A vacation rental should come with support, not surprises. That's why Verbo comes with a Verbo care guarantee and 24/7 live support from real people. So if something goes sideways, Verbo care can help. If the host cancels, Verbo care. If the listing says heated pool but there's actually no pool to heat. Definitely a Verbo care thing. If my teenager starts calling me Leslie instead of mom. That's a family thing Leslie. That makes sense. Sorry. Book with support, not surprises. Verbo care and 24/7 live support. If you know, you're Verbo. Terms apply. See Verbo.com/trust for details. It's Wednesday, the 28th of October. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Alright, let's get briefed. First up, the United Nations is sounding the alarm over Iran's nuclear program. Warning that inspectors still can't account for a significant amount of highly enriched uranium. Where did that uranium go? They say the amount that's missing could produce up to 10 nuclear weapons. I'll have the details. Later in the show, Salvadoran President Naive Bukhale follows through on his threat of military action, reportedly sending 8,000 troops into Haiti to search for four missing servicemen. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. After two American Israeli military campaigns against Iran, one of the biggest questions surrounding the regime's nuclear program remains unanswered. What happened to hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium that Iran possessed before the bombing began? Now, it's a stockpile, potentially large enough to produce material for roughly 10 nuclear weapons. An international inspector still can't verify where it is, how much survive the attacks, or whether any of it has been moved. That warning came Tuesday from Rafael Grossi, his director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and you say does that have an acronym, and I say, of course it does, IAEA, during a briefing before the United Nations Security Council. According to Grossi, Iran has failed to provide the information or access that's necessary to account for its previously declared nuclear material, including approximately 440 kilograms of a uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. Now, uranium used in civilian nuclear power plants is typically enriched to around 3 to 5 percent. Weapons-grade uranium, meanwhile, is generally enriched to about 90 percent. Iran had reached 60 percent, far beyond what's normally needed for civilian nuclear energy or research, and much closer to weapons-grade material. According to the IAEA, if Iran's estimated 440 kilograms stockpile remained intact, and under one additional enrichment, it could theoretically yield enough weapons-grade uranium for approximately 10 nuclear bombs. Now, that doesn't mean that Iran has 10 nuclear weapons, producing the material is only one step toward building a functioning bomb, but the quantity involved explains why international inspectors are so concerned. And here's the problem- nobody outside Iran can independently verify how much of that material still exists. The IAEA's last estimate dates to June of 2025, just before Israel launched its initial campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities. American forces subsequently joined those strikes targeting critical components of Iran's nuclear infrastructure, including facilities at Fordo, Notans, and Isfahan. The bombing caused extensive damage, of course, enrichment buildings were destroyed, underground facilities were struck, and Iran's ability to produce additional enriched uranium was severely disrupted. And then, of course, in February of this year, the U.S. and Israel launched another military campaign against Iran. Once again, targeting elements of its nuclear infrastructure. But destroying nuclear facilities is not the same thing as destroying the nuclear material stored inside them, and that distinction lies at the heart of the IAEA's warning. The agency believes some of Iran's highly enriched uranium survived the attacks. In March, grossy said inspectors believe more than 200 kilograms could still be inside underground tunnels at Isfahan, with additional material potentially remaining at Notans. Those estimates, however, have not been verified through inspections. The uranium could still be buried inside damaged facilities. Some may have been destroyed during the bombing, other material could potentially have been moved elsewhere. Without access to the sites, of course, inspectors can't establish what happened. And Iran, as you might guess, has refused to provide that access. In the grossy, the IAEA was forced to withdraw its inspectors during the June 2025 conflict for security reasons. They've been available to return for months, but Tehran has continued blocking access to its most sensitive nuclear facilities. There is one notable exception, the Boucher Nuclear Power Plant, where inspectors have been permitted to conduct limited verification activities. And they've been granted limited access to that facility because, well, it isn't critical to Iran's nuclear weapons development program. The Unresolved Questions Center on Facilities, such as Fort O and Notans in Isfahan, where Iran conducted enrichment operations or maintained sensitive nuclear infrastructure. And the standoff has now produced a major diplomatic escalation. In September, the IAEA is board of governors, formally reported Iran, to the U.N. Security Council for failing to meet its nuclear safeguards obligations. Well, that should do it. You know how the Islamic Republic's leadership hates to disappoint the U.N. Security Council. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, because we are talking about the IAEA and the U.N., it was the first such referral in 20 years. The resolution passed with 23 countries supporting it, while can you guess who vetoed it? Well, that would be Russia and China and Niger. They voted against it. Iran rejects the accusations, insisting its nuclear program has always been peaceful. Iranian officials argue that American and Israeli attacks created the dangerous conditions, preventing inspections, and say renewed verification must be part of a broader diplomatic agreement, but here's the thing. Iran has never provided full transparency or full access to their nuclear program. The old trust but verify Axiom only applies if you can actually verify, and the Iranian regime has always kept certain sensitive sites off of the Axis list. At Tuesday's Security Council meeting, Iran's representative also accused Western governments of using the nuclear issue to justify continued pressure on Iran. But grossy maintains that Iran's safeguards obligations remain in force regardless of the