The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 19th, 2025: NATO Alarm: Russian Vessel Near U.K. & Trump’s Fight With Mexico Over Cartels

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin A second Russian intelligence ship has appeared near NATO territory, this time off the coast of the United Kingdom. We’ll break down what the vessel was doing, why it behaved aggressively, and how this fits into a broader pattern of Moscow probing Western defenses. Mexico’s president flatly rejects U.S. military strikes against drug cartels on her soil, despite an offer from Washington. We’ll have the latest on the escalating war of words between Presidents Trump and Sheinbaum. 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 Lean: Visit https://BrickhouseSale.com for 30% off Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold True Classic: Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at https://trueclassic.com/PDB#trueclassicpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world's side. stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, a second Russian intelligence ship has appeared near NATO territory, this time off the coast of the United Kingdom. We'll explain what it was apparently doing there. Later in the show, Mexico's president flatly rejects U.S. military strikes against drug cartels on her soil, despite an offer from Washington. We'll have the latest on the war of words between President's Trump and Shinebaum. But first, today's PDB afternoon spotlight.

Putin's Navy is added again. Another Russian spy ship has turned up near western shores, this time operating close to the UK. It's the second such incident in just two days, and it suggests that Moscow is apparently probing U.S. and NATO defenses across multiple regions. The UK government says a Russian spy ship has been detected operating near British waters, prompting a sharp warning from the nation's Ministry of Defense. The vessel is the Yantar, a well-known Russian intelligence show. designed to monitor undersea cables, track submarine activity, and gather electronic data.

But it wasn't just the ship's location that as the UK fuming over this incident, it's never good to fume. British defense officials say the Yantar went further, aiming lasers at RAF aircraft. It's a tactic called dazzling, used to blind or disrupt surveillance sensors. It's considered an aggressive action because it could endanger pilots and compromise systems on board. It's the first time that the UK has publicly accused the Yantar of using lasers against its pilots. In response, Defense Secretary John Healy said the UK has, quote, military options ready if the ship crosses further into UK-controlled areas or appears to threaten critical infrastructure.

The government has also adjusted its rules of engagement, allowing British forces to shadow the vessel more closely and in a wider set of waters than before. Now, this comes just days after U.S. officials disclosed that, that another Russian intelligence ship, the Keralia, had been patrolling roughly 15 nautical miles off of Hawaii, close enough, as we reported here on the PDB, to monitor communications, radar activity, and submarine movements tied to the U.S. Pacific Command. Individually, these incidents could be ridden off as routine intelligence collection efforts. Together, they suggest a broader posture from the Russians, probing western coastlines,

monitoring undersea networks and testing how closely Moscow can position intelligence platforms near U.S. and NATO territories without triggering a larger response. Both ships, the Keralia near the U.S. and the Antar near the U.K., are part of Russia's signals collection fleet. These vessels are equipped with systems built to intercept electronic communications, track military patterns, and survey undersea cables that carry most of the world's Internet and financial data. Western governments have have warned repeatedly that Russian naval units may be mapping vulnerable infrastructure on the seabed. The U.K. incident is particularly notable because of the use of lasers. While no pilots were reportedly injured, the action was described by officials as, quote, targeted and deliberate, raising the risk of

miscalculation. British commanders say the Yantar has been observed in the North Atlantic before, but its behavior this week marks a shift toward more confrontational activity. For the U.S., the timing is significant. The Hawaii encounter was detected on October 29th. That ship, too, was operating just outside territorial waters, legal under international law, but certainly unwelcome. And like the Yantar, the Carolia has a long history of showing up near Western territories, gathering information on radar signatures and communications traffic and submarine activity. U.S. and UK analysts are examining whether the two ships are targeting similar types of infrastructure or responding to broader geopolitical developments, including tensions in Ukraine, Russian military cooperation

with China, or efforts to monitor submarine deployments across both hemispheres. There are also questions about escalation. The UK has taken a more assertive tone, warning publicly that it is prepared to respond if the Yantar crosses into restricted areas or threatens seabed cables. To date, U.S. officials, by contrast, have adopted a quieter posture, monitoring and avoiding confrontation. For now. All right, coming up next, Mexico is pushing back again on President Trump's call for U.S. military action against cartels. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, with Black Friday right around the corner, maybe you've wondered to yourself, hey, do doctors have Black Friday sales? Well, the doctors at Brickhouse Nutrition do.

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How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. Welcome back to the after. afternoon bulletin. President Trump says the U.S. is prepared to take the fight to the cartels if Mexico won't, but Mexican President Claudius Scheinbaum fired back, rejecting any American military strikes on her soil, even as Washington says it's running out of patience with the poison that's pouring north. The back and forth is the latest escalation in a war of words between the capitals, as Trump's

comments reflect its administration's growing frustration with the drug crisis that it says Mexico has been unable or unwilling to contain. The president pointed to the years of maritime and land-based interdictions by U.S. enforcement agencies as evidence that the U.S. is shouldering most of the burden of operations against the cartels. Shahnbaum's response came a day after Trump said he would do, quote, whatever it takes to stop narcotics from entering the U.S. He added that authorizing military strikes inside Mexico was, quote, okay with me if it saved American lives. Trump's words come as Washington continues its military operations in the Caribbean against narco-traffickers. The White House says that that campaign is disrupting cartel supply chains

before the narcotics can reach U.S. shores. Shinebaum made it clear that the cooperation with Mexican counter-narcotics authorities is fine, and intelligence sharing will continue. But the idea of U.S. forces operating inside Mexico's territory is a non-starter, and that's a point she said she made previously to both Trump and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Scheidbaum insists that Mexico along decides what happens inside its borders. The latest friction between Washington and Mexico City escalated as both governments worked to explain a separate incident that unfolded on Monday. According to Fox News, non-uniform individuals arrived by boat to Playa Baghdad, where the Rio Grande

flows into the Gulf of Mexico. It's renamed the Gulf of America by the Trump administration. There, the individuals posted signs in English and Spanish, claiming that the area was restricted U.S. Department of War property. Mexico's Navy later removed those signs after determining that they stood on Mexican soil, and the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry called in the International Boundary and Water Commission to review the exact location, noting that the shifting riverbed often blurs the line. Shinebaum later said the signs were placed by contractors working for a U.S. government agency. The disputed patch sits near SpaceX's star base in Boca, Chica, Texas,

where American contractors tied to NASA and the Pentagon frequently operate along the border. Mexico has pushed back on similar activity before, including earlier this year, when Shinebom said debris from a SpaceX test explosion landed inside her country. And so the Boundary episode adds to a broader list of tensions between the two capitals. Among them, as mentioned, Trump's move earlier this year, to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The White House framed that as a symbolic shift, reflecting U.S. economic stakes in the region.

For now, the back and forth between Scheinbaum and Trump over striking cartel strongholds inside Mexico shows no signs of producing a compromise agreement. But Trump has made clear that Washington's patience and its willingness to trust Mexico to confront the narco-traffickers is not unlimited. And that, my friends, is the PD. afternoon bulletin for Wednesday the 19th of November.

Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, well, you can do that. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here, host of the president's daily brief and, of course, known globally as a fashion

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