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The President's Daily Brief
April 8th, 2026: Trump HALTS Iran Strikes Before Deadline & Russia’s Secret Support of Iran
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It's Wednesday 8th April. Now, if you're in the US well, that means you've got one week until tax day. Sorry about that. But regardless, 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, just hours before the Trump imposed deadline for Iran, President Trump announced he's extending that deadline by two weeks, claiming that an agreement is in the works with the Iranian regime. So we've gone from possibly destroying an entire civilization to a possible negotiated ceasefire agreement in the space of a day. I'll have the details later in the show. Ukraine claims it has new intelligence indicating that Russia is helping to give Iran a battlefield edge, providing satellite surveillance and cyber capabilities to refined strikes across the Middle East. Plus, just in case you needed yet another example of just how feckless the United nations is, Russia and China block an effort in the UN to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And in today's Back of the Brief, the CIA reportedly turned to cutting edge technology to recover a downed air in Iran using a classified system that can track the electromagnetic signature of a heartbeat. Now, we would not know about this except that people supposedly briefed on the program apparently can't keep their yaps shut. Secrets are just so hard to keep when you have no discipline. But first, today's pdb. Well, it looks like the Iranian civilization will live to see another day. Just hours before his 8pm deadline yesterday, President Trump announced he would hold off on a major bombing campaign against Iran for another two weeks. A campaign that he stated earlier would send Iran back to the Stone Age. The White House made the decision to back off their deadline and to not, in Trump's own words, destroy an entire civilization. He announced that an agreement, a ceasefire, is in the works with what Trump described as a brand new reasonable regime. Trump wrote on Truth Social, this will be a double sided ceasefire. The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all military objectives and are very far along with a definitive agreement concerning long term peace with Iran and peace in the Middle east, end quote. He added, quote, almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran. But a two week period will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated, end quote. Now, you will not be surprised to learn that there are very few details available about these discussions or about those points of past contention that apparently have been resolved. For now, that's where things stand. The war hasn't ended, but at least for the moment, Trump is holding fire. The announcement came after two days of frantic negotiations as diplomats raced against the clock to find a way out of what was shaping up to be major escalation in the war with Iran. In the final hours before that deadline, there were signs that both sides were at least inching closer. U.S. officials described the talks as serious. With progress made over the previous 24 hours, the question inside the White House shifted from whether a deal was possible to whether it could be reached in time. At the center of those last minute efforts was Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Working in coordination with his country's military leadership, including Field Marshal Asim Munir, they put forward a proposal for a two week ceasefire coupled with a temporary reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The idea was simple. Create just enough breathing room for diplomacy to catch up with the battlefield, and it wasn't coming out of nowhere. For weeks now, Pakistan, along with Egypt and Turkey, has been acting as the primary go between, shuttling proposals back and forth between Washington and Tehran. Behind the scenes, the US and Iran had been exchanging proposals and counter proposals, trying to land on a framework that could stop the fighting, at least temporarily. Now, Iran had even submitted a revised 10 point offer just a day earlier. It did not meet U.S. demands, but officials saw it as more constructive than expected, a signal that Tehran wasn't simply walking away. However, those who have seen the Iranian proposal note that it basically is a list of maximalist demands from the regime. As you might imagine, major obstacles remain. Iran was pushing for firm guarantees that the US and Israel wouldn't simply resume military operations after a pause. On the American side, there were serious questions about timing, verification and whether Tehran could be trusted to follow through. And then there was the pace. Iranian decision making has been slowed by the ongoing conflict and security concerns, with disrupted communication complicating coordination. At times they were reduced to passing handwritten notes, pushing negotiations right up against the deadline. What was taking shape in those final hours wasn't a single clean deal, but a bundle of interconnected pieces. A possible ceasefire, confidence building steps, the reopening of the Strait, and the potential for broader negotiations down the line. As of now, there's no confirmation that the Strait of Hormuz is actually open. Selected vessels have been moving through, but under tight conditions controlled by Iran. Earlier in the day, Vice President J.D. vance suggested the US had already achieved most of its military objectives, signaling that there was at least some appetite in Washington to wind this down if the conditions were right and not to sound churlish, but of course, there's an appetite in Washington to wind this down. The midterm elections are coming up, and nothing, nothing impacts geopolitical concerns and decision making like politics and the desire to not get your backside kicked in a midterm election. If anyone imagines that this decision wasn't due to political expediency, well, I've got a timeshare condo in Tehran to sell you. Of course, the big question is whether Iran ultimately follows through on any agreement and also what concessions the White House may be willing to grant in an effort to declare victory and move on. All right, coming up next, Ukraine says Russia is helping Iran sharpen its attacks against the U.S. israel and the Gulf states with satellite and cyber support, while Moscow and Beijing block an effort in the UN to open the Strait of Hormuz. