefed.
• 0:23
  Houthi rebels launch a deadly attack on Saudi Arabia as
• 0:27
  President Trump weighs direct US military intervention in Yemen.
• 0:31
  We'll have the details
• 0:33
  later in the show.
• 0:34
  A report from the Wall Street Journal is
• 0:36
  showing how hackers are turning everyday security cameras
• 0:40
  into weapons of espionage,
• 0:42
  using them to monitor military movements and gather intelligence.
• 0:46
  Plus,
• 0:47
  President Trump calls for new leadership in Ukraine,
• 0:51
  accusing President Zelensky of failing to end the war with Russia
• 0:55
  and blaming him for rising diesel prices in the US.
• 0:59
  Well,
• 1:00
  to be fair,
• 1:01
  the ongoing disruptions to the global energy markets
• 1:04
  from the Iran conflict could also have something to do with it,
• 1:08
  and,
• 1:08
  uh,
• 1:09
  Ukraine was invaded by Russia.
• 1:11
  So,
• 1:12
  well,
• 1:12
  there's that.
• 1:14
  And in today's back of the brief,
• 1:15
  speaking of Ukraine,
• 1:16
  they've got a new strategy in their war against Russia,
• 1:20
  targeting the country's digital infrastructure.
• 1:23
  But first,
• 1:24
  today's PDB spotlight.
• 1:26
  The war in Yemen triggered by the Iranian-backed Houthis
• 1:30
  is threatening to draw the US into another
• 1:32
  major military confrontation in the Middle East,
• 1:35
  this following a devastating missile attack on
• 1:37
  Saudi Arabia's capital that killed 12 people,
• 1:40
  including an American citizen,
• 1:42
  and wounded more than 300 others.
• 1:45
  The attack occurred Saturday afternoon at
• 1:47
  King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh,
• 1:50
  where a missile struck a complex housing two domestic terminals.
• 1:53
  Saudi authorities say several of the wounded remain in critical
• 1:57
  condition while the airport has been forced to suspend operations,
• 2:00
  disrupting flights across the region.
• 2:03
  As we've been reporting,
• 2:04
  this attack was not an isolated incident.
• 2:06
  This was the 3rd attack against Riyadh's main airport in just 1 week,
• 2:11
  with earlier strikes killing 4 people and damaging commercial aircraft.
• 2:16
  The Houthis have also been targeting other Saudi airports,
• 2:19
  military installations,
• 2:20
  and oil infrastructure.
• 2:22
  And following Saturday's attack,
• 2:24
  the rebels renewed their warning to commercial airlines
• 2:27
  to stay out of Saudi airspace,
• 2:29
  threatening even more destructive attacks if Riyadh
• 2:32
  continues its military operations in Yemen.
• 2:35
  Now the White House is considering getting directly involved.
• 2:40
  Asked Saturday whether American forces might
• 2:42
  join Saudi airstrikes against the Houthis,
• 2:45
  President Trump said,
• 2:45
  quote,
• 2:46
  We may,
• 2:47
  we are going to look at it.
• 2:48
  He added that a decision would come quickly.
• 2:51
  Later,
• 2:51
  Trump said he planned to speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
• 2:55
  describing the airport attack as unacceptable.
• 2:59
  Meanwhile,
• 2:59
  on the battlefield in Yemen,
• 3:01
  the fighting is intensifying.
• 3:03
  We've been tracking the Houthi advance through
• 3:05
  southwestern Yemen over the past several weeks.
• 3:07
  Last month,
• 3:08
  the rebels launched a major offensive
• 3:11
  that saw them seize large stretches of Yemen's Red Sea coastline,
• 3:14
  including the port city of Mocha,
• 3:16
  the Dubaab district,
• 3:17
  and the strategically important island of Perre.
• 3:20
  That last location is particularly significant.
• 3:23
  Perre sits inside the Bab el Mandeb Strait.
• 3:25
  That's the narrow passage connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
• 3:30
  It's one of the world's most important maritime choke points.
• 3:32
  And with Iran
• 3:34
  already threatening commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,
• 3:37
  control of Baba Mandeb has become even more consequential.
• 3:41
  That Houthi advance prompted Saudi Arabia to
• 3:44
  launch a major counteroffensive earlier this month,
• 3:47
  providing extensive air support to the Yemeni government forces
• 3:51
  with the stated objective of retaking Houthi-held territory,
• 3:55
  including eventually
• 3:56
  the capital of Sana'a.
