The President's Daily Brief - January 20th, 2026: Russia Targets Nuclear Power Plants & Secret Venezuela Talks

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: New warnings that Russia may be preparing to strike the power lines feeding Europe’s largest nuclear plant, a move that could threaten reactor cooling systems and raise fears of a potential meltdown. New reporting reveals the United States was quietly in talks with Venezuela’s hardline interior minister months before the raid that removed Nicolás Maduro. The FAA issues new warnings urging caution for flights over parts of Latin America, citing potential military activity in the region. And in today’s Back of the Brief—Tehran faces diplomatic fallout as the World Economic Forum revokes its invitation to Iran’s foreign minister following a deadly crackdown on protesters. 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 American Financing: Call American Financing today to find out how customers are saving an avg of $800/mo. NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-885-1881 for details about credit costs and terms. Visit http://www.AmericanFinancing.net/PDB.  QUO: Make this the year where no opportunity slips away. Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://Quo.com/PDB  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at MintMobile.com. It's Tuesday, the 20th of January. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, new warnings that Russia may be preparing to strike the power lines feeding Europe's largest nuclear plant. Oh, that sounds like a solid idea. A move that could obviously threaten reactor cooling systems and raise fears of a potential meltdown. Well done, Putin. It's almost like He's not interested in ending his four-year invasion of Ukraine.

Later in the show, new reporting reveals the U.S. was quietly in talks with Venezuela's hardline interior minister months before the raid that removed Nicholas Maduro. Plus, the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, issues new warnings, urging caution for flights over parts of Latin America, citing potential military activity in the region. And in today's back of the brief, the Iranian regime faces diplomatic, fallout as the World Economic Forum revokes its invitation to Iran's foreign minister after the mass protest killings, which begs the question, why were they infighting him in the first place? But first, today's PDB spotlight. New reporting is prompting serious concern across Europe

and beyond, as intelligence suggests Russia may be preparing a dangerous escalation in its war against Ukraine. According to multiple reports, Moscow is considering strikes, not on on nuclear reactors themselves, but on the power lines and substations that keep them running safely. Specifically, attention is focused on the Zaporizia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility, which has been under Russian control since early in the war. This is part of a broader campaign, targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, particularly as winter conditions make electricity and heat even more critical for civilian life. But when nuclear facilities enter the equation, and of course here comes a statement of the obvious,

the stakes change dramatically. And here's why. Even when a nuclear reactor is shut down or operating at reduced capacity, it still generates heat. And that heat has to be constantly managed by cooling systems, which rely on external electricity from the power grid. If those power lines are cut, plants are forced to switch to emergency diesel generators. Now, I'm not a nuclear scientist, and I know you're surprised by that, but forcing nuclear plants onto emergency power during a war usually falls into the bad idea category. Those generators are designed as nothing more than a temporary fallback, not a long-term solution. Fuel supplies can be disrupted, equipment can fail, and in war zones, repairs are anything but guaranteed. If cooling systems

falter, temperatures rise, and that's where the risk of a serious nuclear incident, including a meltdown enters the picture. Ukraine's military intelligence warns that Russia may be planning strikes on substations connected not just to Zaporizia, but to all three of Ukraine's active nuclear plants. The goal, they say, would be to completely sever external power, plunging large portions of the country into darkness during a frigid winter while pushing nuclear facilities onto emergency systems. This would represent not just another Russian attack on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, but a move

that would risk radioactive consequences far beyond Ukraine's borders. Zaporizia has already lost external power multiple times since 2022, forcing operators to rely on backup generators, while international watchdogs scrambled to assess the danger. Each incident triggered urgent warnings from nuclear experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, which is repeatedly stressed that nuclear safety cannot be guaranteed in an active combat zone. That is also a statement of the obvious. And yet, here we are again. For its part,

Russia insists it's not targeting nuclear facilities, well, if they say so, but striking the infrastructure that keeps those facilities safe amounts to the same thing in practice. In effect, it's another form of nuclear blackmail, using the risk of a catastrophic accident as leverage. The pressure isn't just on Ukraine, of course, but on Europe and the broader international community. Now, this fits into a wider pattern. Russia's winter energy campaign has already battered Ukraine's grid, leaving millions without reliable heat or electricity. Hospitals, water systems, and transportation networks have all been affected. Adding nuclear risk to that equation raises the possibility of a humanitarian and environmental crisis layered on top of an already brutal war.

