The President's Daily Brief - August 24th, 2026 - Iran’s Regime Is Starting to Crack From Within & Piracy Rises In the Gulf of Aden

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: A public split erupts inside Iran’s government as senior politicians call for an end to the war while security hardliners threaten to escalate the conflict. Somali pirates seize a suspected Iranian shadow-fleet tanker in the region’s second hijacking in four days, marking the largest surge in piracy there in more than a decade. Russia allegedly uses a notorious “double-tap” attack against a Ukrainian shopping center, killing civilians before striking again as rescuers arrive. In today’s Back of the Brief, Iranian hackers may be opening another front against the West after reportedly shutting down a British power plant for four days. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting ⁠https://PDBPremium.com⁠. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Ethos: Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at: ⁠https://ethos.com/PDB⁠  Wild Alaskan Company: Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to: ⁠https://www.wildalaskan.com/PDB⁠ Lean: Get 20% off plus free rush shipping when you go to ⁠https://TAKELEAN.com⁠ and use code PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Megan Kelly. Every day on the Megan Kelly show, we bring you the news, and this summer we're bringing you something extra. Before I was a journalist, I was a lawyer. I've spent 20 plus years now covering crime and the law. So I built a true crime series that I always wanted to listen to. We're calling it M.K. Confidential. And there we cover cases that you've heard about, like John Bonae Ramsey, Chandra Levy, the D.C. Snipers, Scott Peterson, and some that you haven't. One case per week, five episodes, Monday through Friday. New episodes every weeknight. Search for The Megan Kelly Show, wherever you listen to podcasts, and you will find MK Confidential.

It's Monday, the 24th of August. Ah, where has the summer gone? It's going to be winter before you know it. We'll all be singing, baby, it's cold outside. Welcome to the president's daily brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, and let's get briefed. First up, an apparent argument surface

inside Iran's government over whether the Iranian regime should negotiate an end to the war or pursue confrontation. I'll have the details. Later in the show, piracy appears to be making a comeback. Somali pirates sees a suspected Iranian shadow fleet tanker in the region's second hijacking in just four days. Plus, Russia targets Ukrainian civilians, and then they target the rescuers sent to save them. And in today's back of the brief, Iranian hackers may be opening another front against the West by targeting the UK's energy infrastructure. But first, today's PDB spotlight. After nearly six months of war, Iran's leadership is reportedly beginning to fracture over one

increasingly urgent question, should the regime keep fighting or negotiate a way out in order to start rebuilding an economy and crisis. Iranian President Massoud Peshchkin said Friday that the war must eventually end and that Iran should declare victory and negotiate while it can still claim to be acting from a position of strength. Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohamed Bakar Ghalibov, delivered a similar warning. He argued that military power cannot provide security if Iran's economy is collapsing and its people can no longer afford their daily needs. Now, that's an unusually candid message from two of the most senior officials inside the Islamic Republic. And it's also a direct challenge to the

hardliners who want Iran to maintain its demands, prepare for another round of fighting, and resist any agreement that could be portrayed as surrendering to President Trump. Now, Pasechian and Ghalibov remained part of the regime, but just how much authority or say they have within the leadership, well, that remains in question. It is possible that the political figures within the leadership, not to mention the clerics, have been sidelined as more IRGC hardliners assume responsibility for the military and security apparatus. and the new supreme leader, Mostab al-Khamini, well, he remains a mystery. It's not clear if he's alive and calling the shots or incapacitated and sidelined,

serving as essentially a rubber stamp for IRGC decision-making, or if he's in fact dead. But when senior officials begin publicly debating whether the country can afford to continue a war, it does suggest a deepening divide within the key elements of a regime. And the timing here is important. As we reported last week, President Trump is preparing to launch what he calls, quote, economic D-Day, an effort to cut Iran off from nearly every remaining source of trade and money and foreign investment. Trump has warned that any country, bank or business, providing the Iranian regime with an economic

lifeline, could face severe consequences from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant was even more direct, saying foreign governments will effectively have to choose whether they are with Washington or against it. The administration is expected to reveal the details of that campaign on Monday. As an aside, China is basically Iran's most important lifeline. The effectiveness of this economic D-Day plan rests on whether China decides to cut off their support for Iran or ignore Trump's warnings. Now, we talked at length about this issue during this past weekend's PDB situation report

with investigative reporter and all-around smart guy Joshua Phillip. I hope you check that out. Of course, Iran's economy was already struggling before the war. The fighting, the naval blockade, and existing sanctions have driven its currency even lower, pushed up the cost of basic necessities, and made it increasingly difficult for Iranian families to afford food and medicine and fuel. Pasechkin and Kalebov appear to understand where that pressure could eventually lead. Iran's leaders are still haunted by the unrest that erupted earlier this year. Now, mind you, they're not haunted about killing thousands of their own citizens. They seem fine with that. They're just haunted by the unrest that could cause them to lose their grip on power.

