Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 6th, 2026: Pakistan and Turkey Join The Fight Against The Houthis & Ukraine Hits Moscow

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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 6th, 2026: Pakistan and Turkey Join The Fight Against The Houthis & Ukraine Hits Moscow · The President's Daily Brief

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  We're continuing to keep a close eye on
• 0:02
  the rapidly developing conflict involving the Iran-backed Houthis,
• 0:06
  Saudi Arabia,
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  and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen.
• 0:10
  Yesterday,
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  the big question was whether Pakistan and Turkey
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  would step in to help the Saudis.
• 0:16
  Today we seem to have our answer.
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  According to multiple reports,
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  Saudi Arabia,
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  Pakistan,
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  and Turkey have now activated their new collective defense pact for the first time.
• 0:26
  Agreeing to begin the rapid deployment of military forces
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  and capabilities to Saudi Arabia as Houthi attacks on the kingdom intensify,
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  as we've reported here on the PDB,
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  the Mecca Defense Pact,
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  as it's known,
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  was signed just in August,
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  and its central provision is a fairly straightforward provision.
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  An attack on one member
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  is treated as an attack on all three.
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  Until now though,
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  that was rather theoretical.
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  We didn't really know what that would mean in practice.
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  But after an emergency meeting in Riyadh,
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  officials from the three countries announced that they
• 0:58
  were activating what they called collective deterrence measures
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  and moving immediately toward the practical
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  implementation of their defense commitments.
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  The Houthis have expanded their attacks inside the kingdom
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  as Saudi Arabia backs a major offensive against them in Yemen.
• 1:13
  On Monday evening,
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  Saudi authorities say the Houthis targeted airports in Jazan and Najran,
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  that's near the Yemeni border,
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  injuring 3 people and damaging both facilities.
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  The Houthis have also claimed attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure,
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  military facilities,
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  and other airports as they retaliate
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  for the Saudi-backed campaign now underway inside Yemen.
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  So Riyadh now has a clear argument that this is not simply a war happening next door.
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  Saudi territory itself is under attack,
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  and Pakistan appears to already be playing a role.
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  Pakistani Defense Minister Khwaja Asif says
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  Pakistani personnel are supporting Saudi operations,
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  including with reconnaissance and other assistance.
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  He stressed that Saudi forces are the ones
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  conducting the actual combat operations inside Yemen.
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  But said Pakistan is providing whatever support Riyadh requires.
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  At this point.
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  We don't have evidence that Pakistani troops are crossing into Yemen
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  or that Pakistani aircraft are carrying out strikes against Houthi positions,
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  but Pakistan is no longer simply standing on the sidelines
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  discussing what it might do.
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  Turkey's role is less clear.
• 2:21
  Ankara signed on to the decision to activate the alliance
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  and agreed to the rapid deployment mechanism,
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  but Turkey has not publicly laid out exactly
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  what forces or capabilities it intends to send.
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  There's also a legal issue.
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  Turkey's parliament has not yet ratified the defense pact,
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  and a significant deployment of Turkish troops abroad
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  would require parliamentary approval.
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  The mecca pact is being activated as a defensive alliance because
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  Saudi Arabia is being attacked by Houthi missiles and drones,
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  but at the same time,
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  Saudi Arabia is heavily involved in an offensive war inside Yemen,
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  as we've been reporting.
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  The Saudi-led coalition says roughly 100 fighter
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  jets are supporting Yemeni government forces.
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  Those forces have retaken territory around the Bab al-Mdeb Strait
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  and the port of Mocha,
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  while the broader campaign.
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  It is now openly aimed at eventually retaking Sana'a from the Houthis.
• 3:14
  Saudi forces have also announced strikes
• 3:16
  on missile infrastructure inside Houthi-held territory,
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  including a ballistic missile launch platform in Sana'a
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  and a storage facility in Sa'aa is said to contain around 20 missiles.
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  So there is a potentially important gray area developing here.
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  Pakistan can deploy air defenses to protect Saudi airports,
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  provide reconnaissance to help detect incoming Houthi missiles,
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  and share intelligence to help Riyadh defend its territory.
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  But if that reconnaissance identifies missile
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  launchers sitting across the border in Yemen
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  and Saudi aircraft then strike those launchers,
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  and the line between defending Saudi
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  Arabia and supporting offensive operations inside Yemen
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  starts getting
• 3:55
  somewhat thin.
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  That may become one of the key questions
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  surrounding this alliance in the days ahead.
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  There's also a broader regional significance here because the United States
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  has so far resisted Saudi requests to join the Yemen campaign
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  with a larger direct air operation against the Iranian proxy group.
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  Pakistan brings one of the largest armed forces in the Muslim world,
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  and of course
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  it is a nuclear armed state.
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  Turkey brings NATO's second largest military.
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  A sophisticated drone industry and considerable experience
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  operating beyond its borders.
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  For the first time,
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  those three countries now have an alliance
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  that's being activated in response to an actual war.
• 4:36
  All right.
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  Coming up next,
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  Ukraine continues to take its refinery war deep into Russia,
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  launching a massive drone attack near Moscow
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  as Kiev claims more than half of Russian refining capacity
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  is now offline.
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  I'll be right back.