• 3:59
  And now Saudi-backed forces are claiming some important victories.
• 4:02
  On Friday,
• 4:03
  the Saudi ambassador to Yemen.
• 4:04
  Declared that Babel Mandeb had been cleared of Houthi forces.
• 4:08
  Leaders of Yemen's southern traditional council also announced that
• 4:11
  Peram Island and surrounding coastal territory had been recaptured.
• 4:15
  However,
• 4:16
  the extent of those gains remains unclear.
• 4:19
  A military spokesman for Yemen's internationally recognized government
• 4:23
  said that roughly half the contested territory had been recaptured,
• 4:26
  suggesting
• 4:27
  that fighting is continuing in the area.
• 4:30
  The Houthis meanwhile claim they've inflicted
• 4:32
  heavy casualties on the advancing forces,
• 4:34
  including the
• 4:35
  destruction of more than 20 armored vehicles.
• 4:38
  Those claims have not been independently verified,
• 4:41
  and it's still unclear who controls all of Barham Island.
• 4:45
  And while Saudi-backed troops may be gaining ground along the coast,
• 4:48
  the Houthis are still advancing elsewhere,
• 4:50
  including around the strategically important city of Taiz,
• 4:54
  where they've threatened critical supply routes.
• 4:56
  So despite claims of victory,
• 4:58
  the fighting is well,
• 4:59
  far from over,
• 5:00
  and the events of the past week have
• 5:02
  exposed a serious vulnerability for Saudi Arabia.
• 5:05
  The kingdom is deploying considerable military resources against the Houthis,
• 5:10
  but it hasn't been able to prevent the rebels
• 5:12
  from launching increasingly destructive attacks against Saudi Arabia.
• 5:16
  Part of the problem is air defense,
• 5:18
  according to previous Associated Press reporting.
• 5:21
  Saudi Arabia has been running low on missile interceptors
• 5:24
  and has been requesting additional support from several countries,
• 5:28
  which brings us back to Washington.
• 5:31
  The US
• 5:32
  is already assisting the Saudi campaign through intelligence sharing,
• 5:35
  target identification,
• 5:36
  and military planning,
• 5:38
  but until now,
• 5:39
  the Trump administration has avoided directly joining
• 5:42
  the renewed campaign against the Houthis.
• 5:44
  Saturday's attack could change that calculation,
• 5:47
  particularly with an American citizen now among the dead.
• 5:51
  And there's another complication,
• 5:53
  and there's always a complication.
• 5:54
  Iran,
• 5:55
  of course,
• 5:55
  remains the Houthis' principal foreign backer,
• 5:58
  supplying weapons,
• 5:59
  expertise,
• 6:00
  other resources,
• 6:00
  and assistance.
• 6:02
  The rebels' ability to threaten Saudi Arabia and Red Sea shipping
• 6:06
  gives Tehran
• 6:07
  another means of applying pressure
• 6:09
  on America's regional allies and the US
• 6:12
  There's no public evidence that Tehran ordered Saturday's airport attack.
• 6:17
  But
• 6:18
  given that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,
• 6:21
  IRGC commanders and personnel are on the ground in Yemen advising,
• 6:26
  guiding,
• 6:26
  and providing intelligence and resources to the Houthis,
• 6:29
  it's a bit naive
• 6:31
  to imagine that the IRGC is not driving the Houthi train.
• 6:35
  You cannot separate the Iran conflict
• 6:37
  from their proxy group's renewed campaign
• 6:40
  against the Saudis.
• 6:41
  Saudi Arabia is fighting to push the Houthis away
• 6:44
  from one of the world's most important shipping routes.
• 6:46
  The Houthis
• 6:48
  are responding by bringing the war directly into the Saudi capital,
• 6:51
  threatening airports and commercial aviation and energy infrastructure.
• 6:55
  And now
• 6:56
  President Trump faces a decision
• 6:58
  about whether to bring American forces into that fight.
• 7:02
  All right.
• 7:03
  Coming up next,
• 7:04
  hackers are turning everyday security cameras into tools of espionage,
• 7:08
  and in a somewhat,
• 7:10
  um,
• 7:10
  surreal move,
• 7:12
  President Trump calls for new leadership in Ukraine,
• 7:14
  blaming President Zelensky for rising diesel prices in the US.
