The President's Daily Brief - September 16th, 2022. Railroad Strike Avoided, For Now. Biden to Give $3.5b Back to Afghanistan. A Medication for Autism?

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

It’s September 16th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ Welcome to a Big Five Update this morning. Five critical updates on stories we’ve covered previously that are shaping America — and the world. First, we’ve got an update on the potential rail-road strike some good news but not as much as some politicians might have you believe.   Second, Joe Biden has decided that Afghanistan is going to get the $3.5B that was frozen in a bank in New York. Third, we have additional reports of people in the country of Lebanon robbing banks to get their own money. Fourth, some good news on inflation, especially if you’re looking to buy a car. Finally, a potential treatment option for people with Autism. It’s a very hopeful piece of news. Plus, one more thing before I let you go. Mike in Colorado Springs wants to know, “Why isn’t Russia using cyber attacks against America or Europe?” That’s coming up. ------ 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

It's September 16th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. Welcome to a big five update this morning. Five critical updates on stories we have covered previously that are shaping America and the world. First, we've got an update on the potential railroad strike. Some good news, but not as much as some politicians might have you believe. Second, Joe Biden has decided that Afghanistan, is going to get that $3.5 billion that was frozen in a bank in New York. Third, we have additional reports of people in the country of Lebanon robbing banks to get their own money.

Fourth, some good news on inflation, especially if you are looking to buy a car. Finally, a potential treatment option for people with autism, and it is a very hopeful piece of news. Plus, one more thing before I let you go, Mike in Colorado Springs wants to know, why isn't Russia using their cyber abilities against America or Europe. That's coming up. But first, let's get to our Big Five update. Folks, crisis averted on the railroad strike.

Well, at least for now. Yesterday morning, the railroad companies and unions announced a tentative agreement after 20-plus hours of marathon negotiations. It guarantees workers will get a 24% increase in wages over the next five years, plus improved working conditions and additional health care benefits.

Lots of folks are celebrating and taking credit for this tentative deal, and there's definitely reason to celebrate. Instead of a strike at midnight tonight, the deal announced gives us two to three weeks of what's called a cooling off period during which the rank and file union members will vote on this deal. There's no set timeline at this moment for when that vote will take place, which is why, frankly, it is not time to pop the champagne corks. And that's because workers may vote to tank this whole deal, and that could happen. Let me give you a few recent examples where it did. Just last year, negotiators with the United Auto Workers Union reached a tentative agreement

with the John Deere Company to prevent a strike of more than 10,000 workers, and then it was put to a vote. 90% of workers voted to reject it, and ultimately they went on strike. So company and union representatives went back to the negotiating table, and after a couple of weeks brought people a new proposal. And this time, it was really. rejected again. So back to work, negotiators went, and then the third time was a charm, well, all after a five-week strike. A similar situation like this occurred last December, too, during a contract dispute at four Kellogg's cereal plans. Again, union workers got round one

of a deal, and then they rejected it. And eventually, after threats of firing, the workers relented and went back to work. So could this back-and-forth voting drama happen with the railroad workers, too? Well, these folks are in a pretty good position right now if they wanted to strike. Railroad companies are down 17 to 19% of their workforce as compared to 2019, so they are already short of people. Plus, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg news are reporting that rank and file workers are not happy with this deal that their union reps have struck. So all in all, if we think of this as a game of poker, railroad workers have the strongest hand that they have held in quite some time. And if they are as angry as I'm hearing, they're probably going to push for more.