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, you've probably heard me talk about Goldbelly. That's the amazing company that brings iconic foods from America's greatest chefs straight to your doorstep. Well, as you may be aware, you probably looked at the calendar and you know Mother's Day is fast approaching. And what better way to make mom feel special than to order up some of the food she's going to love? Goldbelly celebrates the best of America by shipping the country's most celebrated foods from legendary eateries straight to your door. It's that simple. And they'll ship anywhere across the country for free. In time for Mother's Day. Everything I've ever ordered from Gold Belly shows up perfectly packed and delicious. Right? 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welcome back to the PDB New intelligence is revealing a far more coordinated effort between Russia and Iran than previously understood. According to a Ukrainian assessment reviewed by Reuters, Russian satellites carried out at least two dozen surveillance passes over military and infrastructure sites across the region in just a 10 day window from the 21st to the 31st of March. We're talking about 46 separate targets across 11 countries, including US bases, command headquarters, airports and energy facilities. I want to highlight that a Western military and a regional security source both told Reuters. Their intelligence also pointed to intense Russian satellite activity, with imagery being shared with Iran. In multiple cases, those same surveilled US Sites were hit by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones just days after being surveilled. Now let me give you one example that really brings this into focus. A Russian satellite passed over Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia just days before Iran launched a strike there on 27 March, an attack that hit high value American assets including an E3 Sentry Airborne Command and control aircraft. Just a day later, a Russian satellite passed over that same site, again appearing to assess the damage. Russian satellites reportedly surveilled sites across Saudi Arabia, the uae, Qatar, Israel, Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and even the remote naval support facility at San Diego Garcia in Saudi Arabia. Several of those passes focused on the King Khalid military city near Hafar Al Batin in this area. Ukrainian military analysts believe Russia is attempting to locate the U. S made Thaad missile defense system. But the assessment out of Kyiv also points to a more structured system of behind the scenes cooperation. Intelligence sharing between Russia and Iran appears to be organized through a communications channel between the two regimes, potentially supported by Russian military intelligence personnel stationed in Tehran. And that coordination is expanding into cyberspace. Russian and Iranian hacking groups are working in parallel, communicating via telegram, sharing tools and in some cases coordinating operations. The Ukrainian assessment emphasizes the collaboration, citing an incident where Iranian hackers threatened attacks on Israeli infrastructure while Russian groups at the same time released access credentials to those various systems, effectively providing the digital keys needed to carry them out. Now, to be clear, there is still some skepticism in Washington about just how much of this is actually impacting US and allied operations. The White House has so far downplayed the significance of any foreign support to Iran, even as European leaders raised concerns during a recent G7 meeting. Washington appears keen to avoid broadening an already complex problem by accusing Moscow of aiding and abetting the lethality of Iranian strikes. Reuters notes that it was not able to independently verify the Ukrainian assessment. But given the close nature of the relationship between Iran and Russia, particularly over the past four years of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, it would be either naive or willfully ignorant to state that the Kremlin isn't providing significant assistance to Tehran. Now, the effectiveness of that support may be up for debate, but the existence of that support is not okay. If you were looking for another example of the fecklessness of the United nations, well, I've got you covered. Just hours before President Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the United nations had a chance to act, to confront the regime's hold over the critical waterway with an important UN Resolution. But they failed to do so after Russia and China vetoed that effort. Now, to understand how we got there, you have to start with what this resolution was originally supposed to do and how much of it was stripped away before it ever reached a vote. At its core, this resolution was designed to do one thing, reopen the strait to keep the regime from essentially extorting the rest of the world. The initial proposal, which was introduced by Bahrain, would have authorized what the UN Calls all necessary means, the kind of wording that opens the door to military enforcement. In practical terms, it would have allowed countries to step in and ensure the strait remained open, even if that meant directly confronting Iran's