• 4:53
  Hey,
• 4:53
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  Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 7:32
  As we've reported here on the PDB,
• 7:34
  Ukraine has been consistently hitting the fuel infrastructure
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  that keeps Putin's war running.
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  Now Russian war bloggers say the largest fuel depot in the Moscow region
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  has been hit in one of the biggest drone attacks of the war on Russia's capital.
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  Moscow's mayor says Ukraine sent more than
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  650 drones toward the capital overnight,
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  most of which were reportedly shot down.
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  In the surrounding area,
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  the governor of Moscow region
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  says 185 drones were destroyed or brought down.
• 8:04
  As for the reported fuel depot strike,
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  the details come from a prominent Russian war blogger who says a
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  storage tank was struck at the
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  Volodarskaya oil storage and distribution facility.
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  Now Russian authorities have not officially confirmed that,
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  but a Ukrainian war blog known as Supernova Plus
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  published a video showing a huge blaze at the site.
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  Reuters could not immediately verify that footage.
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  To understand what Ukraine may have hid.
• 8:29
  It helps to know what that depot serves.
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  Voloskaya is a major hub in the distribution network of
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  Russia's state pipeline monopoly Transneft.
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  It stores diesel,
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  gasoline,
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  and jet fuel,
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  connects to Moscow's main oil refinery,
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  and supplies all three of the capital's major airports.
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  Russian bloggers also claim that drones were headed for Moscow's
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  main oil refinery in the southeast of the capital.
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  They say Russian air defenses stopped the drones from reaching it,
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  but at the same time they
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  offered no evidence establishing that the refinery was the intended target.
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  Farther south in Domodedovo,
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  home to Russia's 3rd largest airport,
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  crews are reportedly working to restore electricity to villages hit by drones.
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  So
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  how much damage has the long range drone campaign actually done overall?
• 9:18
  Well,
• 9:18
  that's a very good question.
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  Kiev's own assessment is significant,
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  but again it comes from Kiev.
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  Ukraine's Defense Ministry says its strikes had disabled 51%
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  of Russia's oil refining capacity.
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  Ukraine's defense minister says analysts
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  from the country's intelligence services,
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  General Staff,
• 9:36
  and Defense Ministry
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  assess the damage,
• 9:39
  but that figure has not been independently verified,
• 9:41
  and Russian officials have not released their own figures on
• 9:45
  damage to the country's oil infrastructure.
• 9:47
  Well,
• 9:47
  that's surprising.
• 9:48
  We do,
• 9:49
  however,
• 9:49
  have other indications of the strain on Russia's refining industry,
• 9:53
  and they help explain
• 9:54
  why Kiev keeps coming back to these targets.
• 9:57
  The International Energy Agency,
• 9:59
  known as the IEA because of course it has an acronym,
• 10:01
  says some of Russia's 32 refineries have been hit
• 10:04
  as many as 15 times since the war began.
• 10:08
  In recent months,
• 10:08
  a Russian refinery has been struck roughly once every 3 days.
• 10:12
  For the people trying to keep those facilities operating,
• 10:15
  that of course means a recurring cycle of damage and emergency repairs.
• 10:20
  And you can see the consequences in Russia's
• 10:22
  fuel production and at its gasoline stations.
• 10:25
  The IEA says Russian diesel output has fallen by about 30%.
• 10:30
  Earlier this year,
• 10:31
  the attack sparked a widespread fuel crisis
• 10:34
  that forced authorities to restrict gasoline sales.
• 10:37
  Some drivers reportedly waited as long as 40 hours to fill their tanks.
• 10:42
  To keep fuel supplies flowing,
• 10:44
  Russian refiners are putting off
• 10:45
  routine maintenance and restarting old equipment
• 10:48
  that they had previously taken offline.
• 10:51
  Even Russian President Putin has conceded that
• 10:53
  the attacks are taking an economic toll.
• 10:56
  Speaking on the first of October at the Valdai Forum,
• 10:59
  which is essentially a
• 11:00
  Gathering hosted by a Russian think tank that
• 11:03
  serves as a megaphone for the Kremlin's worldview,
• 11:06
  a mouthpiece,
• 11:07
  Putin told the audience,
• 11:08
  quote,
• 11:08
  They started attacking oil refineries and openly
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  declared the goal of damaging our economy.
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  Did they achieve their goal?
• 11:15
  Partially,
• 11:16
  end quote.
• 11:17
  For Kiev,
• 11:18
  though,
• 11:18
  partially hardly captures their assessment of the damage.
• 11:21
  Allegedly losing 51% of Russia's refining capacity is a punishing blow
• 11:27
  to the infrastructure that is critical to fueling Putin's war.
• 11:31
  And that,
• 11:31
  my friends,
• 11:32
  is the PDB afternoon bulletin
• 11:34
  for Tuesday,
• 11:35
  the 6th of October.
• 11:36
  Now,
• 11:36
  if you have any questions or comments,
• 11:38
  and I hope you do,
• 11:38
  just reach out to me at PDB@hefirsttv.com.
• 11:42
  And to listen to the show ad-free,
• 11:44
  just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief
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  by visiting PDBpremium.com.
• 11:49
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 11:50
  and I'll be back tomorrow.
• 11:51
  Until then,
• 11:53
  stay informed,
• 11:54
  stay safe,
• 11:55
  stay cool.
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