The President's Daily Brief - November 11th, 2025: Germany Points to Ukraine in Pipeline Attack & U.S. Shutdown Stalls NATO Arms

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief: The case of the Nord Stream pipeline bombing may finally be solved. The undersea gas line was once a vital link between Russia and Europe—but instead of uniting the continent, the investigation is tearing it apart. The U.S. government shutdown is having real consequences for America’s allies. Over $5 billion in weapons sales to NATO partners and Ukraine are now frozen, putting key defense deals in jeopardy. European nations are deploying anti-drone units to Belgium after a swarm of drones was spotted over a nuclear power plant—raising new fears of Russian hybrid warfare. And in today’s Back of the Brief—Japan’s military is dealing with an unexpected threat. Not from Beijing or Pyongyang, but from bears. 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 Goldbelly: Impress your friends and family. go to https://GOLDBELLY.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code PDB. BUBS Naturals: Live Better Longer with BUBS Naturals. For A limited time get 20% Off your entire order with code PDB at https://Bubsnaturals.com  Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Just text PDB to the number 989-89-89-8-8, and you'll receive a free, no-obligation information kit, and you'll learn how to convert an existing IRA or a 401k into a gold IRA. Again, text PDB to the number 989-89-89. It's Tuesday, the 11th of November. Veterans Day in the United States. If you're a veteran or currently serving, thank you. And if you know a veteran or you know someone currently serving,

take just a moment to express your gratitude. 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, the case of the Nord Stream pipeline bombing is still in the news. The undersea gas line was once a vital, link between Russia and Europe, and the sabotage of that pipeline has remained a complex and challenging investigation. I'll have those details. Later in the show, the U.S. government shutdown,

which appears to be nearing an end, perhaps, possibly, has had real consequences for America's allies. More than $5 billion in weapons sales to NATO partners and Ukraine are now on hold, putting key defense deals in limbo. European nations are now sending anti-dron units to Belgium after a swarm of drones was spotted over a nuclear power plant. It's the latest escalation in what officials are calling a campaign of hybrid warfare. And in today's back of the brief, Japan's military has been called in to deal with a growing menace. And no, it's not Chinese warships or North Korean missiles. It's bears.

Mm-hmm. Bears terrorizing Japanese citizens. And that is not a sentence that I've ever used before on the PDB. But first, today's PDB spotlight. Germany says it's finally cracked to the Nord Stream case, and the answer that they've come up with is creating trouble for Europe's unity over the war in Ukraine. After a three-year investigation, German detectives believe an elite Ukrainian military unit was behind the 20, 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream Pipelines. For background, the Nord Stream Pipelines were twin-Undersea gas lines linking Russia to Germany. They were critical arteries for Europe's energy supply before the war. Their destruction in September of 2022 instantly cut off a major source of Russian gas,

sent energy prices soaring across Europe, and marked the single largest man-made methane leak ever recorded. The findings reported by the Wall Street Journal claimed the mission was carried out under the direction of Ukraine's former commander-in-chief, General Valerie Zlushny, who's now serving as Ukraine's ambassador to the UK. Arrest warrants have now been issued for seven Ukrainians, three soldiers, and four divers, accused of planting the explosives along the Baltic Sea floor. One of the key suspects, only identified as Serhi K, is a veteran. of Ukraine's SBU security service and was tracked across Europe before ultimately being arrested in Italy. Germany wants him extradited to Hamburg for trial, but Italy hasn't decided whether it's going to comply yet. Meanwhile, Poland is flat out refusing to extradite another suspect, calling him a hero for striking a blow at Russia's war machine. That refusal set off a political chain reaction.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk mocked Berlin's investigation, saying the problem wasn't that the pipeline was blown up. The problem was that it was ever built. For Warsaw, Nord Stream symbolized everything wrong with Germany's past dependence on Russian gas. That hasn't landed well inside Germany, where the fallout is growing. The right-wing AFD party has seized on public frustration over energy prices and used the Nord Stream case to, argue that Berlin's support for Ukraine is costing German households. Well, to be fair, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is costing Ukrainian households. Now, Germany's AFD party is campaigning to scale back aid to Kiev. That's a direct challenge to Chancellor Friedrich Mertz, who's trying to hold together both his coalition and public support for Ukraine's war effort. But even within Mertz's government,

