PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 25th, 2026: France Deploys Ground Troops To Saudi Arabia & China’s Nuclear Program Draws Scrutiny

It's Friday, the 25th of September. Congratulations, we've made it to the end of another work week. Well done everyone. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker from your eyes and ears on the world stage. Alright, let's get briefed. Next up, the conflict between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudis is widening. As France sends troops and defensive systems to the Kingdom, and Rheod turns to Turkey and Pakistan for additional military support. I'll have the details. Later in the show, the Trump administration is reportedly quietly pressing China over suspected secret nuclear tests as Beijing rapidly expands its nuclear arsenal. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Another European nation is stepping in to help defend Saudi Arabia as the Iranian-supported Houthi campaign against the Saudi Kingdom continues. France says it's sending troops, radar systems, and air defense capabilities to protect the Anbu, the critical Saudi oil hub on the Red Sea. President Emmanuel Macron announced the deployment on Thursday, describing it as a defensive mission aimed at protecting Saudi infrastructure and helping stabilize global energy supplies. Paris has not said how many French troops will be involved, exactly what air defense systems will be sent, or when they will arrive. But the significance is clear. French military personnel will now be on the ground, potentially positioned underneath incoming Houthi missiles and drones. As we've discussed here on the PDB, with traffic through the state of Hormuz severely disrupted by the war with Iran, Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on its east-west pipeline to move crude across the Kingdom to terminals on the Red Sea. Yanbu sits at the western end of that route. So if the Houthis can threaten Yanbu, they can threaten one of Saudi Arabia's most important alternatives to the state of Hormuz. Saudi officials said Thursday that their forces intercepted six Houthi ballistic missiles and targets including Yanbu and Taif. The Houthis claimed an even larger barrage involving missiles and drones and also said they targeted Saudi-oramco facilities at Yanbu. That particular claim has not been independently confirmed. France is presenting its deployment as defensive and there's no indication at this point that French forces are preparing to conduct strikes inside Yemen. But as we've been reporting, Paris is not acting alone. The UK has already agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with aerial refueling support, deploying a Royal Air Force Voyager tanker from Cyprus to help keep Saudi aircraft airborne longer. So now you have the UK helping sustain Saudi air operations, France preparing to put troops and defensive systems on the ground, and today we learned that Riyadh is calling in two more partners. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are preparing an urgent meeting of their military chiefs to discuss what support Riyadh may receive under the three countries' new defense agreement. Their foreign ministers met this week in New York during the UN General Assembly, and Turkish officials say the country's chief of general staff is traveling to Saudi Arabia to meet with his Saudi and Pakistani counterparts. The purpose of the meeting, according to officials, is to discuss ways to support the kingdom. The trilateral agreement signed by a Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, says that an attack against one member will be treated as an attack against all three. Now when the deal was signed, it all sounded fairly theoretical, but that's now changed. Saudi Arabia is facing repeated missile and drone attacks, and its military partners are being asked to decide what their commitment actually means in practice. Turkey's parliament is not yet completed ratification of the agreement, and no Turkish or Pakistani combat deployment has been announced. Officials have also suggested that any immediate support could come through bilateral arrangements, rather than the formal activation of the trilateral pact. So this could still result in relatively limited assistance, technical teams and intelligence sharing, interceptors, air defense systems, or logistical support. But step back and look at the direction in which this is all moving. Britain is providing refueling support, France is sending troops and air defenses. Turkey and Pakistan are now holding urgent military consultations. All of it is happening, as Houthi attacks on Saudi territory become more frequent, and Riyadh looks for outside help to protect its cities and energy infrastructure. And there's another layer to all of this. Iranian President Mesut Pazashkiy has been publicly distancing Tehran from the Houthi offensive. We have nothing to do with that, arguing that the group makes its own decisions. And because he probably lacks a sense of humor, or irony, or self-awareness, he said that with a straight face. Not even a quick snicker after claiming that the Houthis are independent. Of course, Tehran would have every reason, of course, to downplay its role in attacks that are now threatening to pull additional countries into the conflict. At the same time, regional and Iranian sources have told Reuters that the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, has provided guidance to Houthi forces during their recent operations. Not to mention, but I think I'm about to. The regime's efforts over the years to build the Houthis into an effective Iranian proxy force. Weapons, munitions, money, training, strategic guidance, credible reporting, as repeatedly noted, that IRGC commanders are on the ground in Yemen working with the Houthis, but of course, Pizzashkin says, "Mhah, it's no connection to us." But it does raise an interesting question. Who inside the Iranian regime actually has the authority or the responsibility for controlling the Houthis? It's not clear. Just as it's not clear, who actually is in charge in Iran. Regardless, the reality is, if the Iranian regime wanted the Houthis to stop their attacks on the Saudis and their current ground-offensive against Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, well, they could make that happen. But right now, the regime is using the Houthis in a broader strategy to exert further pressure on the U.S. and attempt to gain maximum leverage in any negotiations. Alright, coming up next, China's nuclear build-up is drawing new scrutiny, and as the Trump administration raises allegations of secret testing, and reportedly pushes Beijing for answers. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. 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Once again, that number, 800, 5836515 tax relief advocates, real solutions for real people. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. The job administration is talking with China about nuclear weapons. And one of the biggest issues on the table is Washington's suspicion that Beijing may have secretly conducted nuclear tests, despite a decades old international testing moratorium. According to the Wall Street Journal, American and Chinese officials have been holding confidential discussions on the sidelines of meetings in Geneva, New York, and Casablanca. More tops are expected next month. Now, these are not formal arms control negotiations. Nobody's talking about a new treaty, limiting the size of a nuclear arsenal, at least not yet. The discussions appear to be much narrower, focusing on nuclear risk reduction, missile test notifications, transparency, and possible new ways to verify whether countries are secretly conducting very low yield nuclear tests. And that last point is where all this gets very interesting. The job administration has accused China of conducting what it describes as "extremely small nuclear explosions," including one allegedly carried out at China's Thank you very much. were testing complex in June of 2020. China strongly denies that accusation. The US says Beijing crossed the line and produced an actual nuclear explosive yield, but outside experts have not been able to independently prove that. International monitoring systems did detect very small seismic activity in that region at the time, but those signals were weak enough that analysts have not been able to say with confidence would cause them. So right now you have Washington saying China conducted a secret nuclear test, Beijing saying that it did not, an independent monitoring that can't conclusively settle the argument. Very low yield tests can be extremely difficult to detect, particularly if they're conducted underground and deliberately designed to minimize their signature. And if China is conducting those tests, they could potentially allow Chinese weapons designers to validate new nuclear technologies and warhead designs without carrying out the kind of large explosion that would be, of course, immediately obvious around the world. That's why the administration is now discussing means of better verification. The journal reports that some of the ideas on a consideration include placing more seismic equipment near nuclear test sites or installing radiation detection systems that could help distinguish a tiny nuclear explosion from an earthquake, mining activity, or some other event. The goal would be to make it much harder, of course, for any nuclear power to conduct a small test without being detected. And this dispute is unfolding against a much bigger change in China's nuclear posture. According to the Pentagon, China now possesses more than 600 nuclear warheads and could exceed 1000 by the year 2030. That would still leave Beijing with a smaller arsenal than either the US or Russia, but their direction is pretty clear. China is rapidly expanding a nuclear force that, for decades, remained comparatively limited. And that creates a very different strategic problem for Washington. For much of the Cold War, American nuclear planning was overwhelmingly focused on the Soviet Union. Now, the US increasingly has to think about two major nuclear arrivals at the same time. And neither one is operating under the kind of comprehensive arms control structure that wants to find the US-Soviet nuclear relationship. The US is also pushing China for more warning before ballistic missile tests. In July, Beijing reportedly gave Washington only about two hours notice before conducting a ballistic missile launch from a summary. The US and dozens of other countries have since urged governments to provide at least 24 hours of advanced notice before major missile launches. China has so far refused to sign on to that proposal. And that might sound procedural, but it is the sort of thing that matters when multiple nuclear powers are watching one another closely. A missile launch that one country considers a "bruteing test" can look very different to another country's early warning system. The more notice everyone has, well, the less chance there is that a "test" gets mistaken for the opening stages of an attack. And there's also a larger debate underway in Washington about what happens if China really is conducting secret nuclear tests. President Trump has previously warned that the US could eventually resume its own nuclear testing on what he called an "equal basis" with China and Russia if those countries are violating the testing moratorium. The US has not conducted a nuclear explosive test since 1992. Some lawmakers argue that if Beijing and Moscow are secretly conducting low yield tests, Washington should not continue imposing restrictions on itself. Others argue that restarting American testing could open the door to a much broader nuclear testing race and ultimately help China and Russia improve their arsenals even faster. And that, my friends, on that cherry note, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday the 25th of September. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And just a quick check of the calendar shows that yes and deed it is in fact Friday, and of course every Friday at 10 p.m. on the first TV, we launch a brand new episode of our extended weekend show, the PDB situation report. You can also catch it on our YouTube channel, just go on over to YouTube and search up at President's Daily Brief, and then, of course, you can find it on podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB situation report. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Now, the President's Daily Brief is brought to you by Mod. Mod prescribes at once or twice daily Mod. That can keep you energized, focused, and alert. Look, here's the deal. Caffeine energy drinks block what's known as adenosine, right? It's the chemical that makes you feel tired. It builds up and when caffeine wears off, well, there you get to crash. Mod. It works differently. It engages pathways in your brain, dopamine, no rep indifference, histamine, no rexin, to achieve energy and alertness for 10 to 12 hours. Mod. Mod.mod.com was invented in the '70s, and since that has been used by soldiers, pilots, astronauts, anyone, in a high-stake situation who needs concentration and alertness, visit mod.com that's m-o-d mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order, plus free shipping with promo code PDB that's promo code PDB at mod.com. 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