They know that another economic shock could turn frustration over prices and shortages into a much broader challenge to their regime. But the economic pressure is only one part of the regime's problem. Iran may also be losing control of the Strait of Kormuz. That's the waterway that, of course, the Iranian regime is used as its greatest source of leverage throughout this conflict. Approximately 200 ships navigated that straight last week. Now, that is up from roughly 150 the previous week and only about 40 two weeks earlier. Having said that, the traffic is still just a fraction of pre-conflict volume. Pre-conflict numbers were in the 130 vessels per day range, so if the reporting is accurate for last week, traffic only amounted to some 20,000.

or 30 vessels per day. Now, much of the reported increase is apparently coming through an Omani corridor, backed by the U.S., and authorized by the International Maritime Organization. Iran, of course, rejects that passage route, but tankers are increasingly using it anyway. More than 80% of the liquid cargo vessels transiting Hormuz during the past two weeks either traveled through the Omani channel or turned off their tracking equipment, likely in order to quietly follow that same route. So while the White House is correct in saying that traffic has increased through the strait,

it remains at only about 20% of its pre-war level, and Iranian forces are still capable of attacking individual ships. Five vessels were reportedly struck by Iranian projectiles over this past week. Regardless, because of the effort to further utilize the so-called Omani Corridor, along with U.S. security and intel assistance to the shipping industry, Iran's position does appear to be weakening. For months, the regime's central source of leverage was its ability to threaten the waterway that once carried roughly 20 percent of the world's seaborne oil. If American-backed corridors allow more ships to pass without Iranian permission, or without paying

whatever toll the regime demands, then that leverage does begin to disappear. And that may help explain why Iran's hardliners are becoming more threatening. Mosen Razi, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, warned on Saturday that any country helping Washington impose economic restrictions will be considered an enemy. Rzai described a three-stage approach. Iran will first negotiate with those governments. It will then warn them to distance themselves from the U.S., and if they refuse, the regime will target their interests.

That threat is aimed most immediately at Iran's neighbors, the countries that Trump needs to close Tehran's smuggling routes, their financial networks, and access to foreign currency. It creates an extraordinarily difficult choice for the Gulf state governments. Cooperate with Washington, risk an Iranian missile, drone or cyber attack, refuse and risk losing access to the American financial system. And so two competing strategies are now emerging inside the Iranian regime. Pasechkin and Ghalibov reportedly wanted negotiate before the economy deteriorates further, their potential for civil unrest increases, and Iran's remaining leverage disappears.

The IRGC and the security establishment, well, they want to frighten other countries away from cooperating with President Trump, even if that means expanding the conflict. Both factions recognize the same underlying problem. Time may no longer be working in Iran's favor. The country's economy is buckling. Ships are beginning to bypass its controls in Hormuz. Washington is preparing an even more aggressive sanctions campaign, and the people responsible for governing Iran can no longer agree publicly on whether the answer is peace or escalation. Coming up next, Somali pirates sees an Iranian-linked tanker as Russia allegedly targets Ukrainian civilians and then the rescuers in a deadly attack. I'll be right back.

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There was a time when Somali pirates terrorizing commercial shipping was a, well, a routine story. Then, an international crackdown largely resolved the problem. But now, well, they're coming back. Somali pirates hijacked two commercial ships in just four days last week, part of the biggest surge in piracy across the region in more than a decade. And the war with Iran may be helping to create the conditions for that comeback. The latest hijacking happened on Thursday when six armed pirates boarded the Sibu 1, roughly 130 miles off Yemen, and diverted the tanker towards Somalia. The New York Times

reports there were 20 crew members on board, and it's still not known about their condition. But the Sibu 1 isn't just any tanker. The Treasury Department sanctioned the Eritrean flagship last year for allegedly belonging to Iran's shadow fleet. That's the network that the regime uses to move petroleum products around American sanctions. Tankertrackers.com says it has also routinely carried fuel to an oil terminal in Yemen, controlled by the Iranian-backed Khoutis. So you have Somali pirates hijacking a tanker tied to Iran and the Khutis just off Yemen. Just four days earlier, pirates seized the Cameroon-flagged Lutuf off Puntland. It was sailing from Turkey to Mogadishu, carrying weapons, communications equipment, and satellite

