The President's Daily Brief - June 5th, 2024: Hamas-Iran Rift, Putin’s Warning to Macron, & AI Extinction Risks

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: We’ll highlight a rare rift between Hamas and Iran. High-ranking Hamas officials are criticizing Iran’s Supreme Leader for comments made during a ceremony marking the 35th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s death. As France considers sending military instructors to Ukraine, the Kremlin warns French President Emmanuel Macron: if French troops enter Ukraine, they will be targeted. President Joe Biden has issued a new executive order limiting the number of asylum seekers allowed to enter the United States. We’ll examine what, if any, impact that’s likely to have on the border crisis. In today’s Back of the Brief, we’ll revisit the dangers posed by Artificial Intelligence. Insiders from one of the world’s leading AI firms warn that the company’s secrecy and recklessness could potentially lead to human extinction. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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seven years in a row. Think about that, seven years in a row. Protect your retirement assets. Go to patriot goldgroup.com or call 1-88-621-3856 for a free investor guide. It's Wednesday, 5 June. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll begin today's show by highlighting a public rift between Palestinian leaders and Iran. This is incredibly interesting. High-ranking Palestinian officials are offering a stinging criticism of Iran's supreme leader for comments he made during a ceremony marking the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death.

Later on, as France considers sending military instructors to Ukraine, the Kremlin warns French President Emmanuel Macron, if French troops enter Ukraine, they will be targeted. Well, I don't see how that could possibly escalate into a complete goat rope. Plus, President Biden has issued a new executive order limiting the number of asylum seekers allowed to enter the United States. We'll examine what, if any impact, that's likely to have on the border crisis. We'll also speculate in a somewhat church. girlish manner as to why he's taking action now. And hint, it rhymes with poll numbers. And finally, in today's back of the brief, we'll revisit the dangers posed by artificial intelligence.

Insiders from one of the world's leading AI firms warned that the company's secrecy and recklessness could potentially lead to human extinction. And on that cheery note, today's PDB spotlight. I want to start today's show by examining a public split between Palestinian leadership and the Iranian regime, stemming from some recent comments from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamini. At the outset, it's worth noting that this split is limited to the Palestinian Authority, which currently runs the West Bank and has been willing to criticize Iran in the past. However, the PA's criticism does a good job of, well, pulling off the veil on Iran. true intentions in Gaza.

Speaking at a ceremony, marking the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death in Tehran, Hamani offered praise to Hamas for the October 7th attack on southern Israel. Of course he did. He said the attacks were, quote, exactly what the region needed, oh really, and that Israel had, quote, suffered setbacks from which it will not recover. Hamani went on to say that the Hamas attack, success for. disrupted a plan by the United States, Israel, and, quote, some regional countries to change the dynamics in the region. That is an incredibly telling statement. The last part is exactly what I want to

focus on. As the kids say, Khomeini said the quiet part out loud. I don't know if that's what the kids say, but I just threw that in there. As we've noted here on the PDB before, Iran's support for the October 7th attacks was, in large part, an effort to derail U.S. broker negotiations that would normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and draw the kingdom closer to the U.S. As Homania indicated, that would indeed change the dynamics in the region in a big way, and it would undoubtedly hamper Iran's off-stated objective of destroying Israel. So, in short, what Iran's supreme leader was saying was, quote, Hey, Palestinians, thanks for being useful pawns in our game.

It wasn't actually that quote, I made that quote up, but you get the point. Of course, the pawns would be Hamas, and that, of course, is a terrorist proxy built, funded, trained, and resourced by the Iranian regime. Now, while Hamas might be basking in the glow of Khmanese praise, other Palestinians thought, otherwise. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas released a statement highlighting the devastating consequences of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, including the death and injury of thousands of Palestinians, the destruction of Gaza's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools,

mosques, churches, and the displacement of thousands of Palestinians. Abbas described Hamani's remarks as sacrificing the blood of Palestinians and thousands of Palestinian children, women and elderly. In a similar statement, one of Abbas's top advisors, Mahmoud al-Habash, alleged that Iran was trying to extend its influence in Palestinian territories and using Palestinian lives for its own gain. During an interview with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, Al-Habash condemned Iran's involvement in the October 7th attack, stating that Iran had backed all of Hamas' actions since the war in Gaza. began. He also held Hamas directly responsible for the situation that the people of the Gaza Strip

currently face. All right, coming up after the break, with France announcing its intention to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian armed forces, the Kremlin is warning that French troops will become legitimate targets. Plus, we'll take a look at President Biden's border crackdown and examine the impact it could have on the ongoing crisis. Those stories when we come back. Welcome back. I want to turn our attention to the war in Eastern Europe, where Russia's continued assault on Ukraine appears at risk of escalating into a wider conflict with NATO.

