The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | April 26th, 2024: The China-Russia Conundrum & Iran Weaponizes Anti-Israel Protests In US

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    China is coming under increased pressure from the west to cut their financial support to Moscow over the war in Ukraine, as satellite images emerge showing the CCP harboring a North Korean ship transferring weapons to Russia. We’ll give you the latest on the anti-Israel protests sweeping the country, as administrators at Columbia University cave to the activists and Iran uses the moment for an anti-west propaganda push. 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 PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, China is coming under increased pressure from the West to cut their financial support to Moscow over the war in Ukraine, as satellite images emerge, showing the CCP harboring a North Korean ship transferring weapons to Russia. So, apparently, all the previous warnings and pressure did nothing to change the Chinese regime's behavior. That is shocking. Also, we'll return to our coverage of the anti-Israel protests, sweeping America's colleges, as Colombia's leadership, if that's the right word, appears to cave to the activists, while the Iranian regime stirs the pot. Well, they're not only stirring the pot,

and they're sitting back in their recliners eating popcorn and enjoying the show. But first, our afternoon spotlight. Western nations are making a concerted push to pressure China to stop their ongoing financial support of Russia, which they say is enabling Putin's brutal war inside Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blink, and met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other senior CCP officials on Friday to discuss a range of pressing issues. Front and center, however, was China's ongoing trade with Russia and financial support to their industrial centers, which is allowing the Kremlin to revive its arms industry, and that's according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Blinken alluded to the possibility of U.S. sanctions on China if they don't curtail their support.

And as we discussed earlier this month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently raised the possibility of financial sanctions against any Chinese entities found to be giving direct assistance to Russia's armed forces. Now, in remarks following his meeting with Xi, Blinken said, quote, Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China's support. In our discussions today, I made clear that if China does not address this problem, we will, end quote. Friday's meeting came on the heels of a harsh warning to China from NATO Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg on Thursday, who said if China wants to continue enjoying good relations with the Western world, they must stop propping up Putin's wartime economy. Stoltenberg said, quote, last year Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles,

tanks, and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia with improved satellite capabilities and imaging. China says it wants good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. They can't have it both ways, end quote. Or can they? While Xi refrained from addressing the issue directly in public remarks, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry condemned the Western pressure campaign as, quote, extremely hypocritical and irresponsible. Now, there's little reason to believe that China will bow to Western demands with their key ally. Okay, let's be real. They're not going to. It's like when President Obama claimed that he and Xi Jinping talked about cyber shenanigans, and supposedly she was going to put an end to

cyber espionage and theft of economic intelligence and intellectual property. Well, that never happened. And in fact, here, amid the current threat of sanctions, China has been actively strengthening their ties with their friends in Moscow. Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoyu, met with his Chinese counterpart in Kazakhstan on Friday to bolster their strategic partnership in the defense sector. That followed a meeting earlier this month between Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Xi. So let me just repeat that. While Anthony Blinken on Friday sits with Xi and other senior advisors and warns them about their continued defense cooperation with Russia, the Russian defense chief and the Chinese defense chief are meeting at the same time in Kazakhstan. Yeah. As we discusses,

Earlier this week on the PDB, China has been exploiting massive loopholes and sanctions against Moscow to provide indirect support to the Putin regime. A recent U.S. intelligence assessment found that China has significantly increased sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics, and other technology that can and is being used to produce weapons. While China has not directly supplied arms to Russia, like North Korea or Iran, they're walking a very fine line. And one of I say a very fine line, I mean that in reality, there is no line. This week, satellite images emerged showing China is providing harbor for a U.S. sanctioned Russian cargo ship tied to arms transfers between North Korea and Moscow. The vessel is believed to have moved thousands of

containers of North Korean munitions to Russia since August of last year in flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Now, we should remember that China has positioned itself as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, sending envoys to both countries. However, they've never condemned the invasion by Putin or even formally called it a war. And their actions indicate that they clearly have a dog in the hunt, which of course would be Russia. The financial lifeline that she is giving Putin is undeniable. Trade between the two countries reportedly surged by more than 26% in 2023, totaling roughly $240 billion. This essential support has allowed the Putin regime to fully rebuild its military capabilities

despite the massive losses that they've faced on Ukrainian battlefields. Coming up after the break, we'll give you the latest on the anti-Israel protests sweeping the country as administrators at Columbia University cave to the activists, and Iran uses the moment for an anti-West propaganda push. I'll be right back. Choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive, different day. Don't you wish you were getting away?

