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The President's Daily Brief
January 20th, 2026: Russia Targets Nuclear Power Plants & Secret Venezuela Talks
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It's Tuesday, the 20th of January. 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, new warnings that Russia may be preparing to strike the power lines feeding Europe's largest nuclear plant. Oh, that sounds like a solid IDE idea. A move that could obviously threaten reactor cooling systems and raise fears of a potential meltdown. Well done, Putin. It's almost like he's not interested in ending his four year invasion of Ukraine. Later in the show, new reporting reveals the US Was quietly in talks with Venezuela's hardline interior minister months before the raid that removed Nicolas Maduro. Plus the faa. The Federal Aviation Administration issues new warnings urging caution for flights over parts of Latin America, citing potential military activity in the region. And in today's back of the brief, the Iranian regime faces diplomatic fallout as the World Economic Forum revokes its invitation to Iran's foreign minister after the mass protest killings. Which begs the question, why were they inviting him in the first place? But first, today's PDB Spotlight new reporting is prompting serious concern across Europe and beyond, as intelligence suggests Russia may be preparing a dangerous escalation in its war against Ukraine. According to multiple reports, Moscow is considering strikes not on nuclear reactors themselves, but on the power lines and substations that keep them running safely. Specifically, attention is focused on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility, which has been under Russian control since early in the war. This is part of a broader campaign targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, particularly as winter conditions make electricity and heat even more critical for civilian life. But when nuclear facilities enter the equation, and of course, here comes a statement of the obvious, the stakes change dramatically. And here's why. Even when a nuclear reactor is shut down or operating at reduced capacity, it still generates heat. And that heat has to be constantly managed by cooling systems which rely on external electricity from the power grid. If those power lines are cut, plants are forced to switch to emergency diesel generators. Now, I'm not a nuclear scientist, but. And I know you're surprised by that, but forcing nuclear plants onto emergency power during a war usually falls into the bad idea category. Those generators are designed as nothing more than a temporary fallback, not a long term solution. Fuel supplies can be disrupted, equipment can fail, and in war zones, repairs are anything but guaranteed. If cooling systems falter, temperatures rise. And that's where the risk of a serious nuclear incident, including a meltdown, enters the picture. Ukraine's military intelligence warns that Russia may be planning strikes on substations connected not just to Zaporizhzhia, but to all three of Ukraine's active nuclear plants. The goal, they say, would be to completely sever external power, plunging large portions of the country into darkness during a frigid winter while pushing nuclear facilities onto emergency systems. This would represent not just another Russian attack on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, but a move that would risk radioactive consequences far beyond Ukraine's borders. Zaporizhzhia has already lost external power multiple times since 2022, forcing operators to rely on backup generators while international watchdogs scrambled to assess the danger. Each incident triggered urgent warnings from nuclear experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The iaea, which has repeatedly stressed that nuclear safety cannot be guaranteed in an active combat zone. That is also a statement of the obvious. And yet, here we are again. For its part, Russia insists it's not targeting nuclear facilities. Well, if they say so. But striking the infrastructure that keeps those facilities safe amounts to the same thing in practice. In effect, it's another form of nuclear blackmail, using the risk of a catastrophic accident as leverage. The pressure isn't just on Ukraine, of course, but on Europe and the broader international community. Now, this fits into a wider pattern. Russia's winter energy campaign has already battered Ukraine's grid, leaving millions without reliable heat or electricity. Hospitals, water systems, and transportation networks have all been affected. Adding nuclear risk to that equation raises the possibility of a humanitarian and environmental crisis layered on top of an already brutal war. International concern, of course, is growing. European officials are watching closely, knowing that a serious incident at Zaporizhzhia wouldn't stop at Ukraine's borders. And let's face it, memories of Chernobyl still loom large across the continent. For now, there's no confirmation that an attack is imminent, but the warnings are telling. It's a possible indication of just how far Moscow may be willing to push escalation, with consequences that could extend far beyond the battlefield. Alright. Coming up next, new reporting shows the US Was quietly in talks with a senior Maduro regime leader and hardline Venezuelan power broker months before Maduro's removal. And the U.S. federal Aviation Administration. The FAA warns airlines to exercise caution over parts of Latin America over concern for potential military activity. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment of your time to talk about personal finances and financial goals. Right, that's important this time of year as we head into 2026. 