As we've been covering on the PDB, a growing chorus of NATO members are pushing for sending small numbers of their own troops to Ukraine to help train Ukrainian soldiers. Last week, France said they would be taking the lead on the island. effort, announcing plans to assemble a European coalition to send military trainers to Ukraine. The hope is to expedite recruitment and deployment efforts in Ukraine amid Russia's massive offensive operations in the Northeast, and that's according to a report from Politico. Well, as one might expect, Vladimir Putin has weighed in on the idea. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Tuesday of engaging in an irresponsible

escalation, this from the people who actually started the war by invading another country. And Lavrov said in no uncertain terms that any foreign instructors set into Ukraine will become fair game for their military. Lavrov said, quote, whoever they are labeled as, whether they are members of the French armed forces or are just mercenaries, they represent an absolutely legitimate target for our armed forces, end quote. It goes without saying that any incidents that result in the death of foreign troops inside Ukraine, well, could spark a significant expansion of the current conflict. For weeks, leaders in Kiev have been pressing the U.S. and other NATO countries to send trainers to help prepare some 150,000 soldiers for combat. They hope France's planned action

will encourage other NATO members to follow suit. As a reminder, training of Ukrainian troops by NATO members is currently done outside of Ukraine, at least officially, but leaders in Kiev and NATO have long argued that it would be more effective to train Ukraine's fighting force within their own territory. The concern, however, of course, is that if a NATO troop were caught in a Russian attack, it would automatically trigger Article 5, which is NATO's collective defense clause. Now, that clause stipulates that if a single member is attacked, well, it's an attack on the entire alliance. Some NATO members, including Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, have downplayed these concerns, however, saying Article 5 is misunderstood and would not kick in automatically in such a situation. Kala has also stated that unofficially, there are countries who are already training soldiers on the ground inside Ukraine.

This aligns with statements in March by Poland's foreign minister, who said it was an open secret that some NATO soldiers are already operating inside Ukraine. Russia, meanwhile, continues to warn the West against expanding their role in the conflict, whether by sending trainers or removing restrictions on using Western-made weapons to attack targets inside Russia. Kremlin officials have said that such actions could lead to a full-scale war, and have repeatedly threatened nuclear escalation if NATO formally gets involved. Okay, I want to return to our ongoing coverage of President Biden's border crackdown, which he unveiled during an event at the White House on Tuesday, and I used the term crackdown loosely.

At the event, President Biden signed an executive order that will temporarily shut down the border if daily crossings exceed 2,500 people per day. Well, look at that. It's already happening. Since that threshold has already been met, this shutdown went into immediate effect at midnight, in theory, according to a report from NBC News. If Daily Crossings slide back below 1,500, who makes up these numbers? The border checkpoints will be reopened. In a briefing call with reporters on Tuesday, a senior administration official said that under the order, quote, individuals who cross the southern border unlawfully or without authorization will generally be ineligible for asylum. Officials added that they, quote, anticipate that we will

be removing those individuals in a matter of days, if not ours. Now, it marks the first comprehensive executive action that President Biden has taken to address the border crisis since taking office. And as we mentioned yesterday, and so, most certainly a political play ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and I know I sound like a glass half-empty kind of guy saying things like that. But before folks start celebrating the policy shift, it's worth noting that the executive action contains some notable exceptions. For example, it does not apply to those using the Biden administration's controversial CBP-1 cell phone app that allows migrants to apply for asylum from within their home countries or an American port of

entry, according to an analysis by the New York Post. Under the program, which began in January 2003, nearly 530,000 illegal immigrants have been flown into American cities despite having no legal right to enter the U.S. roughly 360,000 migrants are also entering the U.S. each year under the Biden administration's mass parole program, which will also remain untouched under this executive order. The program allows migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, who pass a background screening to fly directly to the U.S. and be released with work permits and authorization to remain in the country for two years. I think they each get a pony as well. We also recently brought to a report that the Biden administration is quietly carried out what is essentially a mass