efforts militarily to restrict access. But almost immediately, that ran into resistance. Russia and China pushed back specifically over the authorization of that use of force. Iran has few friends internationally, but Russia and China continue to provide top cover for the regime. Russia, in large part because of their military cooperation with Tehran, and China, in part because they've been enjoying discounted Iranian oil for years. So the resolution that got rewritten, watered down, all references to offensive action were removed. What's left was a much softer version, language that, quote, strongly encourages countries to coordinate defensive efforts to keep shipping lanes open. Well, that is classic U.N. now, with that, there was no enforcement mechanism and no real consequences for Iran if it continued to tighten control over the waterway. In other words, what began as something that could actually compel action was reduced to little more than a call for cooperation. Again, classic UN and at that point, there were already doubts about whether it would change anything. Because once you strip out enforcement, what you're left with is essentially a statement, not a solution. Despite being scaled back to avoid provoking a veto Russia and China played their veto card anyway. Eleven countries voted in favor of the resolution to abstain. But it doesn't matter. Those two vetoes, those from Russia and China, were enough to shut the entire thing down. And the timing here is critical as the vote came just hours before President Trump's Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait or face potential US Strikes that Trump threatened would send Iran back to the Stone Age. Russia and China argued that the resolution was biased, that it unfairly targeted Iran and risked legitimizing Western military action. Despite its watered down stature, Iran's ambassador echoed that position, praising the veto and saying it prevented the UN from justifying aggression. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz called the vetoes a new low, accusing Russia and China of siding with a regime that is holding the global economy at gunpoint. And he made another point that's worth paying attention to. This isn't just about oil markets. Iran's restrictions on the Strait also block the delivery of humanitarian aid to crisis zones in the region. Waltz said, quote, no one should tolerate that. But Russia and China did tolerate it, end quote. And Russia, of course, is still engaged in their grinding four plus years invasion of Ukraine. So naturally they're the bellwether for what does and doesn't justify military action. Okay, coming up in the back of the brief, a glimpse into the future of intelligence as the CIA reportedly used a mysterious new technology to locate the downed airman in Iran by detecting his heartbeat. More on that story when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here with an important message for anyone who owns a handgun. 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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 politicsbyfaith
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in today's back of the Brief, we're getting a bit of insight into a CIA technology that, well, sounds like something straight out of science fiction, but played A very real role in bringing an American airman home alive. According to a new report, the CIA deployed a previously unknown tool called Ghost Murmur to help locate the second crew member of that downed F15E in southern Iran. The system can reportedly detect the faint electromagnetic signal of a human heartbeat from miles away. Now, don't picture some sweeping all seeing radar. This appears to be far more precise and far more limited. The technology works best in quiet, remote environments. And in this case, well, the conditions were nearly perfect. The airman, identified only as Dude44 Bravo, was hiding in a mountain crevice deep in sparsely populated terrain with very little background interference. That environment is what made the use of this device possible, because what Ghost Murmur is reportedly doing is essentially picking out a single heartbeat in a massive area, something that one source compared to hearing a voice in stadium, except the stadium is hundreds of square miles of desert. The system reportedly combines advanced sensing technology with artificial intelligence, allowing operators to filter out noise and lock onto a specific human signature. President Trump even suggested the CIA was able to locate the airmen from roughly 40 miles away. Now, the airmen did have a survival beacon, but it wasn't enough to pinpoint his exact location. In fact, part of the challenge was that he had to briefly expose himself to activate it, while Iranian forces were, of course, actively searching for him. That's where this Ghost Murmur device came in. It helped narrow the search, confirm he was alive, and ultimately allowed US Forces to move into the rescue phase. And as we've reported, that rescue was incredibly complex. Hundreds of personnel and over 150 aircraft were involved. Some aircraft were damaged, some had to be destroyed on the ground, and yet, remarkably, no American lives were lost. As for the Ghost Murmur technology, this was its first known use in the field. It was reportedly developed by Lockheed Martin's secretive Skunk Works division. And while it shows real promise, well, it's not a silver bullet. It requires time to process data, and it's far less effective in crowded or complex environments. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Wednesday 8th April. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb@the first tv.com and if you'd like to have an ad free PDB experience, well, we can definitely make that happen. 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 later today with the PDB afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. It.