September 23rd, 2026: Britain Joins Saudi Arabia’s Fight With the Houthis & Russia’s $7 Billion Financial Network

It's Wednesday, the 23rd of September. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. And yes, I am back on the road. And also, yes, I am wearing a cardigan. Thank you for noticing. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Saudi Arabia is getting help from Britain as the Houthi fight intensifies, with an RAF tanker heading in to support Saudi aircraft, while Riyadh works to restore a critical oil pipeline damaged in a drone attack. Later in the show, a Kremlin-backed financial network allegedly moved nearly $7 billion through major international banks using forged documents and front companies, exposing another hole in the West's effort to isolate Russia. Plus, U.S. intelligence says Russia is once again targeting an American election, using covert online influence campaigns and AI-generated content to undermine confidence ahead of the midterms. And in today's back of the brief, U.S. officials are warning that Latin American drug cartels are rapidly improving their drone capabilities, giving criminal groups new tools for surveillance, smuggling, and potentially deadly attacks. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. Britain is stepping in to help Saudi Arabia as Riyadh tries to contain the Iranian-backed Houthi offensive and shore up its energy infrastructure. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the U.K. has agreed to deploy a Royal Air Force Voyager tanker from Cyprus to provide air-to-air refueling for Saudi aircraft. The mission is expected to last several weeks. The U.K. government is describing the support as defensive, the tanker will help Saudi aircraft stay airborne longer, of course, as they respond to Houthi missile and drone attacks. Britain is not, at least for now, saying it intends to participate directly in offensive strikes inside Yemen. Still, this is a meaningful step, particularly because the Saudis have been asking allies for help as their own defenses come under increasing strain. As we discussed yesterday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had already been pressing President Trump for greater American military involvement as the Houthi offensive accelerated. Trump ultimately declined to launch U.S. strikes, despite the Pentagon reportedly preparing options that came very close to being carried out. Washington has continued providing intelligence and targeting assistance, but Britain has now gone further by putting an RAF aircraft directly into the Saudi defensive effort. And this is not the first British military support sent to the kingdom during the current conflict. London had already deployed its Sky Sabre air defense system to Saudi Arabia earlier this year. The addition of an RAF tanker gives the Saudis something different, greater endurance for their own combat aircraft at a time when they're trying to defend Saudi airspace and support operations tied to the fighting in Yemen. Riyadh clearly believes it needs the help. Saudi-backed forces have struggled to halt the Houthi advance along Yemen's western coast, while missile and drone attacks, have continued to put pressure on Saudi defenses. The British deployment gives Riyadh more flexibility in the air, but it also raises an obvious question about where this goes if the Iranian proxy offensive continues to gain ground. Right now, Britain can describe this as a limited defensive mission. But once you begin providing operational support to aircraft involved in an active regional conflict, well, there's always the possibility that the mission expands. It doesn't mean that the UK is about to start bombing Yemen, but London is now more directly connected to how this fight develops. At the same time, Saudi Arabia got some better news today on another front. The kingdom has restarted its east-west pipeline, which runs from Saudi Arabia's eastern oil-producing regions to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Before it was knocked offline, the pipeline had been carrying roughly 4 million barrels of crude per day, with total capacity closer to 7 million. The pipeline was hit in a September 11 drone attack that Saudi Arabia blamed on Iran-aligned militias operating from Iraq. Three pumping stations were damaged. Now, nearly two weeks later, Reuters reports that oil is moving through the line again, but it's reportedly not back to full capacity, and complete repairs could still take another six to eight weeks. Saudi Aramco is preparing to resume exports through Yanbu. The restart gives Riyadh some much needed capacity at a moment when moving oil through the region has become considerably more complicated. The east-west pipeline has always been part of Saudi Arabia's insurance policy. It gives the kingdom another way to move large volumes of crude when shipping routes in the Gulf become unreliable. Getting the line running again gives the Saudis and global energy markets some breathing room, but the pipeline attack also exposed another vulnerability. The alternative route only works if the infrastructure feeding it remains intact, and three damaged pumping stations were enough to take a major export artery offline for nearly two weeks. There's also the broader economic pressure to consider. Every disruption to Saudi export capacity adds another layer of uncertainty to global energy markets already dealing with the war against Iran and the collapse in normal commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. News that the pipeline had restarted helped ease some of that pressure today, but Riyadh is still operating with less capacity and less redundancy than it would like. However, neither development, the additional UK support, nor the reopening of the pipeline settles the underlying problem. Saudi-backed forces still have to find a way to stop or reverse the Iranian-backed Houthi advance. All right, coming up next, Russia allegedly moved nearly $7 billion through global banks using forged documents and front companies. And US intelligence, says Moscow, is targeting the midterms with covert online influence campaigns and AI-generated content. Now, to be fair, interfering in elections has been a Russian signature move since the Bolshevik revolution, which if my memory serves me correct, goes back to 1917. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here with an important health tip. Look, now that summer is over, I'm sorry about that bad news. Daily schedules are getting crazier, right? With earlier alarms, school activities, busier days, you know what I'm talking about. And when life gets more chaotic, the problem is, well, it's easy to start compromising on your good health routine. For me, I do not want to compromise on my health routine. I'm talking regular exercise, good nutrition, and AG1. Every morning, before the day gets away from me, I mix one scoop of AG1 with eight ounces of cold water. It is that simple. It's a daily foundational health drink packed with a multivitamin, pre and probiotics, superfoods, and antioxidants. With over 75 high-quality ingredients, AG1's NextGen formula is clinically shown to support gut health, maintain energy, support immune health, and fill key nutrient gaps. For me, starting my morning with AG1 gives me the high-quality nutritional support that I know I need. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 NextGen or AG1 Pro at www.drinkag1.com/pdb. Again, that's www.drinkag1.com/pdb. Welcome back to the PDB. A new report is exposing a Kremlin-backed financial network that allegedly used an industrial-scale forgery scheme to funnel at least $6.9 billion through international banks, preserving the financial lifelines Western sanctions were designed to remove. That network is called A7. It was established in Russia and Kyrgyzstan by a Moldovan oligarch with support from a state-owned Russian bank closely tied to the country's defense industry. In simple terms, A7 acts like an international payment processor combined with a foreign exchange middleman. Think about how an American importer, for example, might use a bank or payment company to convert dollars and pay a supplier overseas. A7 offered Russian businesses the same basic service. The difference is that A7 was built after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when Western sanctions cut major Russian banks off from SWIFT. That's the secure messaging network that banks use to coordinate international payments. Without that access, Russian companies found it much harder to pay foreign suppliers directly. Moscow promoted A7 as an alternative to the Western financial system. The Moldovan oligarch boasted to Russia's state-run TASS news agency that its system was "immune to sanctions." But hundreds of thousands of internal files, obtained by the Financial Times , show that A7 did not replace the international banking system. It allegedly used forged documents and foreign front companies to sneak Russian payments back into it. The FT has not disclosed how it obtained the files, and some of the payments involved ordinary civilian trade. Others were tied to highly sensitive purchases. including military equipment and goods bought Russian security services. A7 allegedly maintained thousands of corporate stamps, changed customs codes, and altered buyers, sellers, and delivery information. Employees even removed Cyrillic characters to erase what they called the, quote, Russian trace. From there, a front company could then deposit money at a bank connected to SWIFT and present forged documents portraying the transaction as legitimate commerce. If the bank accepted the paperwork, A7 could then settle a Russian client's foreign bill. The FT identified 100 front companies and references to at least another 100. At least three were based in the United Kingdom, which sanctioned A7 back in May of 2025, while another in Hungary apparently served as a conduit into the European Union. The largest single-payer was a now-closed Kyrgyzstan state body. Interestingly, just over half of the flows ultimately ended in Chinese bank accounts. Standard Chartered accounts in Hong Kong received roughly $1.1 billion from A7-linked entities. 17 entities at First Abu Dhabi Bank moved another $1.8 billion. The records also connected A7 to accounts at DBS, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan Chase. Now, the FT is not reporting that these banks knowingly helped Russia evade sanctions. The records show banks questioning transactions and closing accounts. A7 allegedly built its forgery operation to defeat those controls. When Standard Chartered placed holds on suspicious payments and closed A7-linked accounts in early 2025, the money flowing there dried up. A7 responded by shifting more of its business from Kyrgyzstan to the United Arab Emirates. The $6.9 billion may still represent only part of the operation. The files reference another 17,500 payments of unknown value, promissory notes worth more than $20 billion, and accounts involving billions of dollars in tether. A7 claims it handles nearly one-fifth of Russia's foreign exchange transactions. So, A7 facilitated payments for military equipment and Russian security services while keeping international payment channels open for Moscow's sanctions-hit economy. For the U.S. and its allies, there are numerous lessons here. A7's reliance on hundreds of front companies and a forgery factory in the United Arab Emirates, the U.S.