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We're now learning that months before the U.S. operation that ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, backroom discussions were already underway. The Trump administration opened talks with the regime's interior minister, Dio Stato Cabello, and reportedly they've remained in contact ever since. According to a Reuters exclusive report citing multiple people familiar with the matter, Trump administration officials warned Cabello not to deploy the security forces or militant ruling party supporters that he controls against Venezuela's opposition. Now, I want to pause on that warning for a moment because it explains the pressure point that Washington was already focused on. Even before Maduro was removed from power, Cabello still controlled the security apparatus, including intelligence agencies, police units and elements of the armed forces. And those services, of course, currently remain intact. That means Cabello didn't just survive the operation, he emerged from it still holding the levers that could either steady the country or push it toward chaos. Trump administration officials say containing that risk is why the channel to Cabello was opened and why it remains active. From Washington's perspective, the goal is to prevent unrest during the fragile transition. That concern leads directly to the figure that the White House is watching most carefully. While Interim President Delsey Rodriguez is viewed in Washington as the linchpin of President Trump's approach to post Maduro Venezuela, Cabello is seen as a potential spoiler, someone with enough coercive power to either stabilize or upend the moment. That influence is rooted in Cabello's role for background. He was and still is regarded as the country's second most powerful figure. Cabello is a former military officer and longtime loyalist of the former Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez, and of course later Maduro. For years, he has been feared as the central enforcer of repression, exerting influence over military intelligence, civilian counterintelligence agencies and pro regime militias known as the colectivo, which are armed civilians deployed to intimidate or attack protesters. Cabello was named in the same U. S Drug trafficking indictment that the Trump administration used to justify Maduro's arrest, but he was not targeted in that operation. Cabello has long been under U S Sanctions for alleged drug trafficking. In 2020, the Justice Department indicted him as a senior figure in Cartel de la Souls, the narco terror network that Washington says is embedded in Venezuela's government. Cabello denies the allegations. According to people familiar with the discussions, communications between U.S. officials and Cabello date to the early days of the current Trump administration. The discussions have touched on Cabello's US Sanctions designation and the indictment he faces, and notably they have taken place both directly and through intermediaries. Now in the current post Maduro landscape, Cabello has pledged his support for Rodriguez, but the Trump administration cautions that such pledges don't necessarily reflect the balance of power. But behind the scenes, Although Cabello and Rodriguez have both operated at the core of the Venezuelan state and the ruling United Socialist Party for years, they've never been considered close allies. Trump officials seem to treat Cabello as one of several Maduro era figures tolerated as temporary power brokers during the undefined transition period as Washington moves to secure access to Venezuela's oil reserves. At the same time, those same officials worry about his history of repression to opposition groups. In the hours after Maduro's capture, the question of why Cabello wasn't also picked up was raised repeatedly, and just days later, Cabello denounced the operation, declaring, venezuela will not surrender. But since then, it appears both Washington and Cabello are playing ball with each other. Washington to avoid an eruption of the security forces at Cabello overseas, and Cabello to likely avoid arrest by the US that relationship is playing out on the ground as security forces that had been conducting searches at checkpoints have eased up. And both Trump and the Venezuelan government say political prisoners have been released, a process that Cabello is overseeing. Human rights groups, however, say releases are slow and hundreds remain unjustly detained, leaving open whether Cabello is truly steadying Venezuela's transition or is quietly preserving the leverage that he holds for his own purposes and survival. Staying in the region. The Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA in the US Is warning US Airlines to fly with caution over parts of Latin America as Military operations and GPS interference linked to Washington's crackdown on regional threats reshape the airspace. In a series of notices to Airmen, which for those of you unfamiliar is the formal safety alert that pilots and airlines are required to review before flying, the agency flagged potential risks for flying over Mexico, much of Central America, parts of South America as well as portions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Now, this doesn't appear to be a short term alert. The advisory is set to remain in place for 60 days and applies specifically to American operators. The FAA reportedly sees a sustained risk rather than a one off concern. The timing lines up with the sharp escalation in regional tensions following the Trump administration's large scale military buildup in the South Caribbean and the ouster of Venezuela's Maduro. As we've discussed here on the pdb, the operation didn't just upend Venezuela's regime, it reshaped the security picture across the region. And since then, President Trump has made clear that further military action remains on the table, including the possibility of operations on Colombia's narco network. We've been tracking how Trump has been blunt about his view on the threat environment. Closer to home, he's accused drug cartels