So the bottom line is that this story is not yet over, but as ever, I will keep you posted. Second story this morning, back in late August, I told you that the Biden administration was thinking about what to do with $7 billion held at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Now, it belongs to the government of Afghanistan, but because that country is now run by terrorists, Biden has been unwilling or unable to give that money back to them directly. To be a bit more specific, half of the $7 billion is tied up in litigation related to the September 11th attacks, while the other half, well, folks aren't sure what to do with that. And when I first told you about this story, many of you wrote in giving me your suggestions,

mostly that we should keep it for the $3.5 billion or so in military equipment that we left behind, which, of course, the Taliban now controls. And for what it's worth, I actually really like that idea. But unfortunately, Joe Biden does not. On Wednesday, he and his team announced that they would transfer the $3.5 billion into a new trust fund to help stabilize Afghanistan's economy. This new fund will be managed by a board of trustees in Switzerland, and they will pay for things like electricity that Afghanistan needs,

plus pay off some of Kabul's international debts, maybe some food aid, and quite incredibly, they will pay for the printing of Afghanistan's new currency. So if that makes you angry or disappointed, well, you're not alone. The Taliban isn't happy with this deal either, although for very different reasons, I suspect. Afghanistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that Biden's refusal to transfer the money directly to Afghanistan's central bank is, quote, against international norms, end quote. That's right. The Taliban talking about international norms, which is quite incredible. Anyway, the minister went on to say that his government of terrorists will be forced to target those Afghans who take any of the 3.5 billion.

That targeting will take the form of, he said, levying fines. And again, you'll have to excuse my cynicism here, but I don't think that the Taliban is going to stop with a few mild-mannered fines. Finally, before we take a quick break, an update on the wheat wars and specifically the country of Lebanon. So to refresh our memories, Lebanon used to buy a whole bunch of wheat from Ukraine for themselves and lots of Syrian refugees living amongst them. But while the country has gotten a bit more wheat and flour these past weeks, it has otherwise continued its collapse into a failed state. Inflation is at 890%.

The currency has lost 95% of its price. value. Half of the country's doctors have left. There are fuel shortages, electricity blackouts, three quarters of the country is now living in poverty. So you get the idea the place is an absolute mess. And it's largely because the country is ruled by corrupt elites, a rotating cast of rich families or those tied to the terror group, Hezbollah. And one of the things that they've done to prop themselves up is to effectively freeze bank accounts. And that means very little can be withdrawn for any reason by the average citizen. And that's led to acts of desperation, namely people robbing banks to get their own money.

I told you about the case of Basem al-Shikh Hussein, who robbed his bank to get $30,000 of the $200,000 that was in his account, all for a surgery that his brother needed. He was eventually arrested and charged, but he was set free after the bank dropped charges. And that takes us up to Wednesday of this week. when two more desperate Lebanese depositors held up banks to get access to their own money. One was a woman named Salih Hafiz, who needed $13,000 for her sister's cancer treatments. She told a local news channel that it was either rob the bank for her own money or sell her kidney on the black market. So she decided to contact an organization called Depositors Outcry.

It's basically a vigilante group that's organizing bank robberies. The spokesperson for that group told reporters that the Lebanese people must take matters into their own hands, and they warned banks that, quote, we are organizing more than this, and you have no choice. People's rights are sacred. The real beginning of the revolution has started, and there is no turning back, end quote. I'm going to keep watching this, folks, not because it's just an outrageous story, but it's a little small sparks like this that lead to a very big revolutionary. fire, fires that eventually toss out governments and in some cases upset entire regions, which from the sounds of it is exactly what these folks plan to do. With that, we are going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I've got two more updates for you, both very good news. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB and our Big Five update. I've got two more critical

pieces of news for you this morning, both good. First, let's talk inflation. Numbers out earlier, this week showed inflation is now sitting at 8.3%. Economists predicted that it would actually go down to 8.0% but no such luck. In the midst of that bad news, there was one tiny slice of good news if you are able and interested in buying a used car. On Wednesday, the Mannheim used vehicle value index announced that wholesale prices for used cars and trucks fell 4% in August. That's the sixth decline in the last seven months, and it's the lowest since last December. Now, wholesale used vehicle prices are what a dealer pays at auctions for used cars. And what that generally means is that in the following weeks, used car prices come down when they put those cars on the lot. Now, of course,