International concern, of course, is growing. European officials are watching closely, knowing that a serious incident at Zabarizia wouldn't stop at Ukraine's borders. And, let's face it, memories of Chernobyl still loom large across the continent. For now, there's no confirmation that an attack is imminent, but the warnings are telling. It's a possible indication of just how far Moscow may be willing to push escalation, with consequences they could extend far beyond the battlefield. All right, coming up next, new reporting shows the U.S. was quietly in talks with a senior Maduro regime leader

and hardline Venezuelan power broker months before Maduro's removal. And the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, warns airlines to exercise caution over parts of Latin America over concern for potential military activity. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment of your time

to talk about personal finances and financial goals, right? That's important this time of year as we head into 2026. Look, if you're our office, homeowner. There is no better time than now to call American financing and to wipe out that debt that you've been worried about. Look, the Fed dropped rates for the fourth time in December of this past year. And American financing can now help you access the equity in your home at an interest rate in the low fives. Think about that. That is a much lower rate, a much more attractive rate, than the average 20% or more that credit cards charge. American financing is saving their customers

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citing multiple people familiar with the matter, Trump administration officials warned Cabello not to deploy the security forces or militant ruling party supporters that he controls against Venezuela's opposition. Now, I want to pause on that warning for a moment, because it explains the pressure point that Washington was already focused on, even before Maduro was removed from power. Cabello still controlled the security apparatus, including intelligence agencies, police units, and elements of the armed forces, and those services, of course, currently remain intact. That means Cabello didn't just survive the operation.

He emerged from it still holding the levers that could either steady the country or push it toward chaos. Trump administration officials say containing that risk is why the channel to Cabello is opened and why it remains active. From Washington's perspective, the goal is to prevent unrest during the fragile transition. That concern leads directly to the figure that the White House is watching most carefully. While interim President Delci Rodriguez is viewed in Washington as the linchpin of President Trump's approach to post-Moduro Venezuela, Cabello is seen as a potential spoiler, someone with enough coercer power to either stabilize or upend the moment. That influence is rooted in Cabello's role.

For background, he was and still is regarded as the country's second most powerful figure. Cabello is a former military officer and longtime loyalist of the former Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez and, of course, later Maduro. For years, he's been feared as the central enforcer of repression, exerting influence over military intelligence, civilian counterintelligence agencies, and pro-regime militias known as the Collictivo, which are armed civilians, deployed to intimidate or attack protesters. Cabello was named in the same U.S. drug trafficking indictment that the Trump administration used to justify Maduro's arrest, but he was not targeted in that operation.

Cabello has long been under U.S. sanctions for alleged drug trafficking. In 2020, the Justice Department indicted him as a senior figure in Cartel de la Solz, the narco-terror network that Washington says is embedded in Venezuela's government. Cabello denies the allegations. According to people familiar with the discussions, communications between U.S. officials and Cabello date to the early days of the current Trump administration. The discussions have touched on Cabello's U.S. sanctions designation and the indictment he faces, and notably they've taken place both directly and through intermediaries. Now, in the current post-Moduro landscape, Cabello has pledged his support for Rodriguez,

but the Trump administration cautions that such pledges don't necessarily reflect the balance of power behind the scenes. Although Cabello and Rodriguez have both operated at the core of the Venezuelan state and the ruling United Socialist Party for years, they've never been considered close allies. Trump officials seem to treat Cabo as one of several Maduro-era figures tolerated as temporary power brokers during the undefined transition period as Washington moves to secure access to Venezuela's oil reserves. At the same time, those same officials worry about his history of repression to opposition groups. In the hours after Maduro's capture, the question of why Cabello wasn't also picked up was raised repeatedly. And just days later,

Cabello denounced the operation, declaring, quote, Venezuela will not surrender. But since then, It appears both Washington and Cabello are playing ball with each other. Washington to avoid an eruption of the security forces that Cabo overseas and Cabo to likely avoid arrest by the U.S. That relationship is playing out of the ground as security forces that had been conducting searches at checkpoints have eased up. And both Trump and the Venezuelan government say political prisoners have been released, a process that Cabello is overseeing. Human rights groups, however, say releases are slow, and hundreds remain unjustly detained, leaving open whether Cabello is truly steadying Venezuela's transition or is quietly preserving the leverage that he holds for his own purposes and survival.

Staying in the region, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA in the U.S. is warning U.S. airlines to fly with caution over parts of Latin America, as military operations and GPS interference, linked to Washington's crackdown on regional threats, reshape the airspace. In a series of notices to airmen, which, for those of you unfamiliar, is the formal safety alert that pilots and airlines are required to review before flying, the agency flagged potential risks for flying over Mexico, much of Central America, parts of South America, as well as portions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Now, this doesn't appear to be a short-term alert. The advisory is set to remain in place for 60 days.

and applies specifically to American operators. The FAA reportedly sees a sustained risk rather than a one-off concern. The timing lines up with the sharp escalation and regional tensions following the Trump administration's large-scale military build-up in the Southern Caribbean and the ouster of Venezuela's Maduro. As we've discussed here on the PDB, the operation didn't just upend Venezuela's regime. It reshaped the security picture across the region. And since then, President Trump has made.