officials admit the Nord Stream probe has become a diplomatic nightmare. Berlin has spent years positioning itself as one of Kiev's biggest backers, providing tanks and air defense systems and billions in aid. Now those same allies are watching as Germany prepares to put Ukrainian soldiers on trial. Across Europe, the reaction depends on where you sit. In Poland and the Baltics, many see the attack as a justified act of war, a strike that cut off Putin's cash flow and weakened. his grip on Europe. In Germany, it's seen as a betrayal, an attack on European infrastructure

carried out by a supposed ally. And as for Ukraine, well, the message is one of defiance. Zolluzny himself dismissed the allegations online with a short response on Facebook, writing, quote, we will still have fun, but we will definitely never be ashamed, end quote. Well, it was a reminder, apparently, that for Kiv, the moral line was crossed when Russia invaded, not when pipelines were blown up. But here's the bigger picture. This investigation is exposing a rift in Europe's wartime alliance. What began as a story about sabotage is now a story about trust and how fragile that trust has become. When Nord Stream was destroyed, Western leaders pointed to Russia and rallied around Ukraine. Now, three years later, that same explosion is

dividing the West, turning old grievances about energy dependence into new political fractures. Poland sees moral clarity. Germany sees a legal obligation to prosecute those that destroyed its critical energy infrastructure. Italy is caught in the middle, and Washington, though staying quiet publicly, knows that if the German case holds up, it complicates the entire Western narrative of the war. All right, coming up next, billions in U.S. arms sales have been frozen by the government shutdown, while Europe scrambles to stop suspected Russian drones, crowding EU skies and invading sensitive airspace.

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high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or high mars, are now stuck in bureaucratic limbo. That's according to a State Department estimate obtained by Axios. The shipments bound for partners like Denmark and Croatia and Poland were meant to keep Europe's defenses humming and Ukraine's front line supplied. Instead, they're sitting idle, as the shutdown drags past day 40, a delay that one senior State Department official warned is, quote, really harming both our allies and partners and U.S. industry. Under normal conditions, these foreign military sales would breeze through Congress, reviewed under Arms Export Control Acts and approved with little controversy. But as we've been tracking, this isn't a normal stretch for Washington, D.C. With the State Department's Bureau

of political military affairs operating at roughly 25% staffing and key liaisons on ice, the approval pipeline has effectively jammed. The briefings that moved these details forward aren't happening and what used to take days is now taking weeks. State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott put it bluntly, quote, Democrats are holding up critical weapon sales, including to our NATO allies, which harms the U.S. industrial base and puts our partner's security at risk. end quote. Senate foreign relations chair James Risch backed him up, warning that the more days and weeks of the government stalls, the more ground Washington loses. He told Axios, quote, China and Russia aren't shut down. Their efforts to undermine the U.S. and our partners and allies get easier while needs go unmet, end quote.

For the Trump administration, the stalled shipments represent more than a bureaucratic inconvenience. Officials say they threaten the White House a strategic tool of of arming allies faster than adversaries can respond. Still, despite several Democrats breaking ranks of the weekend, in order to reach the 60 to 40 vote that was needed to get the government closer to running, one single objection in the process could further stall arms shipments. And as that process drags on, Trump officials warn, coordination across Europe grows harder,

especially as Russian's forces step up their push in Ukraine's denetsk region. The uncertainty has also fueled anxiety within the defense industry, which depends on steady export approvals to maintain production schedules and support the Pentagon's modernization programs. Programs of the Trump administration views as critical to keeping America and its allies one step ahead of adversaries. All right. Now let's switch focus to Europe, where Britain is stepping up to help Belgium confront the wave of mysterious drone incursions, sending troops and anti-dron equipment to counter the aircraft, continuously disrupting airports, circling nuclear sites, and stirring fears of Russian hybrid warfare.

Over the weekend, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, the head of Britain's armed forces, confirmed what had been in the works for days. The U.K. is sending Royal Air Force specialists and equipment to Belgium at the request of Brussels. Knighton told the BBC, quote, We don't know, and the Belgians don't yet know, the source of these drones, but we will help them by providing our kit and capability, which has already started to deploy, end quote.