that is absolutely dependent on the car dealer, but thanks to the internet and the ease of national sales, consumers are increasingly having the upper hand here. There is one tiny bit of additional bad news, well, it's that use car prices are still really high, averaging $33,000 in August. Still, I offered this up as a piece of helpful news if you've been kicking the tires on a car or truck that you've been wanting to buy. You might have a little bit more leverage than you did last month, and that might help you save just a little bit of money. Finally, this morning, some good news for those of us who have autistic family members or loved ones, or we have dear friends with autistic children. Now, you all may know that autism is a very challenging disorder to treat and

manage. Not many prescription drugs on the market to help, but through the marvels of artificial intelligence, we might have a new option in an old drug. A group of researchers in Norway reported in the Journal of Frontiers and Pharmacology that the drug loparamide could be used to treat core symptoms, namely difficulties in communicating or interacting socially. Now, loparamide has already been on the market for decades. It's actually one of the ingredients in an over-the-counter medicine that you might already know of, called emodium, which is used to treat diarrhea, of all things. But before I tell you how researchers stumbled on this potential option,

let me tell you how they think that it might work. Loparamide binds to and activates a protein or receptor that affects social behavior. In previous research, genetically engineered mice that lack this, particular receptor demonstrated social deficits similar to those seen in autism, but drugs that activated this receptor helped restore social behaviors and mice. So it's possible that this old drug found in emotium of all things or other drugs that target this particular receptor, what may represent a new way to treat these social symptoms present in autism. While your doctor can explain this more thoughtfully to you, if you have a loved one with autism, it's pretty

incredible that an old drug like this was even found at all. And that's because researchers used artificial intelligence. The technical details of exactly what they did are a little bit overwhelming, but in short, artificial intelligence was able to analyze a massive gene and drug database to predict how the genes of 207 people with autism would interact with over 10,000 pre-existing drugs. The idea was that doctors might be able to quickly repurpose any drugs that are already studied and safe, which is true of loparamide. Well, regardless, this study found four different possible drugs with loparamide showing the most promise. Doctors are now taking renewed interest in this otherwise old drug. Lots of studying left to do, of course, but it's pretty nice to have

some hope on something that can sometimes feel pretty hopeless. And with that, folks, we wrap up your big five update for this Friday. But as always, We've got one more thing for you before I let you go. We'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon.

Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak, and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the PDB, ladies and gentlemen. We've got a question from Mike in Colorado Springs about Russia and cyber attacks. So here it is.

Brian, with the war in Ukraine going rather badly for the Russians right now and with the U.S. taking more and more of an active role, where is Russia's cyber warfare capability? Why haven't they hit us or Europe? Mike, you joined the ranks of many of us in the old intelligence world who have wondered exactly why the Russians haven't used their cyber teams yet. And honestly, we are scratching our heads. It seems like there are one of three different possibilities. First, the Russians actually have hit us in key industries or companies, and the Biden administration just isn't acknowledging it. For instance, do you remember that odd explosion at the liquefied natural gas plant in Texas a good number of months ago? Well,

the FBI was investigating it, but not a word since, at least not to my knowledge. Now, the second possibility here is that our electronic spies at the CIA or the NSA have knocked out the Russians' capabilities or degraded them substantially. Now, I can't talk a lot about that capacity, but just suffice to say, we have some very talented cyber attackers of our own if they were put to use. Now, the third possibility is that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is holding back his cyber capability for some sort of operational or strategic reason. In other words, he could be waiting for.

for what he views as the right moment to strike. For instance, he knows that he has Europe on the ropes when it comes to natural gas. So maybe he waits until winter when supplies are exceptionally low, and then he launches a cyber attack and he blows up some of the natural gas tanks. Or maybe he crashes the distribution

to certain industries or targeted cities. That could push the Europeans to sue for peace or, God forbid, launch an even bigger war. The bottom line, Mike, is, I don't know what Putin is up to with his cyber shenanigans, but if I learn more details with any real confidence, I will bring it to you all. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth?

shall make you free. Good day.