clear that further military action remains on the table, including the possibility of operations on Colombia's Narco Network. We've been tracking how Trump has been blunt about his view on the threat environment closer to home. He's accused drug cartels of running Mexico and suggests that the U.S. could strike land-based to narco-terror targets to dismantle them. Since Trump returned to the White House, transnational criminal groups are being treated as a national security problem, and that decision is what brings U.S. military assets to play. Not surprisingly, Mexican officials moved to insert Mexico City into this situation. They stress that the FAA advisory is purely precautionary and applies only to U.S. Airlines. Mexico's transportation ministry said the notice does not restrict

Mexican airspace or disrupt airline operations, even as Washington's posture in the region hardens. Now, it's not the first time that the FAA has had to respond to U.S. military action. activity in the Western Hemisphere. After Operation Absolute Resolve that ousted Maduro and maritime strikes against narco-traffickers, the agency restricted flights across parts of the Caribbean, triggering the cancellation of hundreds of flights by major airlines. FAA Administrator Brian Bedford later said the agency coordinated closely with the U.S. military ahead of those operations, an acknowledgement that aviation safety planning is now operating in the background of a sustained military presence over Latin America.

The risks behind these warnings came into focus last month when a JetBlue passenger flight bound for New York took evasive action to avoid a collision with the U.S. Air Force tanker near Venezuela. In that close call, the JetBlue flight departed Curiselle and was flying roughly 40 miles off Venezuela's coast when the airbus encountered the tanker, which was reportedly not transmitting a transponder signal.

All right. Coming up in today's back of the brief, the World Economic Forum, holding their annual gathering of the self-important swells in Davos this week, withdraws an invitation to Iran's foreign minister in response to the regime's handling of nationwide protests. We'll have the details. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, you may know me as the host of the PDB, I hope you do, but I'm also a business owner. That's right. And I'll always focus on maintaining great client relationships and working to develop new clients. That is, of course, the lifeblood of business. That's why I want to talk to you about a great company out there called Quo. It's spelled

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In today's back of the brief, the diplomatic fallout from Iran's deadly crackdown on protesters continues to play out across the globe, this time landing squarely in the Swiss Alps. The World Economic Forum has withdrawn its invitation to Iran's foreign minister of Osirachi, barring him from attending this year's Davos Summit. The decision follows mounting pressure from human rights groups and activists, who argued that Iranian regime officials should not be granted a global stage,

while Iranian security forces continue to violently suppress anti-government demonstrations at home. Well, that makes sense. Look, if you're responsible for killing thousands of protesters because you can't relinquish your violent grip on power, you probably shouldn't expect an invite to drink champagne and gnawon canopies at some posh ski lodge in the Swiss Alps. For years, Davos has built itself as a place where the world's political and business elite gathered to solve global problems. Sorry, I laughed when I read the word solve them. Often through endless panels, lofty rhetoric and carefully worded communiques. They don't so much solve problems as mingle and congratulate each other on how

clever and elite they are. Do I sound churlish? Of course, this comes amid grim reporting out of Iran, where protests were met with live fire, mass arrests, and sweeping repression. Human rights organizations estimate that thousands have been killed during the unrest. The Iranian regime itself has admitted at least 5,000, so you could probably double that number, with many more detained, disappeared, or injured. Tehran, for its part, continues to deny responsibility. Well, we had nothing to do with this and framed the demonstrations as foreign-backed unrest, an explanation that, of course, is worn thin with the international community. By revoking the invitation, the World Economic Forum is signaling that even its traditionally open-door approach, they will invite anyone, and it has

limits. That's notable, given Davos's reputation as a forum where controversial leaders often mingle freely with Western executives and policymakers and media figures. To be clear, it is largely a symbolic move, a little bit of kabuki theater to feel righteous. Barring Iran's foreign minister from a conference, even one as high profile as Davos, won't alter the regime's behavior. That was another statement of the obvious. It won't stop the crackdown or free political prisoners or bring justice to families who have lost loved ones in the streets. But symbolism does matter in diplomacy. And in this case, the message is clear.

Tehran's actions are increasingly isolating the regime. even in spaces that have historically prized dialogue and champagne swilling above all else. Now, whether this marks a genuine shift and now global institutions engage with authoritarian regimes or simply a rare moment of moral clarity in a sea of talk, well, that's an open question. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Tuesday, the 20th of January. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at BDB at thefirsttv.com. And should you be so inclined, and I hope that you will. are, remember to check out our juggernaut of a YouTube channel. Just head on over to YouTube, search for

at President's Daily Brief, and if you like what you see, and I hope you do, please hit that subscribe button. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.