The United Kingdom's Defense Secretary, John Healy, framed the move as part of a broader push to Titan NATO's defenses. The UK, he said, is dispatching RAF experts, quote, to counter rogue drone activity, calling it a reminder that, quote, as hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances to defend, deter, and protect, end quote. As we've been tracking, the U.K. deployment comes amid a string of weekly, sometimes near daily airspace violations that have most recently centered on Belgium, forcing its two busiest airports, Brussels and Liesch, to temporarily close last week. Just days before the most recent temporary airport closures, Belgian authorities reported drones

near a military base believed to store U.S. nuclear weapons. and on Sunday night, five more drones appeared over a nuclear power plant near Antwerp. A spokeswoman for the company managing the nuclear power plant said, quote, initially we had detected three drones, but then we saw five. They were up in the air for about an hour. The company stressed that operations were not affected. Belgian defense minister Theo Francon called the incursions part of, quote, a spying operation that couldn't have been carried out by amateurs.

While Belgium has stopped short of naming a culprit, its intelligence services repeatedly cite Russia as a suspect, a suspicion that's growing louder across allied capitals. Dron sightings have swept across Europe for months, from Sweden to Denmark to the Baltic states, often appearing near NATO facilities or critical infrastructure. The incidents have reignited fears of a coordinated campaign of hybrid warfare, the kind meant to destabilize Western countries through sabotage and cyber attacks, all without firing a single shot. Belgium, meanwhile, sits squarely in the crosshairs. It's home to NATO headquarters, the European Union institutions, and Euroclear. That's the major financial clearinghouse

holding tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets. As our regular listeners will recall, several EU states want to use those assets as collateral for loans to support Ukraine's post-war reconstruction. Still, Belgium resists those calls amid fears of Russian aggression, making an obvious pressure point in Moscow's shadow war. Lithuania's foreign minister has gone further than most allies, accusing both Russia and Belarus of orchestrating, quote, calculated provocations designed to destabilize, distract, and test NATO's resolve. Back in October, Lithuanianist government warned that any further unidentified drones or balloons entering its airspace from Belarus would be shot down, and they called for tougher NATO sanctions on Minsk. And the UK and Belgium aren't alone in this fight against the unidentified drones.

France and Germany have also joined in, sending counter-dron teams to Brussels. Okay, coming up in the back of the brief, Japan's self-defense forces have been deployed. in an unexpected mission, protecting citizens of Japan from a surge in deadly bear attacks. I'll have those details when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, let's take a moment to talk about health, specifically maintaining your health as you get older. Look, you and I know this. Getting older does sneak up on you, right? Stiff joints after workouts, hair thinning out, and changes in a variety of ways. And that's why I'm genuinely pumped to tell you about Bubbs' natural collagen's peptides.

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Seeful terms at mintmobile.com. In today's back of the brief, Japan's armed forces have a brand new mission. They're helping fight off a nationwide surge in bear attacks. And yes, this is the first ever bear story on the president's daily. brief. Now, at first glance, it just seems like a wacky or strange story ripe for bear puns, but for the people living in northern Japan, it's a very real problem. Since April, listen to this, since April, there have been more than 100 injuries and at least a dozen deaths caused by bears, and that's the worst wave of attacks Japan has seen in decades, implying that there have been

worst waves. Seriously, at least a dozen fatal bear attacks since April. In the hardest-hit region, Akita Prefecture, brown bears have been wandering out of the forests and into towns, rummaging through garbage, chasing livestock, and breaking into homes. Locals have been told to stay indoors after dark and carry bells, yes, bells, when they go outside to warn bears away. As a result, the government has now deployed the Japan Self-Defense Forces to assist local authorities.

Soldiers aren't there to hunt the animals. They're just helping to set up track. transport licensed hunters, and recover carcasses in areas too dangerous for civilians. It's the kind of deployment, usually reserved for natural disasters, showing just how serious this has become. So, you ask yourself, what's driving the surge in bear attacks? Well, experts are saying it's a mix of climate change and demographics. Warmer seasons have disrupted the supply of acorns and beach nuts that bears rely on before

hibernation, while Japan's rural population continues to shrink, fewer farmers, fewer hunters, and fewer people maintaining the forests that once kept wildlife at a distance. The result, well, you get hungry bears with nowhere to go and no one to stop them. In sometimes, bears have been spotted near schools, train stations, and supermarkets forcing the cancellation of public events and outdoor festivals. The government is now weighing emergency measures, including relaxing hunting hunting restrictions and expanding surveillance programs to track bear movements. We'll keep an eye on this and provide you with further bear updates. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Tuesday, the 11th of November.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. If you get a chance, also do me a favor and check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can find that on YouTube, oddly enough, at Press. President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon Bulletin. And please, again, remember, thank a veteran. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a

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