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at sourceville tales.com. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. I want to return to our ongoing coverage of the anti-Israel protests that have virtually taken over universities across America and also how the Iranian regime is leveraging the chaos to push anti-Western propaganda. As you're well aware by now, pro-Palestinian activists and agitators flooded the campuses of at least 20 universities across the U.S. this week in a massive display of anti-Semitist. prompting mass arrests and forcing administrators to close facilities and cancel classes over concerns for the safety of their Jewish communities. As of Friday, the protests showed little signs of slowing down. Administrators at Columbia, where the protests began last week, have been negotiating with student activists for days

in an attempt to end the demonstrations, but, well, to no avail. It appears that they are caving to the activists, at least partially, as they've let several deadlines for the protesters to vacate the campus go by. On Thursday evening, they said they would not allow the NYPD back on campus to clear the demonstrations. Yeah, you wouldn't want to restore order by any means. Columbia's leaders had given protesters an ultimatum on Tuesday that they had until midnight to leave the university grounds. However, after the deadline passed, the university said they would extend it for another 48 hours. Well, the feckless Columbia administrators, apparently, have never met a red line that they aren't willing to ignore. You wouldn't want to upset a bunch of Gormless students in their outside Hamas-loving organizers.

On Friday, the university simply said that progress was being made in the negotiations. Meanwhile, life for Jewish students on campus continues to deteriorate amid the rampant anti-Semitism. A third-year Columbia undergrad and Israeli military veteran from Tel Aviv told Fox News that the climate on campus has gotten downright dangerous. He said in recent days the protesters have begun praising the militant Al-Quds Brigade, a Palestinian terror group with ties to Hamas. The IDF veteran added that he and his girlfriend have been followed home by protesters. He's also been subject to regular anti-Semitic threats and been told to kill himself repeatedly. The undergrad student told Fox News, quote, I've had a friend who was beaten up. It's scary. It's

violent. I don't think that's any way to have any campus where you have a big part of your student body just scared for their lives. A lot of Jewish and Israeli people don't walk around campus after the sun goes down, end quote. It appears that for now, Colombia is more concerned about the optics of cracking down on the student protests than the day-to-day reality on the ground for the Jewish community. And it should come as little surprise that America's foreign adversaries are relishing the current chaos. Iran has been eagerly commenting on the developments, using it as an opportunity to denounce Israel and the West. The regime's foreign minister tweeted on Thursday that the world was, disgusted by the U.S. law enforcement crackdown on protesters, and he said it with a straight face.

In a statement dripping with irony, he criticized the U.S. for the, quote, suppression and violent treatment of anti-Israel protesters and accused Israel genocide in Gaza. And then, That followed a condemnation earlier this week from a senior Hamas official. Now, the incredibly disgusting irony of Hamas and their puppet masters Iran condemning what they refer to as suppression and violent treatment of protesters, well, it's completely lost on the useful idiots currently protesting on U.S. campuses. To be fair, many of the students taking part in the protests at these supposedly elite universities have little to no understanding of how the real world operates.

and little understanding of how the Iranian regime has built Hamas and its other proxies in order to realize their often stated objective of destroying Israel. They're just out feeling like they're part of something, no matter how misguided that something happens to be. As we've discussed before here on the PDB, the students are not the driving force behind these protests. They're being coordinated, encouraged, assisted, and funded by outside organizations and activists who hide behind the veil of concern for Palestinian civilians while harboring the same

desire as the Iranian regime in their proxies, which would be the removal of Israel from the map. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday, 26 April. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And if you want to listen to the show ad-free, be sure to check out our premium membership at PDB Premium.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back on Monday. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.

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