-China border, and the U.S.-China border's forgery factory shows what Russia had to build after losing direct access to parts of the global financial system. Closing one suspicious account simply sent A7 to another bank, another country, and another set of forged documents. Keeping the focus on Russia, U.S. intelligence says the Kremlin is once again trying to interfere in an American election cycle, using online influence campaigns aimed at sowing distrust and division ahead of November's midterm. According to reporting from the New York Times, classified intelligence assessments from recent months have determined that Moscow has authorized another digital influence operation targeting Americans across social media. Now, an important distinction here: U.S. officials say they have not seen evidence that Russia is trying to hack voting machines or manipulate the actual vote count. Instead, the focus appears to be on the information environment—what people are seeing online, what they believe, and whether they're going to vote or not. A7 claims that the U.S. and its allies have a lot in common, but that doesn't necessarily mean they trust the election itself. Ultimately, the objective is to create distrust in the electoral process, to attack the system's credibility. And in that respect, well, the playbook is pretty familiar. Since 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia has conducted influence operations during every federal election cycle. This latest campaign appears less extensive and less coordinated than some of the earlier efforts—that's according to officials—but they say the basic objective is still to amplify existing political divisions and create confusion. And as usual, the efforts adapt as the technology changes. Researchers tracking Russian disinformation have recently identified a network known as Operation Overload, pushing fabricated videos and posts across platforms including X and Blue Sky. Now, a threat analysis firm called Grafika, which has studied the operation, says that the network regularly impersonates legitimate news organizations, which, according to a source, is not a good thing for the U.S. government. The U.S. government has said that the U.S. government is not in a position to control Russian disinformation. The U.S. government regularly impersonates legitimate news organizations, journalists, researchers, and public institutions, while using artificial intelligence to generate and amplify false content. Over the past week, that network has reportedly pushed a series of videos targeting Democratic Senate candidates in competitive races. Some of the posts were designed to look like legitimate reports from CNN, the BBC, and the New York Times. One fake video used an image of actress Jamie Lee Curtis and made it look like a fake, but it was not a fake. A fake video used an image of actress Jamie Lee Curtis and made it look like a fake, but it was not a fake. A fake video used an image of actress Jamie Lee Curtis and made it appear that she was criticizing Democrats over transgender issues. Her publicist told the Times there was no truth to it. The video still managed to rack up nearly 200,000 views before the end of the day. And that gives you an idea of what these operations are trying to do. They don't necessarily need to create some sophisticated piece of propaganda. They need content that just looks convincing enough, travels quickly enough, and reaches enough people before someone figures out that it's a fake. fake. Once someone clicks or likes a fake post and sends it along to friends or family, well, the damage is done. And artificial intelligence makes that considerably easier. Russians can now generate fake video, fake audio, fake news graphics, and localized political content much faster and more cheaply than it could during the 2016 election. Some intelligence assessments conclude that the main goal is to inject chaos into the election environment. Yeah, that's a good assessment. That said, the specific examples that researchers have identified recently have targeted Democratic candidates in swing states, including Senator John Ossoff in Georgia and several Democratic Senate challengers elsewhere around the country. Russia is also not the only foreign government U.S. intelligence is watching. Officials say Iran may conduct influence operations around the midterms as well, though they've seen relatively little activity directly traced to the regime so far. Identified a small network of Iranian accounts last month focused on American politics, some of which used AI-generated content. China is, of course, another concern. U.S. intelligence assesses that Beijing could try to influence individual congressional races or target lawmakers it considers hostile to Chinese interests. But officials say China generally operates more cautiously than Russia or Iran because Beijing is more concerned about being caught and triggering political blitz. Russia, on the other hand, has shown repeatedly considerably less concern about attribution. All right, coming up in the back of the brief, drug cartels are reportedly getting much better at drone warfare. That's according to a new U.S. assessment, raising concerns that battlefield tactics are making their way into the hands of criminal networks. More on that when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here with a pro tip for feeling your best. Let