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The President's Daily Brief
May 14th, 2026: U.S. Intel Warns China May Be Secretly Supplying Iran With Weapons & Trump Meets With Xi
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It's Thursday, the 14th of May. 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 US Intelligence suggests that Chinese companies may be quietly working to funnel weapons to Iran through third countries, raising additional concerns about COVID military support for the Iranian regime. Later in the show, President Trump touches down in Beijing for high stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as both sides look to stabilize relations amid growing tensions over trade, Taiwan and the war in the Middle East. Plus, reports continue to indicate the war with Iran has pushed Israel and the UAE into an unprecedented level of military and intelligence cooperation. Behind closed and in today's Back of the Brief, a mysterious Russian shipwreck is raising new questions after reports suggest the vessel may have been secretly transporting nuclear reactors to North Korea. And that is just what 2026 needed, a nuclear reactor at the bottom of the sea. The year is really shaping up. But first, today's PDB spotlight. As President Trump arrives in Beijing this week for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. New reporting from the New York Times is raising serious questions about what may be happening quietly behind the scenes between China and Iran. According to US Officials cited in the report, Chinese companies have allegedly been discussing covert arms transfers to Iran with plans to route those shipments through third countries in an effort to disguise where the weapons are actually coming from. Now, at this point, U.S. intelligence officials say it remains unclear whether any of those shipments have already occurred. There is also reportedly disagreement inside the US Government over how, how far these efforts have progressed. But the allegations themselves are, of course, significant because if true, this would mark a major escalation in China's support for the regime during the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel and the U.S. and importantly, this would go far beyond the kind of indirect support that China has already been accused of providing. For months now, American officials have publicly accused Beijing of helping prop up Iran through economic ties, intelligence sharing, and the sale of so called dual use technologies, components that can be used for civilian purposes but also support military production. According to US Intelligence assessments, China has allegedly provided Iran with semiconductors, sensors, voltage converters, and other components used in the production of drones and missile systems. American officials also believe China has provided Iran with satellite intelligence and surveillance support, including information capable of tracking US Military movements in the region, essentially targeting data that can make Iran's efforts against the US And Gulf allies more lethal. But weapons providing weapons, well, that's a very different matter. And what reportedly concerns US Officials most here is the apparent effort to hide the transfers. According to the Times report, Chinese firms and Iranian officials allegedly discussed routing weapons shipments through intermediary countries, including at least one in Africa, specifically to obscure the Chinese origin of the equipment. That suggests that everyone involved understands just how politically explosive direct Chinese weapons transfers to Iran would be. And this wouldn't be the first warning sign. Last month, the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered information suggesting that China may have transferred shoulder fired anti aircraft missiles known as MANPADs to Iran. Those systems are especially dangerous because they're, well, they're portable, difficult to detect, and capable of shooting down low flying aircraft. Now, to be clear, there's no public evidence that Chinese weapons have been used against US Or Israeli forces during the war. And according to the reporting, American officials don't believe that the Chinese government has formally approved these alleged transfers. But there's an important caveat attached to that assessment. Officials also reportedly believe that it's highly unlikely that Chinese companies would engage in military cooperation with Iran on this scale without at least the knowledge of the Chinese government. And by highly unlikely, I mean, well, that would be impossible. In other words, plausible deniability is very likely part of the strategy. And that gets us to the broader geopolitical picture here, because China's relationship with Iran has always been driven by a careful balancing act. On one hand, Beijing has major strategic reasons to support Tehran. China purchases roughly 80% of Iran's oil exports, often at heavily discounted prices due, of course, to international sanctions. Iran has become an increasingly important energy supplier for China as tensions between Beijing and the west continue to grow. China also sees Iran as a useful regional counterweight to American influence in the Middle East. But at the exact same time, China needs stability in the Persian Gulf. Beijing depends heavily on energy shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Any prolonged disruption to shipping lanes threatens not only China's energy security, but also its manufacturing base and export economy. And that's where things become complicated. Because while China may want to keep Iran strategically afloat, it also has strong incentives to prevent the conflict from spiraling completely out of control. Insurance costs have surged, commercial traffic remains unstable, and energy markets continue watching the region nervously. So Beijing now finds itself walking a very narrow line. Support Iran enough to preserve influence and access, but not so openly that China becomes directly entangled in the conflict itself. And all of this, of course, is unfolding while President Trump is about to sit down face to face with Xi Jinping in Beijing. According to the reporting, Trump previously said he directly