amnesty program that has allowed another 350,000 migrants into the U.S. since 2022. Essentially, the Biden administration has been dismissing asylum cases and deportation orders, claiming the migrants don't have criminal records and don't represent a national security threat. This policy has proved incredibly problematic, with numerous violent crimes linked to those who were released into the U.S. by immigration courts. In the latest example, a Venezuelan migrant who shot two NYPD officers on Monday morning was found to be living in the U.S. illegally since last year. He was arrested but released by authorities in July 2023,

and he had his case officially closed by an immigration court in Chicago on May 6th, good old Chicago, because apparently, according to the authorities, he didn't pose a threat. Now, the two NYPD officers he shot on Monday, well, they likely disagree. According to the Post's analysis, between all these Biden-era programs, even if daily crossings are effectively limited to 2,500 per day,

well, roughly 1.8 million asylum seekers would still be granted entry into the U.S. every year. If one were cynical, and I don't know if I consider myself cynical, one could assume that the White House decided to take this action now, because Biden will be debating Trump on 27 June, and they need to portray the administration as tough on the border. All right, coming up in today's back of the brief,

a group of insiders from the world's top artificial intelligence firm is warning of dangerous consequences if its company continues its culture of secrecy and recklessness. Now, I asked ChatGBT to rewrite that last sentence, and it came up with the following. Hey, AI is your friend. for you humans to worry about, please return to TikTok now. I'll be right back. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance.

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Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. In today's back of the brief, I wanted to return to our ongoing look at the danger posed by artificial intelligence. Specifically, a company called OpenAI, which looks at. looks like it's prioritizing profits over safeguarding humanity. I know the idea of that is crazy. In case you're not familiar with OpenAI,

the firm was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and a handful of other Silicon Valley heavyweights, as a research organization focused on leveraging AI to assist human creativity. Backed by billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft, OpenAI is most known for creating ChatTPT. an advanced language model celebrated for its ability to engage in human-like text processing. There's a good chance that some of you even use it at work or to write your school essays or your dating app profiles. But I think we can all agree that a company that's looking to advance

human creativity and productivity shouldn't pose an extinction level threat to humanity. Or maybe that's just me. Well, according to a group of nine present and and former Open AI staff members, that's exactly the path that the company is wandering down. In an open letter, recently published by the group, they accuse the research lab of creating a culture of prioritizing profits over ensuring the safety of its AI systems. The coalition specifically warns about OpenAI's pursuit of something called artificial general intelligence or AGI. The New York Times calls AGI the most powerful AI system ever created, a more complex and human-like program than many of its AI counterparts.

Now, to protect humanity, whistleblowers urge leading AI companies to adopt greater transparency aimed at recognizing serious issues, including expanding existing inequality, loss of control over AI systems, manipulation, misinformation, and even, well, human extinction. We left that one for last on the list. The whistleblowers believe these risks can be mitigated with guidance from the scientific community, policymakers, and the public, but add that existing corporate governance isn't enough to minimize the threat. Their call for greater transparency and accountability extends beyond open AI to the entire AI industry. The letter calls for four pillars of openness, including pledging not to punish employees for criticizing risk-related issues,

providing anonymous channels for raising concerns and supporting open criticism while safeguarding intellectual property. According to a New York Times report, one member of the group, William Saunders, a former OpenAI research engineer, said, quote, when I signed up for Open AI, I did not sign up for this attitude of let's put things out into the world and see what happens and fix them afterwards. Wait, I'm sorry, are we talking about the Wuhan lab? Open AI responded to the open letter with spokeswoman Lindsay held stating, quote, we're proud of our track record, providing the most capable and safest AI systems, and believe in our scientific approach to addressing risk, end quote. Well, that sounds like something sponsored by ChatGPT.

Last week, the company announced the formation of a new safety and security committee that should do it to address risks associated with its AI models and future technologies. Don't worry, we're going to police ourselves. The question is, of course, you ask, is it enough? That's a good question for you to ask. Well, whistleblowers remain skeptical and continue to push for industry-wide reforms to address the potential risks of advanced AI systems. Of course, we'll keep an eye on this.

I mean, assuming our AI overlords allow it. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, 5 June. A reminder that if you want to listen to the show ad-free, be sure to check out our premium membership at PDBPremium.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Because behind every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds-fuelling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings, there's a money side to every every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.