• 7:19
  I am not
• 7:20
  making that up.
• 7:21
  I'll be right back.
• 7:24
  Hey,
• 7:24
  Mike Baker here.
• 7:25
  Now,
• 7:26
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• 8:40
  Welcome back to the PDB.
• 8:42
  If you're trying to keep tabs on an enemy's military,
• 8:45
  well,
• 8:45
  you might think that satellites,
• 8:47
  spy planes,
• 8:47
  or human sources on the ground
• 8:49
  would be a good way to go.
• 8:51
  And fair enough,
• 8:52
  those are extremely helpful.
• 8:54
  But sometimes all it takes is hacking a security camera
• 8:57
  that someone else has already installed.
• 9:00
  The Wall Street Journal dug into how widespread this has become in new reporting.
• 9:04
  As strange as this sounds,
• 9:06
  one particularly telling example
• 9:08
  comes from a poultry farmer in northern Israel.
• 9:11
  During the opening stages of the US and Israeli bombing campaign against Iran,
• 9:15
  the farmer checked the webcam outside his chicken coop
• 9:19
  and noticed that its language had switched to Arabic.
• 9:22
  He contacted Israel's National Cyber Directorate,
• 9:25
  which then discovered that hackers had taken control
• 9:28
  of the Chinese-made camera,
• 9:30
  and obviously.
• 9:31
  It wasn't the chickens that the hackers were interested in,
• 9:34
  although chickens are fun to watch.
• 9:37
  The camera overlooked Israeli security forces near the Lebanese border,
• 9:41
  giving whomever controlled it a way to monitor those movements.
• 9:45
  Now consider how many cameras might offer a similarly useful view.
• 9:49
  Cybersecurity consultants at SRM estimate that
• 9:52
  there are roughly 1.2 billion,
• 9:54
  that's with a B,
• 9:56
  internet-connected cameras worldwide,
• 9:58
  from doorbell and traffic cameras to baby monitors.
• 10:01
  Hostile governments and hacking groups scour
• 10:04
  the internet for vulnerable cameras using
• 10:06
  automated tools to test millions of passwords until they break in.
• 10:11
  A senior vice president at cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks
• 10:15
  says cameras may have limited built-in protections
• 10:18
  and may not receive security updates.
• 10:20
  Some are installed by teams responsible
• 10:23
  for maintaining buildings without cybersecurity staff
• 10:26
  even knowing that the cameras are there.
• 10:28
  As he told the journal,
• 10:30
  quote,
• 10:30
  Their job is to mount that camera,
• 10:32
  power it on and walk away.
• 10:34
  In addition,
• 10:35
  some owners never change the default passwords on their security cameras,
• 10:39
  and of course
• 10:40
  artificial intelligence is also changing the game.
• 10:43
  The journal reports that AI helps hackers break
• 10:46
  into cameras and analyze large amounts of footage,
• 10:49
  identifying movements and patterns that would otherwise
• 10:52
  require hundreds or even thousands of hours of work by humans.
• 10:56
  And the battlefield consequences are already visible.
• 10:59
  In late 2022,
• 11:01
  an international pro-Ukrainian hacking group called Team One Fist
• 11:05
  took control of a camera high on a
• 11:06
  coastal building in Sevastopol in Russian-controlled Crimea.
• 11:10
  The hackers could rotate and zoom the camera
• 11:13
  to monitor Russian helicopters and submarines,
• 11:15
  and ships.
• 11:16
  They followed a Russian military helicopter to what they described
• 11:20
  as a previously unknown air base near a local airport.
• 11:24
  The group passed that information to Ukrainian
• 11:26
  forces which attacked the base soon afterward,
• 11:29
  and Russia has been exploiting the same opportunity against Ukraine.
• 11:33
  In 2024,
• 11:34
  Russian hackers took over residential webcams in Kiev,
• 11:38
  including one used to monitor a condominium's neighborhood.
• 11:41
  Ukraine's security service,
• 11:42
  the SPU,
• 11:43
  says Russia intended to use the feeds to locate
• 11:45
  targets and to adjust missile attacks on Ukraine.
• 11:50
  Since Russia's full scale invasion began in 2022,
• 11:53
  the SPU says it has identified roughly 40,000 cameras
• 11:57
  that posed potential security risks
• 11:59
  and then either secured,
• 12:01
  redirected,
• 12:01
  or blocked them.