warned Xi not to allow weapons transfers to Iran. Trump later claimed that Xi responded by essentially denying that China was involved. Oh, well, if he, if he denies it, then that's that. Now the question becomes whether this issue emerges publicly during the meetings this week or whether both sides quietly avoid escalating tensions while trying to stabilize the broader US China relationship. Alright, coming up next, President Trump arrives in Beijing for talks with Xi Jinping. While new reporting suggests that the war with Iran is deepening military and intelligence cooperation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. I want to tell you about a man that you may have heard about, but certainly everyone should know about. His name is Jimmy lai. He's a 78 year old British citizen, father and grandfather, and he spent over five years in solitary confinement in a Hong Kong maximum security prison. Now, the reason he's in prison is simple. When the Chinese Communist Party, the ccp, cracked down on Hong Kong a decade ago, well, Jimmy Lai refused to roll over. You see, after escaping Communist China as a boy, Jimmy became a successful entrepreneur. Inspired by the Tiananmen Square protesters, he launched Apple Daily, a newspaper dedicated to freedom. This, of course, put him directly in the CCP's crosshairs. Jimmy joined the pro democracy protests, becoming a global symbol for the rule of law. Earlier this year, Jimmy Lai was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison. Now, at his age, in failing health, well, that's effectively a life sentence. President Trump is calling for Jimmy's release. He said he'll bring up Lai's imprisonment during his discussions with President Xi Jinping at the Beijing summit this week. But to learn more, just visit supportjimmilai.com again, that's supportjimmilai.com learn about his story and tell others. If you care about democracy and the rule of law, visit supportjimmilai.com hey, Bill O'Reilly here.
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Please check out my new interview series. We'll do it live. Each Thursday, I sit down with the most influential people in America. We're a no spin chat, no script. Anything could happen. You can find. We'll do it live on BillOriley.com, youTube or wherever you download your podcast.
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Welcome back to the pdb. President Trump arrived in China with a gaggle of senior administration officials. I think that's a technical term for a bunch of senior administration officials. A gaggle and business leaders also in tow. He and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet face to face today for what could become one of the most consequential summits in years between the world's two dominant economies, or, well, as with many summits, there will be plenty of fanfare and not so much in the way of meaningful results. So it could be one or the other. As Trump descended the steps of Air Force One on Wednesday night, he was greeted by China's vice president, who was flanked by military honor guards and carefully choreographed crowds waving American and Chinese flags across the tarmac. The visit marks the first trip to China by a sitting president since 2017, when Trump traveled to Beijing back during his first term. Joining the commander in chief are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. And each of them tells us something a bit different about what this summit is going to be centered on, or perhaps will be centered on. Besant has emerged as one of the administration's central negotiators, with Beijing ahead of the summit, which underscores how heavily the White House is prioritizing the economic side of these discussions. Meanwhile, EXEF's presence carries significance of its own, becoming the first sitting defense secretary to visit China since Jim Mattis made the trip back in 2018. Even Rubio's participation has drawn some interesting attention. You may recall that China sanctioned Rubio back in 2020 over his criticism of Beijing's abuses, though Chinese officials reportedly worked around those sanctions for the trip by subtly altering the transliteration of his surname. Well, that's subtle, and that little workaround says quite a bit about the balancing act that Beijing is trying to pull off here. On the one hand, China wants to look defiant in the face of American criticism, but at the same time, Beijing understands this summit is too important to turn it into a diplomatic standoff over whether the US Secretary of state is technically allowed to enter the country. Back in October, the two leaders, Xi and Trump, met in South Korea on the sidelines of the APEC summit as both tried to stabilize an escalating trade war that rattled global markets and pushed tariffs to triple digit percentages. But now the geopolitical landscape looks very different. Trump is simultaneously trying to manage growing instability in the Middle east while also confronting an increasingly confident China that appears convinced the balance of leverage is slowly shifting in Beijing's favor. Chinese military analysts have openly questioned whether the US could realistically sustain a prolonged conflict in the Middle east while also defending Taiwan in the event of a future confrontation. At the same time, Xi is arriving at this summit facing problems of his own. China's economy has slowed considerably, energy prices remain elevated, and fears of a broader global downturn continue threatening Beijing's export driven economy. So while CCP officials are projecting confidence, there's also growing pressure on Xi to stabilize relations with the US before economic conditions deteriorate further at home. And that backdrop helps explain why both governments are arriving with different priorities. So you ask yourself, what is the Trump administration putting on the agenda at this summit? What are their top priorities? Well, Trump is focusing on what's known as the five Bs, meaning Chinese purchases of Boeing aircraft, US beef and soybeans, and the creation of new trade boards designed for economic cooperation. Meanwhile, Beijing is focusing on the three T's that would be tariffs, technology, and Taiwan. China is expected to push for an