The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 25th, 2026: Iranian Students Clash With Regime Militias & Moscow Targets Telegram

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: Protests erupt across Iran for the fifth straight day as university campuses turn into flashpoints between anti-regime students and pro-government militias. Unlike January’s market-driven unrest, this new wave appears ideological — directly challenging the legitimacy of the regime. The Kremlin may be preparing its biggest digital crackdown yet. Russian security services are floating terrorism allegations against the founder of Telegram, raising the prospect that Moscow could shut down one of the last independent information platforms inside the country. 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 DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/PDB and use promocode PDB at checkout. Ultra Pouches: Don’t sleep on @ultrapouches. New customers get 15% Off with code PDB at https://takeultra.com! #UltraPouches Cardiff: Get fast business funding without bank delays—apply in minutes with Cardiff and access up to $500,000 in same‑day funding at https://Cardiff.co/PDB  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and all birds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side,

turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. It's Wednesday, the 25th of February. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, protests are erupting across Iran for the fifth straight day, as university campuses turn into flashpoints between anti-regime students and pro-government militias. You have to really admire the courage of these protesters after the regime murdered demonstrators by the thousands during the most recent uprisings. I'll have the details. Later in the show, the Kremlin may be preparing its biggest digital

crackdown yet, as Russian security services float terrorism allegations against the founder of the country's most popular messaging service. That would be, of course, telegram. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Protests are erupting in Iran once again, and for the fifth straight day, university campuses across the country have turned into battlegrounds. The unrest began on Saturday as students returned to in-person classes at the start of a new academic term. What began as memorial gatherings for classmates killed during January's brutal crackdown, it was now involved into open confrontation between anti-regime activists and pro-government militias.

Clashes have now been reported in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Mashad. At the University of Tehran and in the Iran University of Science and Technology, video footage shows pro-regime students, or at least people purporting to be students, many are believed to be affiliated with the besiege militia, a volunteer force, of course, tied to the IRGC, shows those individuals chasing and beating protesters. Students opposing the regime have chanted death to the dictator, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, and, quote, for everyone killed, a thousand will follow. In a symbolic act of defiance, some have burned the Islamic Republic's flag and raised the pre-1979 lion and sun flag. It's a direct rejection of the clerical regime

that came to power after the revolution. Pro-government counter-protesters have responded by waving Iranian flags, chanting, God is great, and burning American and Israeli flags, that's original, accusing foreign powers of fueling the unrest. Now, it's worth noting how this differs from the January countrywide demonstrations. Those protests did not begin on university campuses, They began in markets and commercial centers, driven primarily by economic grievances, inflation, sanctions pressure, and a collapsing currency. Only later did campuses become involved. This time, the spark appears to be ideological.

Students are organizing memorials, openly challenging the legitimacy of the regime, mocking Ayatollah Khamini, and in some cases calling for the restoration of the monarchy, nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution. That shift matters. Economic protests threaten stability, ideological protests challenge authority itself. For now, the protests appear largely confined to university campuses and have not yet spilled into broader street demonstrations, but their persistence is significant. Universities in Iran have historically served as incubators for wider political movements,

most notably during the 1999 student protests and again during the 2009 Green Movement. Authorities are walking essentially a tight-react. A 2000 law technically restricts police and military forces from entering campuses without authorization, a safeguard enacted after security forces stormed dormitories during the 1999 unrest. However, students report increased surveillance, disciplinary suspensions, text messages barring them from campus, and involvement by plain-closed security personnel. And the timing is particularly sensitive. Iran's leadership is simultaneously navigating high-stakes nuclear negotiations,

with the U.S., with talks scheduled in Geneva later this week. President Trump has warned that, quote, really bad things will happen if Tehran refuses a deal, and U.S. military assets, of course, have been building up across the region. Inside Iran, officials are publicly emphasizing what they call red lines, including protection of national symbols and the regime's authority, while insisting students must be, quote, heard, but the images coming out of Tehran suggests something closer to a struggle for legitimacy. Supreme Leader Hamanin now faces what many analysts describe as the gravest crisis of his three-decade rule, a collapsing economy under sanctions, international pressure over their nuclear program,