• 12:03
  Russian surveillance also extends into the countries supplying Ukraine.
• 12:07
  Dutch intelligence agencies warned in July that
• 12:10
  Russian state actors were hacking cameras across Europe
• 12:13
  to gather information about military transport routes
• 12:16
  and Western weapons deliveries to Kiev.
• 12:19
  In Iran,
• 12:21
  the Journal reports that Israeli hackers
• 12:23
  accessed traffic cameras earlier this year
• 12:25
  to help gather intelligence used in the
• 12:27
  assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
• 12:31
  Iran-linked groups are targeting Israeli cameras as well.
• 12:34
  Israel's National Cyber Directorate says those Iranian groups have
• 12:38
  compromised more than 250 sensitive security cameras this year,
• 12:42
  posing an immediate danger to national security.
• 12:46
  Now,
• 12:46
  given these glaring security lapses.
• 12:49
  Some Western countries have banned Chinese camera brands due
• 12:52
  to security concerns or suspected adversarial government ties.
• 12:58
  All right,
• 12:59
  I want to turn to the US where President Trump is negotiating with Vladimir Putin
• 13:04
  in an effort to get Russia
• 13:06
  to help bring down diesel prices in the US,
• 13:09
  but an agreement with Putin is drawing pushback from his own party.
• 13:13
  Some are arguing that the deal will provide more relief to Putin
• 13:17
  than do Americans at the gas pumps.
• 13:19
  With diesel prices at record levels and the
• 13:22
  November 3rd US midterm elections just weeks away,
• 13:26
  Trump is under pressure to bring those costs down.
• 13:29
  Although,
• 13:29
  well,
• 13:29
  he has said repeatedly that he doesn't even think about the midterm elections.
• 13:34
  As for the phone call with Putin,
• 13:35
  the stated purpose
• 13:37
  was that Trump planned to speak with Putin about the suspected plague case.
• 13:41
  At a research laboratory in Siberia,
• 13:44
  but when the two spoke Friday,
• 13:45
  they also reportedly discussed energy supplies,
• 13:48
  and reportedly Putin,
• 13:49
  for his own reasons and agenda,
• 13:52
  agreed to work with Trump on this effort
• 13:54
  to lower diesel prices.
• 13:56
  So
• 13:56
  you ask yourself reasonably
• 13:59
  exactly what has Putin proposed to do.
• 14:02
  Well,
• 14:02
  Trump says Moscow will immediately supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel,
• 14:07
  followed by another 500,000 tons in November
• 14:11
  and 1 million tons immediately thereafter.
• 14:14
  He also announced another 3 million tons within a short period of time.
• 14:18
  And you may be asking yourself,
• 14:20
  well,
• 14:20
  why would Putin be so quick to agree?
• 14:23
  Uh,
• 14:23
  well,
• 14:23
  it's because it's in his own best interests.
• 14:26
  Russia gets to sell that fuel and collect the revenue.
• 14:29
  To facilitate those sales,
• 14:32
  the White House has temporarily eased restrictions on Russian fuel exports,
• 14:37
  giving Moscow relief from sanctions intended to squeeze its war funding.
• 14:41
  That represents,
• 14:42
  of course,
• 14:43
  a significant reversal.
• 14:44
  Well,
• 14:44
  just last month,
• 14:45
  Trump signed sweeping sanctions that targeted Russia's oil and gas sector.
• 14:50
  But,
• 14:50
  well,
• 14:51
  that was last month.
• 14:52
  Now US voters are still staring at high fuel costs,
• 14:56
  and those midterm elections that the president doesn't
• 14:58
  care about are only 3 weeks away.
• 15:00
  Putting aside the idea that the US is now willing to stuff
• 15:03
  money into Putin's war chest in order to lower gas prices,
• 15:06
  there are the simple market mechanics of it all.
• 15:09
  And that's where energy analysts who spoke with Axios are somewhat skeptical.
• 15:13
  They doubt that the initial shipments will be enough to meaningfully lower
• 15:18
  prices,
• 15:19
  especially while the broader disruptions driving those prices
• 15:22
  remain in place.
• 15:24
  The US conflict with Iran
• 15:25
  has made it difficult to move oil out of the Middle East,
• 15:28
  pushing up costs across global energy markets.