extension of last year's temporary trade truce, while also pressuring Washington to loosen semiconductor export restrictions that have become central to the tech cold war unfolding between the world's two largest economies. And then, well, there's Taiwan, which remains a flashpoint, of course, looming over the summit. Xi has repeatedly warned that China will never allow Taiwan to permanently separate from the mainland. And Beijing is expected to pressure Trump to scale back American military support for the self governed island. What may also be on the agenda could be fentanyl trafficking, China's rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, and the case of imprisoned Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Trump has said he plans to raise the issue of lies imprisonment directly with Xi. And outside Trump's White House delegation, some of America's most influential business and technology executives have also descended on Beijing. One of the most closely watched figures is Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia. In a last minute move, Trump invited him aboard Air Force One after Huang had spent months lobbying Washington and Beijing to allow Nvidia to continue selling AI chips into China. His efforts came even as national security hawks inside the Trump administration warned that advanced semiconductors could accelerate China's military and technological ambitions. The White House has also assembled a broader group of corporate leaders seeking to preserve access to Chinese markets and secure future US Investment deals, including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook, the soon to retire chief of Apple. So what can we ultimately expect from this two day summit, given all that's listed here? Well, for one, neither side appears to expect a sweeping breakthrough from these talks. The outcome is likely a continuation of the uneasy balancing act already in place. Modest trade agreements, perhaps a temporary extension of the tariff truce, and both governments buying themselves more time. But there are also plenty of ways that the summit could go sideways. Tensions surrounding Iran could easily spill into the talks. Taiwan remains an unresolved powder keg, and Washington and Beijing are increasingly using economic warfare through sanctions and export controls and supply chain pressure, which could lead to an abrupt end of the summit. Okay, turning now to the Middle east, where new reporting suggests the war with Iran may have quietly accelerated one of the most significant realignments in the region, the deepening security partnership between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the uae. According to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Mossad chief David Badia secretly visited the UAE at least twice during the war with Iran, traveling there in March and April for meetings with senior Emirati officials. The purpose, according to Arab officials and a person familiar with the matter, was direct military coordination tied to the conflict. The Times of Israel, citing additional Israeli reporting, says the head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security and intelligence AGENC agency, also visited the UAE in recent weeks for talks aimed at increasing coordination between Israeli intelligence agencies and Emirati security services. Now, neither Israel nor the UAE has officially confirmed those visits, but taken together, the reports point to a much deeper level of wartime cooperation than either side has publicly acknowledged. According to the Times of Israel, that cooperation included intelligence sharing, missile and drone detection, interception efforts, and coordination around defensive and offensive operations against Tehran. And that tracks with what we've been discussing on the PDB for weeks. During the war, Iran launched sustained attacks across the Gulf, with the UAE taking some of the heaviest fire in the region. According to the Emirati Defense Ministry, Tehran fired roughly 550 ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 2200 drones at the UAE, making it the most targeted country in the conflict, even more so than Israel. That pressure appears to have pushed Abu Dhabi and Jerusalem into a level of operational cooperation that would have been politically unthinkable just a few years ago. Reporting showed that Israel deployed an Iron Dome battery to the UAE early in the war and sent several dozen Israeli troops to operate it on Emirati soil, marking the first time that the system had ever been used operationally outside of Israel or the US that deployment was reportedly ordered by Prime Minister Netanyahu after a direct call with UAE President Mohammad bin Zayed. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz publicly confirmed the Iron Dome deployment for the first time on Monday while speaking at an Israeli Independence Day event in New York. And U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee later confirmed the same arrangement, saying Tuesday that Israel sent Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help the UAE operate them because of what he called the, quote, extraordinary relationship between the UAE and Israel based on the Abraham Accords. That confirmation is important because up to this point, much of this cooperation had either been reported anonymously or left deliberately vague. Now American officials are openly acknowledging that Israeli missile defense systems and Israeli personnel were used to protect a Gulf Arab state from Iranian missiles and drones. And it reportedly proved critical to the UAE's defense, with Israeli officials saying the system intercepted dozens of Iranian missiles, helping blunt the impact of Tehran's attacks. But it appears the cooperation didn't stop with air defenses. We recently learned that the UAE carried out military strikes inside Iran during the war, though Abu Dhabi has not publicly acknowledged those strikes, and the UAE Foreign Ministry has declined to comment on the reports. But given the newly disclosed trips made to the UAE by the heads of Mossad and Shin Bet, offensive military coordination does seem certainly plausible. So while Israel and the UAE remain cautious about publicly