gear destined for a military training facility. Within hours, a suspected pirate boat that had interacted with the hijacky, checkers was hit by a drone strike, killing at least four people. Regional security sources suspect Turkey carried it out, but Ankara hasn't confirmed that. And these aren't the only ships that Somali pirates have gotten their hands on. A Somali ports official noted that pirates are currently holding six vessels and more than 100 crew members hostage. In just the first five months of this year, more than 17 piracy-related incidents were documented across Somali waters and the Gulf of Aden. Now, if you remember when Somali Pirates who was making daily headlines, you'll know that those

numbers are still nowhere close to its peak. Around 2010, Somali pirates were seizing hundreds of vessels and costing shipping companies and insurers billions of dollars. It took an international naval campaign involving NATO and the European Union to finally drive those numbers down. For years, that largely worked. What's changed is the environment that these pirates are operating in. The Houthis have already turned the Red Sea into a major conflict zone by firing missiles and drones at commercial shipping. Layered on that, of course, is the Iran War. Fighting and maritime blockades have disrupted crucial shipping routes from the Red Sea to the Strait of Hormuz, while naval assets that once focused more heavily on piracy are increasingly dealing with threats from Iran and its Houthi allies.

And regional officials have raised suspicions for years that Somali pirate networks and the Houthis have developed. develop ties of their own. Back in May, Somali pirates hijacked the Togo flag tanker Eureka off of Yemen and directed it through the Yemeni side of the Gulf of Aden towards Somalia. The relationship between the Houthis and the Somali pirates is actually unclear, and there's no solid intelligence showing that the Houtis are responsible for the increased piracy activity. If these pirates were simply operating as an extension of the Houthis, well, hijacking an Iran-linked tanker that routinely delivered fuel to a Houthi-controlled port, that would be an odd development. The concern is that criminal networks already connect Somalia and Yemen, while the war with Iran is making piracy more lucrative. Oil prices

have risen as the conflict disrupts global shipping, making tankers and their fuel, of course, more valuable prizes. Somali piracy was never completely defeated. It was contained, and now, as the war with Iran and the Houthis throw some of the world's most important shipping lanes into chaos, the pirates are returning to the ICs. All right, keeping an eye on the war in Ukraine, Russia's relentless aerial assault turned a busy shopping center in President Zelensky's hometown into the site of a deadly strike on civilians and then their first responders. At least 16 people are confirmed dead and more than 130 wounded in the attack on

Krivery. That's a central Ukrainian city about 200 miles southeast of Kiev. Reuters reports 22 children are among the injured. The first drone hit it around 4.30 Friday afternoon when the shopping center was busy. Then, just 30 minutes later, another Russian drone came down on the same shopping center. By that point, the people rushing into the building were the emergency workers who were arriving to treat the civilian casualties. Zelensky accused Moscow of deliberately waiting for emergency crews to arrive before launching that second attack. It's a tactic, known as a double tap, hit a target once, wait for rescuers to,

respond and then hit it again. Zelensky called the attack, quote, absolutely cynical and despicable, saying, quote, attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts. He urged the rest of the world to hold Russia accountable and promised Ukraine, quote, will respond definitely. But since then, rescuers have spent days digging through what's left of the shopping center. Nine people remain missing, including two children, while 29 of the wounded are in serious condition. And Zelensky's hometown is no stranger to Russian attacks. Kriviary has been struck repeatedly since Putin launched his full-scale invasion, including an attack last April that killed 20 people, nine of them children. But attacks on Friday weren't just confined to Zelensky's hometown.

Earlier in the day, a Russian drone struck the Kharkiv region, killing two women and wounding two others. Then hours later, another Russian attack struck the southern Mikhailayev region, just east of Odessa, killing four people, including three children. Ukraine's Air Force says it intercepted or electronically suppressed 107 of the 135 Russian drones launched overnight, preventing the toll from being even worse. Just one day before the shopping center in Creivory was hit, Russia subjected Kiev to nearly nine straight hours of missile and drone attacks. The UN says 54 civilians were killed and another 202 wounded in Kiev last month alone.