and a generation of students openly defying the system again. Five days in, the campuses are still restless, and the regime is once again forced to choose between restraint and repression. Unless the tiger has somehow changed stripes, which seems unlikely, it's likely that the choice will be repression. All right, coming up next, the Kremlin sets its sights on telegram, as terrorism allegations against its founder raise the prospect of Russia's last major independent, well, sort of, platform being shut down for good. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here, let me take just a moment of your time to talk about security, specifically your online security, and to tell you about a great company out there working to make people safer online. That, of course,

would be delete me. Delete me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Look, it's easier than ever to find personal information about people online. You know that, but having your address, your phone number, your family members' information, just hanging out on the Internet can have actual consequences in the real world and can make you vulnerable to all sorts of scams. If you're like me, privacy and protecting your online presence is very very important. We all want to stay protected from identity theft or harassment or doxing, and you can do that with the help of Delete Me. Take control of your data and keep your

private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now at a special discount for PDB listeners. You can get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join Deleteme.com slash PDB and use the promo code PDB at checkout. Again, to get 20% off, just go to Join Deleteme.com slash PDB and enter code BDB at checkout. Once again, you say, all right, that's join delete me.com slash BDB, code BDB. Mike Baker here, well, we are into the year 26, right? And what's the old saying, new year, new you, right? But what happens if it's, well, it's a new year, but you don't feel like a new you, right? You know what I'm talking about. Maybe you're not sleeping well, or maybe recovery after work or workout is harder than ever. Or maybe stress is just out of hand. Now, a lot of people try to

stay clear-headed with caffeine or even stuff like nicotine pouches, but you know, those mess with sleep and they raise cortisol levels. So that's why I want to tell you about ultra pouches, right? Ultra is something different. It's completely nicotine and caffeine-free, packed with natural neutropics to give you a steady, clean focus, smooth energy, and enhanced mental clarity. There's no buzz, there's no crash, and none of those side effects that can spike your heart rate. Just better sleep and workouts in a calmer mind. Athletes, entrepreneurs, and engineers alike, trust Ultra to keep them sharp. Ultra is the ultimate guilt-free pouch,

delivering instant focus and mental clarity without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use code PDB to get 15% off at takeultra.com. That's takeultra.com for 15% off with the code PDB. And after you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Tell them the PDB sent you. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era banties,

but on Deepop, people are searching for exactly, exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now, a teenager who calls them vintage will offer that same small fortune back. Sell them easily on D-pop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste will be a money-making machine? Your style can make you cash. Start selling on D-pop, where taste recognizes taste. Hey, this is Mike Slater. I have a podcast called Politics by Faith. I would love for you to listen. we take the news of the day and we run it through the Bible.

What does the Bible have to say about this? Because there's nothing new under the sun. You read the headlines, everything's all crazy. World's coming to an end. It's all in the Bible. And after every episode, hopefully you leave with a proper perspective and a biblical piece. Please join us wherever you listen to podcasts. And we also have a YouTube page as well.

YouTube.com slash at Politics by Faith. Welcome back to the BDB afternoon bulletin. The Kremlin has already banned Facebook. It's throttled YouTube, and now, well, now it may be coming for Telegram. Russian security services are laying the groundwork for terrorism-related charges against the founder of the messaging platform. It's a step that could eliminate the country's last independent digital space. The campaign centers on Pavel Dürov.