me ask you, a question. Have you ever finished breakfast or lunch or dinner, but then you find yourself reaching for a snack maybe an hour later? That's right. Cravings can take over, even when you're trying to eat healthy. That's exactly why Pendulum Metabolic Daily was designed. Now, you've probably seen all the news about GLP-1s. Well, here's the thing. Pendulum Metabolic Daily is a science-backed probiotic designed to support your body's natural GLP-1 response. It helps you feel fuller longer, experience fewer cravings, and makes it easier to stay on track with your health goals. The secret is acromantia. It's a unique gut bacterium that helps signal the body to produce natural GLP-1. Just one capsule a day with food. That's it. It's that simple. Some customers report noticing fewer cravings and more energy in as little as a week, though individual results, of course, can vary. Right now, podcast listeners of the BDB can save up to 48%. Get that 48% off their first order at PendulumLife.com slash BDB. That's PendulumLife.com slash BDB to save up to 48% off your first order. Once again, PendulumLife.com slash BDB and get almost half off today. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, we've all heard those radio ads about the IRS, right? You know the ones I'm talking about. They tell you to be afraid, be very afraid, and they try to frighten you into calling. Well, Tax Relief Advocates is different. TRA. If you owe money to the IRS, whether it's $5,000 or $50,000 or $50,000 or $50,000, you owe money to the IRS. $500,000, TRA has a solution to your tax problem. Don't lose hope. TRA could reduce or even eliminate what you owe to the IRS. Their passion is taxes and helping individuals and businesses fix their IRS problems. They've got over 1,000 five-star Google reviews and an A-plus with the Better Business Bureau. 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. Or call the number 800-583-6515. Once again, that number 800-583-6515. Tax Relief Advocates. Real solutions for real people. In today's Back of the Brief, we've been tracking the drug cartels' increasing use of drones, and a new assessment warns that their capabilities are advancing faster than authorities may be able to keep up. Now, the reality is cartels have been using drones for years. They use them to watch security forces, scout smuggling routes, and in some cases, some cases, carry explosives. But officials in the U.S. and south of the border worry about how much more the drones can do and how quickly the people flying them are learning to evade authorities. According to an internal government assessment attained by the Washington Post, cartels are studying tactics from the war in Ukraine, including how to switch radio frequencies when someone tries to jam a drone. They're also looking for aircraft that can stay in the air longer and carry heavier loads. So you can imagine how that adds complexity to the counter-narcotics effort. A Mexican intelligence document reviewed by the Post says at least one cartel already has drones with six to eight propellers that can fly for hours and carry more than 150 pounds. A Mexican intelligence official also told the Post that a cartel sent people to China to buy drones that can be fitted with rifles. The official believes the group is still learning how to operate them. But more capable advanced drones are only part of the threat. Cartels are also trying to recruit skilled drone operators. A senior State Department official told the Post that Colombian fighters have served in both Kyiv and Moscow and have since returned home with drone knowledge that benefits drug trafficking groups. According to a Mexican official, cartels have offered returning Colombian specialists large sums of money and brought some to Mexico to train groups of pilots known as droneros. One U.S. official, a former U.S. intelligence officer, said that the U.S. intelligence officer had worked with the U.S. intelligence officer for a number of years. The U.S. intelligence officer, a former U.S. The U.S. The U.S. The U.S. fields on year-long contracts. The official expects them to return, quote, way better trained with way better equipment, end quote. Ukraine disputes the suggestion that this is happening on a large scale. Its defense ministry says foreign recruits undergo background checks, and a Ukrainian official said there's little evidence that many joined specifically to bring military skills back to criminal groups or cartels. Retired General Glenn Van Herk, who formerly led U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, warns that cartels could use battlefield tactics to counter government surveillance drones, quote, potentially even attacking them. And you can already see how quickly armed groups in Colombia are adopting that tactic. Armed conflict location and event data figures that are cited by The Post show incidents involving weaponized drones in Colombia jumped from 38 in 2024 to 149 in 2025 and have already surpassed 100 so far this year. As I've covered here on the PDB, the U.S. has deployed high-energy lasers along the southern border to counter cartel drones. Military officials say those systems brought down 11 cartel-linked drones between late August and early September of this year. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Wednesday, the 23rd of September. Now, if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, just reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And finally, if you'd like an ad-free PDB experience, well, you can do that. It's very simple. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Thank you.