Ukraine has been trying to raise the cost for Moscow, with its own long-range strikes against Russian oil facilities and logistics hubs, hoping to, of course, weaken Russia's war machine and pressure Putin toward negotiations. So far, there's little indication that it's changing Putin's calculus, especially since the Kremlin knows that Ukraine is running dangerously low on critical patriot missile interceptors. By the way, in a shameless bit of marketing, I'll mention that During this weekend's PDB situation report, we spoke at length with John Hardy from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies about Ukraine's depleted interceptor stockpile, the state of America's missile pantry, and related issues. You can catch it in past episodes on our YouTube channel

at President's Daily Brief. Coming up in the back of the brief, Iran-linked hackers shut down a British power plant, raising fears of a broader Iranian cyber campaign. We'll have more on that when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here with a word about personal health and weight loss. Now, you probably have heard all about this. Everybody's talking about weight loss injections, right, because the results are so dramatic. They work by lowering blood sugar and reducing appetite. So what if you're looking to lose weight, but you're not interested in painful weekly injections, especially when you hear about some of those side effects? That's why doctors created a weight loss supplement called Lean. That's L-E-A-N. And the results, well, they've been

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and home. Trees.com makes a whole process of shopping for trees and plants, shrubs, and bushes, incredibly easy. Look, instead of spending hours driving from nursery to nursery, you know what I'm talking about there, I can simply shop from home and have healthy expertly grown plants delivered right to my door. Everything arrives in great condition, ready to plant, and it's backed by their alive and thrive guarantee.

If you've got questions, well, no worries. Their plant experts are there to help you choose the right plants, and this is important, provide guidance on how to care for them, so you can feel confident every step of the way. Right now, they've got great deals on planting essentials with up to half off of select plants, and listeners to the PDB get 20% off their purchase when using the code PDB at checkout. That's an additional 20% off at trees.com using code PDB at checkout. Now's the perfect time to plan. Seriously, get growing. Use code PDB to save today. Offer Valent for limited time, terms and conditions may apply. I break down the new wars and weapons systems that are totally reshaping our world in my show, Cappy Army. But we go beyond simply just telling you what happened

in a war. We actually investigate deeper into the why and how. At Cappy Army, everything is informed by my experience as an average U.S. Army infantrymen in Iraq and a war correspondent covering the front lines of the war in Ukraine. Just search KAPI Army on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to get weekly open source intelligence reports and remember to follow today. In today's back of the brief, I've talked before about the cyber threat that Iran poses to the U.S. But an attack the public is only now learning about suggests that the threat could be spreading. In late July, The hackers linked to the regime reportedly accessed a British power plant and knocked it offline for four days. The Telegraph describes a revelation as, quote, unprecedented, now reporting it's believed to be the first successful cyber attack of its kind in the UK.

British officials aren't publicly identifying the facility for security reasons, but they say it was so small there was never any threat to the country's overall power supply. One British government source put it this way, quote, it's a very small-scale site, less than a rounding error compared to grid capacity. A government spokesman also stressed that Britain has a, quote, highly resilient energy system, adding, quote, we work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system, end quote. But that's also what makes this attack interesting. Iran didn't need to plunge London into darkness to demonstrate that hackers linked to

its regime could penetrate British energy infrastructure and keep an actual power generator offline for four days. This cyber attack happened during the same period that more than 30 municipal water systems in the U.S. state of Minnesota and several other states were targeted in a wave of cyber attacks also suspected of having links to Iran. Now that American attribution does remain disputed. President Trump said in late July that he did not believe that Iran was behind those attacks. That may be more of a political statement than one based on solid intel.

Cybersecurity researchers have been warning for months that similar attacks are increasingly hitting vulnerable water and energy systems across the U.S. The Director of Threat Research for the AI Company Dataminer told the Washington Post that these kinds of disruptions have been happening since the spring, saying, quote, there have been disruptions in multiple critical infrastructure sectors. Now, the head of intelligence for the American cybersecurity company Dragos said the attacks have generally gone after what he called, quote, very low-hanging fruit. In other words, small utilities with vulnerable systems, controls exposed to the internet, and in some cases default passwords still

in place. That raises the possibility that the immediate objective isn't necessarily some catastrophic knockout. Going after the low-hanging fruit can still expose vulnerabilities, test what works, and prove just how easily poorly protected infrastructure can be disrupted. But now we're learning one of those attacks didn't just disrupt another small American utility. If the British attack is any indication, the Iranian regime's hackers are no longer limiting that threat to American infrastructure. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief from Monday, the 24th of August. If you have any questions or comments, please just reach out to me at PDB, at the

first tv.com. And of course, to have an ad-free PDB experience, you can do that. It's very simple. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and then I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.