He's the Russian-born billionaire tech entrepreneur who created Telegram in this long-resisted Kremlin pressure. This week, two nearly identical articles appeared in a state-run newspaper. and a pro-Kremlin tabloid. Both cited research from Russia's Federal Security Service, that's the FSB, claiming Durov was under investigation for allegedly aiding and abetting terrorism. Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, confirmed that, quote, FSB research informed those reports. Now, I want to point out that no formal charges have been announced, but in Russia, accusations of terrorism aren't just legal steps. They're typically political signals, and the signal here is unmistakable. The Kremlin appears to be building the government.

case to remove Telegram itself. To understand what a ban could mean for ordinary Russian citizens, you have to understand Telegram's role inside the country. As of this year, more than 100 million people inside Russia used Telegram every month, and roughly half the country has it installed on their phones. That makes Telegram not just popular, it makes it foundational. Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when Facebook and Instagram were banned and YouTube came under mounting restrictions, Telegram became one of the last places that millions of Russians, including soldiers and independent reporters, could exchange news and even criticism outside the government's direct grip. The state media reports accused Telegm of becoming, quote, the main tool used by Ukraine

and NATO intelligence agencies against Russia. They allege, without publicly presenting evidence, that the platform helped coordinate attacks that killed members of Russia's military top brass and facilitated militant activity. By casting the dispute, in terms of terrorism and battlefield sabotage, authorities aren't just criticizing an app, they're constructing the justification to shut it down. When he comes to Derov's response, well, he pushed back quickly. In a post on Telegram, he said the Kremlin, quote, fabricates new pretext to restrict Russians' access to telegram, and he called the campaign, quote, a sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people, end quote. So you may be asking,

why tighten the screws now? Well, part of the answer, intentions between Telegram and Russian regulators. Earlier this month, regulator authorities tightened the censure measures on the app, accusing it of failing to curb extremist accounts. That move triggered backlash, and not only from opposition figures, but from unlikely quarters, pro-Kremlin lawmakers and military bloggers who depend on Telegram for battlefield information. Sergei Miradov, a longtime ally of Russian President Putin, criticized Russia's communications regulator for cutting off what he described as, quote, the only line of communication between troops and their families.

Russian Army drone commander, Plataan Mamatov, told the New York Times that regulating telegram makes it difficult to share intelligence and coordinate operations. In other words, even voices aligned with the Kremlin, one that restricting the platform could undermine Russia's own war effort. Now, this is not the first time that Moscow has tried to reign in telegram. Authorities attempted to block the platform between 2018 and 2020, and failed. Voice calls were restricted last summer, and for years, Russia's security services demanded access to telegrams encryption keys. That's a step that would obviously give them

visibility into private conversations. At the same time, the Kremlin has been promoting a state-backed alternative known as Max, M-A-X, a so-called communication, quote, super app that many Russians view with suspicion, particularly over concerns about weak encryption and, of course, government monitoring, Really? The Kremlin? Monitoring private conversations? Say it ain't so. That's where the terrorism charge becomes critical. Framing Telegram as a national security threat

gives the Kremlin a legal path to shut it down and present the move not as censorship, but as a national security measure. It's the Kremlin, looking to exert complete control over the content and flow of information. What's old is new again. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, the 25.

5th of February. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at the first TV.com. And of course, to listen to the show ad-free, it's really very simple. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. Now, I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, many of you know me as the host of the president's daily brief, or at least I hope you know me as the host of the PDB, but did you know, I'm also a business owner. That's right, I have been for a long time, and I want to take just a moment to talk with all you business owners that are out there. Now, you probably already know this, but small businesses face an uphill battle with big banks, right?

Where getting a loan means endless paperwork and delays. But I want to tell you about a business out there working to make life easier for small businesses. I'm talking about Cardiff. That's right. For bank rates without the weight, go to cardiff.co slash PDB for up to $500,000 in funding. Their application takes less than five minutes, has no impact on personal credit, and approvals can happen in minutes with same-day funding. It's the fastest way to get the capital you need to keep your business moving forward. Look, banks try to lock out small businesses, but Cardiff has the key. Big banks may not want to approve your business loans, but Cardiff does. If you've been in business for at least a year and you're pulling in $20,000 a month in revenue,

apply now for up to $500,000 in same-day business funding at cardiff.co slash PDB. Again, that's cardiff.com slash PDB. Real growth, fast funding, that's Cardiff. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird.

Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.