of running Mexico and suggests that the US could strike land based anarcho terror targets to dismantle them. Since Trump returned to the White House, transnational criminal groups are being treated as a national security problem, and that decision is what brings US Military assets to play. Not surprisingly, Mexican officials moved to insert Mexico City into this situation. They stress that the FAA advisory is purely precautionary and applies only to U.S. airlines. Mexico's transportation ministry said the notice does not restrict Mexican airspace or disrupt airline operations. Even as Washington's posture in the region hardens now, it's not the first time that the FAA has had to respond to US Military activity in the Western Hemisphere. After Operation Absolute Resolve that ousted Maduro and maritime strikes against narco traffickers, the agency restricted flights across parts of the Caribbean, triggering the cancellation of hundreds of flights by major airlines. FAA administrator Brian Bedford later said the agency coordinated closely with the US Military ahead of those operations, an acknowledgment that aviation safety planning is now operating in the background of a sustained military presence over Latin America. The risks behind these warnings came into focus last month when a JetBlue passenger flight bound for New York took evasive action to avoid a collision with a U S Air Force tanker near Venezuela. In that close call, the JetBlue flight departed Curacao and was flying roughly 40 miles off Venezuela's coast when the airbus encountered the tanker which was reportedly not transmitting a transponder signal. Alright, coming up in today's back of the brief, the World Economic Forum holding their annual gathering of the self important swells in Davos this week withdraws an invitation to Iran's foreign minister in response to the regime's handling of nationwide protests. We'll have the details. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now you may know me as the host of the pdb. I hope you do, but I'm also a business owner. That's right. And always focused on maintaining great client relationships and working to develop new clients. That is of course the lifeblood of business. And that's why I want to talk to you about a great company out there called Quo. It's spelled Q U O qo. Any of you in business know this? Look, smooth, efficient communications is a key to success, right? 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Just go to quo.com PDB no missed calls, no missed customers in today's Back of the Brief. The diplomatic fallout from Iran's deadly crackdown on protesters continues to play out across the globe, this time landing squarely in the Swiss Alps. The World Economic Forum has withdrawn its invitation to Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Arachi, barring him from attending this year's Davos summit. The decision follows mounting pressure from human rights groups and activists who argue that Iranian regime officials should not be granted a global stage while Iranian security forces continue to violently suppress anti government demonstrations at home. Well, that makes sense. Look, if you're responsible for killing thousands of protesters because you can't relinquish your violent grip on power, you probably shouldn't expect an invite to drink champagne and nosh on canopies at some posh ski lodge in the Swiss Alps. For years, Davos has billed itself as a place where the world's political and business elite gather to solve global problems. Sorry, I laughed when I read the word solve them. Often through endless panels, lofty rhetoric and carefully worded communiques. They don't so much solve problems as mingle and congratulate each other on how clever and elite they are. Do I sound churlish? Of course. This comes amid grim reporting out of Iran, where protests were met with live fire, mass arrests and sweeping repression. Human rights organizations estimate that thousands have been killed during the unrest. The Iranian regime itself has admitted at least 5,000, so you could probably double that number with many more detained, disappeared or injured. Tehran, for its part, continues to deny responsibility. Well, we had nothing to do with this and frame the demonstrations as foreign backed unrest, an explanation that of course, has worn thin with the international community. By revoking the invitation, the World Economic Forum is signaling that even its traditionally open door approach will invite anyone has limits. That's notable given Davos reputation as a forum where controversial leaders often mingle freely with Western executives and policymakers and media figures. To be clear, it is largely a symbolic move, a little bit of Kabuki theater, to feel righteous. Barring Iran's foreign minister from a conference, even one as high profile as Davos, won't alter the regime behavior. That was another statement of the obvious. It won't stop the crackdown or free political prisoners or bring justice to families who have lost loved ones in the streets. But symbolism does matter in diplomacy, and in this case, the message is clear. Tehran's actions are increasingly isolating the regime, even in spaces that have historically prized dialogue and champagne swilling above all else. Now, whether this marks a genuine shift in how global institutions engage with authoritarian regimes, or simply a rare moment of moral clarity in a sea of talk, well, that's an open question. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Tuesday 20th January. Now if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb@the first tv.com and should you be so inclined, and I hope that you are, remember to check out our juggernaut of a YouTube channel. Just head on over to YouTube, search for presidents daily brief. And if you like what you see, and I hope you do, please hit that subscribe button. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.