discussing the full scope of their wartime cooperation, these developments mark a significant evolution from where the region stood just a few years ago. The Abraham accords, signed in 2020, were originally framed as a normalization agreement, an effort to formalize diplomatic and economic ties between Israel and several Arab states. But the Iran war appears to have accelerated that relationship, with the accords increasingly looking like the foundation for a regional security partnership, one built around a shared threat from the Iranian regime. Up next, in the back of the brief, a Russian cargo vessel that sank after multiple explosions may have been secretly carrying nuclear cargo intended for North Korea. More on that when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here with a tip for every dude out there who's getting older. And hint, that would be all the dudes, because we're all getting older, not just all the young dudes. 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Every major story has a version the news gives you and then a version that's actually true. If you're a critical thinker, if you're somebody who's not tribal, if you're somebody who just wants the facts so you can make your own decisions, Keeping It Real with Jillian Michaels is the show for you. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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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. 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 in today's Back of the
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Brief, a bizarre 2024 Russian shipping disaster is suddenly looking Far more suspicious after a new report suggests the vessel may have been secretly hauling nuclear reactors likely bound from North Korea before unexplained explosions sent it to the ocean floor. According to cnn, the report detailing the sinking, combined with what investigators are now piecing together, raises questions about whether this was just a straightforward maritime accident, because the vessel, known as the Ursa major, or Sparta 3, not only suffered multiple explosions before sinking, but was allegedly carrying two submarine style nuclear reactors, with the ship's captain allegedly telling investigators he believed the cargo was bound for North Korea. If those allegations are true, this would mean Russia was helping one of the world's most hostile regimes expand its military nuclear capabilities, just as North Korean troops were assisting Moscow's war effort in Ukraine. The ship's voyage took place just weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent thousands of his troops to support Russia following Ukraine's surprise offensive into the Kursk region. Here on the pdb, our longtime listeners know we've been tracking the growing signs that Moscow may be compensating North Korea with advanced military and technical expertise, particularly as Kim aggressively pushes to build a nuclear powered submarine fleet. And Sparta 3's publicly listed cargo manifest only deepens the mystery. Officially, the vessel was declared to be carrying empty shipping containers, two large cranes and oversized manhole covers. Nothing to see there. There was no mention of reactors or nuclear related cargo, despite the vessel reportedly holding a license to transport atomic materials. Now, European militaries had been monitoring the vessel's movements through the Mediterranean, with Portuguese naval aircraft tracking the ship and the ship's military escort vessels before eventually losing contact on 22 December. Back in 2024, not long after, Spanish rescue officials noticed Sparta 3 slowing unusually and radioed the crew to ask whether assistance was needed. According to CNN's findings, the crew responded that everything was fine. But then, 24 hours later, the situation suddenly changed. Sparta 3 issued an emergency distress call after suffering three explosions near the engine room, with the blasts reportedly killing two crew members. Amid rescue efforts, Spanish crews found parts of the ship were inaccessible, including a sealed engine compartment that rescuers could not breach. A Russian military escort ship, identified as the Ivan Gren arrived and ordered nearby vessels to remain at least two nautical miles away from the damaged cargo ship. In the new report, we're learning that Sparta 3 initially appeared stable before the situation suddenly deteriorated again. The findings reveal the vessel ultimately sank after another series of underwater explosions. That's where investigators say the story surrounding this sinking took another strange turn. After briefly examining the damage to the vessel during initial rescue efforts, eyewitnesses began to consider whether the ship had been struck by a torpedo. Known as the Barracuda, it's a rare weapon believed to be possessed only by the US A handful of NATO countries, Russia and Iran. Now, none of that has been publicly confirmed. But days later, a Russian state linked shipping operator claimed the vessel suffered what it described as a targeted terrorist attack, allegedly leaving a 20 inch by 20 inch hole in the hull. But the unanswered questions don't end there. About a week after the sinking, a Russian research vessel arrived above the wreckage site, where additional explosions occurred near the seabed. For months, the mystery only deepened, eventually drawing attention from Washington. The Military deployed its WC135 aircraft over the area twice, once in August of 2025 and again in February of this year. That's according to flight tracking data. The aircraft is what's known as a nuke sniffer, specifically designed to detect radioactive particles in the atmosphere, which raises more questions about what American officials may have known about Sparta 3's cargo. Washington has yet to explain the flights or whether anything was detected publicly. At this stage, there remain more questions than answers. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Thursday, 14 May. Now if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb@the firsttv.com and don't forget, if you'd like an ad free PDB experience. Well, just become a premium member of the PDB 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.