• 15:31
  Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries have added another source of pressure.
• 15:36
  There are also questions about whether Moscow
• 15:38
  can deliver everything that Trump has announced.
• 15:41
  Well,
• 15:41
  there's also the question of,
• 15:43
  should you be offering a deal to the invading party,
• 15:45
  in this case,
• 15:45
  Putin,
• 15:46
  in order to get fuel prices to drop a bit for American voters.
• 15:50
  On Capitol Hill,
• 15:51
  Trump is facing opposition from his own side.
• 15:54
  Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick,
• 15:55
  who co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus,
• 15:58
  says he'll introduce a bill called the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act
• 16:02
  to block Russian oil purchases.
• 16:05
  Fitzpatrick plans to use a discharge petition to bring it to a vote.
• 16:08
  Now that's a procedure that allows lawmakers to bypass House leadership
• 16:13
  if they collect 218 signatures.
• 16:16
  It's a route the Democrats have used
• 16:18
  to get around House Speaker Mike Johnson.
• 16:20
  But the timing is tight.
• 16:22
  The House isn't scheduled to resume voting until after the November elections,
• 16:27
  and the bill would still need Senate approval
• 16:29
  and could face Trump's veto.
• 16:32
  While that congressional challenge takes shape,
• 16:34
  Trump's agreement is deepening his dispute with Kiev over
• 16:37
  the Ukraine military's ongoing refinery attacks inside Russia.
• 16:42
  Trump has spent weeks urging Ukrainian President Zelensky to stop those strikes,
• 16:47
  arguing that they're disrupting diesel supplies and
• 16:49
  hurting Americans who depend on the fuel.
• 16:52
  Speaking to reporters Saturday,
• 16:53
  he accused Zelensky of wanting to quote make problems for our farmers,
• 16:58
  our ranchers,
• 16:59
  with.
• 17:00
  Diesel fuel,
• 17:00
  end quote.
• 17:01
  Well,
• 17:01
  maybe Zelensky's just defending his country against an invading nation.
• 17:05
  He then took that criticism much further,
• 17:07
  calling for Ukraine to replace Zelensky.
• 17:09
  Quote,
• 17:10
  I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal
• 17:13
  because he could have made many deals,
• 17:14
  and for some reason he never does,
• 17:17
  end quote.
• 17:19
  Ukraine sees those refineries as part of Russia's war machine,
• 17:22
  providing both export revenue and fuel for military operations.
• 17:26
  From an operational perspective,
• 17:28
  well,
• 17:28
  that is an accurate,
• 17:29
  realistic assessment.
• 17:31
  On Sunday,
• 17:32
  Zelensky said Ukraine was willing to halt attacks on Russian refineries if Moscow
• 17:37
  stopped striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure,
• 17:40
  but he said any arrangement would require real guarantees.
• 17:44
  Putin has refused to discuss any,
• 17:46
  even temporary ceasefire on energy infrastructure.
• 17:51
  Now Putin
• 17:52
  has continued to conduct almost daily drone
• 17:54
  and missile barrages targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure
• 17:58
  and has directly claimed
• 18:00
  that Moscow's goal is to drive Ukrainian citizens
• 18:03
  out of their cities ahead of the winter.
• 18:05
  So yeah,
• 18:05
  the White House is now easing pressure on Putin.
• 18:09
  So that US voters might possibly see prices fall a
• 18:11
  bit at the pumps prior to the midterm elections,
• 18:15
  while the White House is also pressuring Zelensky
• 18:17
  to unilaterally stop reciprocal attacks on Russian energy infrastructure
• 18:22
  as Putin continues his nearly five-year invasion.
• 18:26
  Apparently.
• 18:27
  It appears from President Trump's own comments
• 18:30
  that Zelensky
• 18:31
  is the villain in this conflict,
• 18:33
  and the White House has decided that Zelensky
• 18:35
  is to blame
• 18:37
  if the Republicans do poorly in the elections.
• 18:39
  Meanwhile,
• 18:40
  somewhere off in the distance,
• 18:42
  Putin sits quietly chuckling in one of his posh,
• 18:47
  expensive daschas,
• 18:49
  quietly petting the hairless cat sitting on his lap.