military conflict, and this then creates a dilemma for Washington. The American and Israeli strikes inflicted substantial damage on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, but international inspectors still can't establish just how much highly enriched uranium survived, where it's being stored or whether Tecran could eventually use it to restart parts of its nuclear program. There is also an important distinction here. The IAEA has not established that Iran is currently enriching uranium to weapons grade levels, or that Tecran has an active coordinated nuclear weapons program at the moment. What it is saying is that inspectors can no longer independently verify the status of material that could become central to such an effort. All right, next up, El Salvador reportedly sends 8,000 troops into Haiti, backed by American military transport planes. This President Naib Bugele escalates the search for four missing El Salvadoran servicemen. I'll have more on that when we come back. Okay, Mike Baker here with an important message for all you pet owners out there. Now, here's the thing. There's a specific kind of panic that hits when you call your pet's name and they don't come back, right? A gate left open, a leash, slip, a door held open a second too long. If you've been through it, you know, the feeling that it comes with realizing that your pet is lost. But with FI, that's FI, FI. That panic fades fast. 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Here's the thing, you do not need to be afraid of the IRS any longer. Generous tax relief programs are now available that can give you a fresh start. So don't wait. Simply visit tra.com, that's tra.com, where call the number 800-583-6515, once again that's 800-583-6515, tax relief advocates, real solutions for real people. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. The search for four missing Salvadoran servicemen is becoming a major military operation inside Haiti. Around a thousand soldiers have reportedly been deployed, as Al Salvador's president Naib Bukele puts troops behind his warning to the island's gangs. The news on the latest development comes from a security official in Haiti who told Reuters the troops arrived over recent days, and the US has been helping with that deployment. A US military official said Southern Command provided C-130 transport aircraft to help move the Salvadoran troops into Haiti. You'll remember Bukele's warning last week. He said he believed criminal groups were holding four Salvadoran servicemen hostage. Unless those men were returned alive and unharmed, he warned a larger military response would follow. Their disappearance goes back to the 18th of October, when armed attackers ambushed their vehicle outside the capital of Haiti, port a prince. The men escaped the burning vehicle during the attack, but disappeared in the chaos that followed. Bukele said they were air force technicians returning to base from a market. They'd been sent to help evacuate wounded personnel, not to fight Haiti's gangs. Since then, the search has been complicated by uncertainty over human remains that were recovered in Haiti. So here's what we know at this point. On Saturday, Bukele rejected reports suggesting that those remains belong to the missing Salvadorans, his response quote, "They are not our men." The International Gang Suppression Force addressed the discovery on Sunday. It confirmed receiving remains to remain humanitarian organization, but said it could not establish whether they belonged to the missing personnel. And then on Monday, the Washington Post reported that some remains apparently did not match the Salvadorans, with a DNA testing underway outside of Haiti. No Haitian gang leader has claimed responsibility for the attack. Wilson Joseph, a leader of one of the armed gangs operating around Haiti's capital, has released videos denying that his group is holding the Salvadorans and rejecting responsibility for what happened to them. Before the ambush, El Salvador had at least 124 personnel serving with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, that's according toward UN report. To put that in perspective, the entire international force has recently been operating with roughly 2,000 personnel, well short of its authorized 5500. The reported and Salvadoran reinforcements increased that headcount by half. Initial reporting doesn't establish how the arriving troops will coordinate with the International Force already on the ground. And the Dominican Republic is also now offering support. President Luis Abanada of the Dominican Republic, which shares a land border with Haiti, said this week that his government was prepared to provide logistical assistance to the arriving Salvadoran troops. The reinforcements are entering a country, of course, where gangs control much of the capital and surrounding regions. The violence has already displaced nearly one and a half million people. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, the 28th of October. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at
[email protected]. To listen to the show Add Free, it's very simple to do, just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDBpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here with an important message about both fashion and health. Look, here's the question, have you thought about how much plastic surrounds us every day? Now studies show that microplastics are everywhere, in our blood, heart, lungs, brain. Now you can try to cut plastics out of your daily routine and life in general, but there's one place that most people forget to check, and that would be close. That's why I want to tell you about Underdog's hemp-blank teas. Underdog, that's UNDRDOG, engineered their own patent-bending Duraflow fabric, and its 51% hemp, 31% bamboo, and 18% organic cotton. It's got zero polyester, zero forever chemicals, and it's lab-tested clean from BPAs. The material is natural, it's breathable, it's durable, and it tailed specifically for guys to look great and fit comfortably. Seriously, the tea shirts are fantastic, I get a bunch of them, and they are great. My Hacking Expert Dave Asprey calls it his go-to gear for keeping microplastics off his skin. Over 500,000 men have made this switch. Every shirt includes a lifetime warranty, come on, and they even put a real gold bar in one out of every 100 orders. For our limited time only, our listeners at the PDB are getting up to 30% off at underdog.com, once again that's UNDRDOG underdog.com for up to 30% off. After you purchase, we'll ask where you heard about them. If you don't mind, do me a favor, tell them the PDB sent you.
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