• 18:54
  Coming up in the back of the brief,
• 18:55
  Ukraine is taking its drone war into new territory,
• 18:59
  targeting the massive data centers powering Russia's technology sector.
• 19:03
  More on that
• 19:04
  when we come back.
• 19:07
  Hey,
• 19:07
  Mike Baker here.
• 19:08
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• 19:08
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• 19:24
  but at the end of the day didn't hold up under travel conditions,
• 19:28
  or it just wasn't practical.
• 19:29
  That's why I love Noble's all in one carry-on.
• 19:32
  The first thing,
• 19:33
  yeah,
• 19:34
  it's completely zipperless.
• 19:35
  That's right,
• 19:35
  no zippers.
• 19:36
  Instead of worrying about a zipper breaking,
• 19:38
  and eventually they always break,
• 19:40
  or worse yet,
• 19:41
  having your bag broken into because while the zipper is the weak link.
• 19:45
  Noble uses a secure latch lock design that closes tightly,
• 19:49
  almost like a safe,
• 19:50
  but it's not just about security.
• 19:51
  There's a built-in charger,
• 19:52
  a front laptop compartment that makes getting through TSA easier,
• 19:56
  smooth 360 degree wheels,
• 19:58
  and even a flip-out cup holder.
• 20:00
  Look,
• 20:00
  if you're juggling a cup of coffee,
• 20:03
  well,
• 20:03
  maybe water,
• 20:04
  a phone,
• 20:05
  a boarding pass,
• 20:06
  that little feature is a lifesaver.
• 20:08
  Noble gives you real travel peace of mind,
• 20:10
  security,
• 20:11
  design,
• 20:11
  and convenience all in one.
• 20:13
  I'm telling you they work great.
• 20:15
  Head on over to Nobletravel.com for up to 46% off your entire order.
• 20:20
  That's Noble Travel,
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• 20:24
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• 20:26
  And after you purchase,
• 20:27
  they'll ask where you heard about them.
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  If you don't mind,
• 20:29
  do me a favor,
• 20:30
  tell them the PDB set you.
• 20:33
  Hey Mike Baker here with an important message
• 20:35
  about taking control of your health.
• 20:38
  Now think about the standard annual health routine,
• 20:40
  right?
• 20:41
  You're waiting months for an appointment,
• 20:43
  taking time off from work,
• 20:44
  and then you're sitting in a crowded waiting room,
• 20:46
  all for a rushed 10 minute visit
• 20:49
  where standard lab tests deliver the standard response.
• 20:51
  Well,
• 20:52
  everything looks normal.
• 20:53
  Questions about energy,
• 20:54
  sleep,
• 20:55
  hormones,
• 20:55
  long term vitality
• 20:57
  often go completely unanswered,
• 20:58
  and that's why I wanna tell you about superpower.
• 21:01
  Superpower is.
• 21:02
  Changing the way that people handle health.
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  This platform offers proactive preventative
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  care that goes significantly deeper.
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  Simple lab tests analyze over 100 biomarkers,
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  delivering personalized insights on heart health,
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  hormones,
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  and metabolism
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  directly to the superpower app.
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  This is the key to understanding
• 21:21
  the why behind health markers.
• 21:23
  In fact,
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  85% of members uncover early disease risk factors
• 21:27
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  For a limited time,
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  our listeners at the PDB get $50 off
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  to unlock their health membership.
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  Head on over to Superpower.com and use code
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  PDB for $50 off your Superpower membership.
• 21:55
  And after you sign up,
• 21:56
  well,
• 21:57
  they'll ask how you heard about them.
• 21:58
  If you don't mind.
• 21:59
  And tell them the PDB sent you.
• 22:05
  In today's back of the brief,
• 22:06
  Ukraine appears to be opening a new front in its war against Russia,
• 22:10
  targeting the country's digital infrastructure in a series of drone strikes.
• 22:15
  Last week we reported on a Ukrainian attack against
• 22:18
  a major Russian data center operated by Yandex,
• 22:21
  that's the technology giant often described as Russia's version of Google.
• 22:26
  At the time it was the first major strike of its kind against a Russian data facility.
• 22:30
  Well,
• 22:31
  in the days since we've seen two more similar attacks,
• 22:34
  and what initially looked like,
• 22:35
  uh,
• 22:35
  an isolated strike is now emerging as
• 22:38
  a deliberate campaign against Russia's technology infrastructure.
• 22:42
  The first attack came overnight Wednesday into Thursday when Ukrainian drones
• 22:45
  struck a Yandex status center in Sassevo that's southeast of Moscow.
• 22:50
  The attack sparked a fire,
• 22:51
  damaged critical infrastructure,
• 22:53
  and forced the facility to shut down completely.
• 22:56
  Then on Friday Ukrainian drones hit another Yandex data
• 22:58
  center in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.
• 23:02
  That strike knocked several sections of the facility out of commission.
• 23:06
  And now a third attack early Sunday.
• 23:08
  Drones struck another Yandex data center in Vladimir east of Moscow,
• 23:12
  forcing that facility to shut down as well.
• 23:15
  So in the span of just 4 days,
• 23:17
  Ukrainian drones have hit 3 of Yandex's 5 major Russian data centers.
• 23:22
  2 have been completely shut down,
• 23:24
  while the 3rd has suffered significant damage.
• 23:26
  Yandex provides much of the infrastructure supporting Russia's digital economy.
• 23:31
  We're talking about everything from search engines
• 23:33
  and navigation systems to ride-hailing services,
• 23:37
  online payments,
• 23:37
  and cloud computing platforms used by thousands of Russian businesses.
• 23:42
  The attacks have already disrupted a variety of services,
• 23:45
  including some used by Russian railways and other major companies.
• 23:49
  Following Sunday's strike,
• 23:50
  Yandex warned customers that its
• 23:52
  remaining computing infrastructure was unstable
• 23:55
  and advised them to activate emergency recovery plans.
• 23:59
  There's also an artificial intelligence component to all of this.
• 24:03
  The first facility hit in Sassevi reportedly houses two of the 3 supercomputers
• 24:08
  that Yandex uses to develop and train its artificial intelligence models.
• 24:12
  Those systems rely on advanced Nvidia processors.
• 24:15
  That's the kind of technology
• 24:18
  Russia already has difficulty obtaining because of Western sanctions.
• 24:22
  Now we don't know whether these supercomputers were actually destroyed.
• 24:25
  But if they suffered serious damage,
• 24:27
  replacing that computer capacity could prove extremely difficult.
• 24:31
  For its part,
• 24:32
  Ukraine isn't being particularly coy about what's happening.
• 24:36
  President Zelensky has described the strikes as retaliation for
• 24:39
  Russian attacks against Ukrainian data
• 24:41
  centers and telecommunications infrastructure.
• 24:44
  In his words,
• 24:45
  Ukraine is responding in kind,
• 24:47
  similar to their targeting of Russia's oil and gas infrastructure.
• 24:51
  And there's one more interesting detail.
• 24:52
  According to Russian reporting,
• 24:54
  Yandex has now updated its customer agreements to
• 24:57
  explicitly include drone and missile attacks among the circumstances
• 25:01
  that could prevent the company from fulfilling its obligations.
• 25:04
  So one of Russia's biggest technology companies
• 25:07
  is now writing the possibility of aerial bombardment
• 25:10
  directly into its business contracts.
• 25:13
  Ukraine
• 25:14
  has spent months going after Russian oil refineries,
• 25:17
  fuel depots,
• 25:18
  and industrial facilities,
• 25:19
  trying to weaken the economic infrastructure supporting Putin's war machine.
• 25:24
  Now it appears to be applying that same strategy
• 25:27
  to Russia's digital economy.
• 25:30
  And that my friends,
• 25:31
  is the president's daily brief for Monday,
• 25:33
  the 12th of October.
• 25:35
  Now,
• 25:35
  if you have any questions or comments,
• 25:36
  please reach out to me at PDB@hefirsttv.com.
• 25:40
  And finally,
• 25:41
  I hope that you had a chance over the weekend
• 25:43
  to catch our latest episode of the PDB Situation Report.
• 25:46
  Excellent guests as always,
• 25:48
  insightful analysis,
• 25:49
  the occasional OK question from the host.
• 25:52
  And still no house band.
• 25:54
  Now I've issued a very stern memo to the PDB executives insisting
• 25:57
  that we have a house band in place by the holiday season
• 26:01
  and better snacks in the green room.
• 26:03
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 26:04
  and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 26:08
  Until then,
• 26:09
  stay informed,
• 26:10
  stay safe,
• 26:11
  stay cool.