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The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 27th, 2026: U.S. Embassy Tells Staff To Leave Israel Now & Pakistan Declares ‘Open War’ Against Taliban
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It's Friday, the 27th of February. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, the U. S. Embassy in Jerusalem is urging non essential staff and dependents to leave Israel immediately if they wish to do so. It's a significant move that signals Washington is likely bracing for escalation with Iran. I'll have the latest later in the show. Pakistan is now declaring open war against Afghanistan after launching air and ground strikes hitting Taliban military targets in Kabul and Kandahar. The escalation follows retaliatory drone attacks by the Taliban along the border and also competing claims of heavy casualties. And we'll look at how this developed. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. In another signal that the Trump administration is preparing for direct conflict with Iran, the US Embassy in Jerusalem has urged its personnel to depart Israel immediately if they wish to do so. It's a move that reflects growing concern about what could come next. In an internal email sent Friday morning, Ambassador Mike Huckabee told staff that those who wanted to leave should do so today, urging them to secure commercial flights out of Ben Gurion Airport as soon as possible. While he stressed there was, quote, no need to panic, the urgency of the message was clear. Now the embassy formally shifted to what's known as an authorized departure footing, allowing non essential personnel and their dependents to leave at government expense due to the heightened security concerns. The email did not explicitly reference Iran, but you don't need to be a keen observer to draw that connection. Officials said they were making the decision out of, quote, an abundance of caution, citing safety risks following meetings and calls that took place Thursday night into Friday, including consultations with the State Department. Israel would be a prime target, of course, for retaliation by Tehran or its proxies if the US Launches military strikes against Iranian nuclear or military sites. And with American fighter jets now forward deployed in Israel, two aircraft carrier strike groups positioned in the region and additional U.S. assets already surged into Jordan. Well, the table does seem set for kinetic action still. This is not a full evacuation and the embassy remains operational. But declaring the authorized departure protocol is not a routine or common move. It's a precaution reserved for circumstances where U.S. national interests or credible threats to life threatening warrant reducing personnel exposure. Earlier this week, the US Embassy in Lebanon also ordered the departure of non emergency staff and family members. The State Department has also updated travel advisories urging Americans to reconsider travel to Israel and the West Bank. Other allied governments are taking similar steps, quietly trimming diplomatic footprints as tensions rise. And of course, all of this is unfolding as many nuclear negotiations appear to be faltering. According to reporting from the Times of Israel, US Negotiators left Thursday's six hour session in Geneva disappointed with significant gaps still separating Washington and Tehran. Is that somehow a surprise to the US Envoys? While talks are currently expected to continue next week with Omani mediation, there was no diplomatic breakthrough, and notably, the American negotiating team offered no public assessment afterward. Meanwhile, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in Israel on Monday to discuss a range of regional priorities, though the focus is expected to be on Iran. And President Trump continues to weigh a range of military options, from limited targeted strikes designed to increase leverage to broader operations should Iran refuse to dismantle key elements of its nuclear program. All right, coming up next, Pakistan declares open war on Afghanistan as Islamabad conducts airstrikes on targets in Kabul and Kandahar, marking the most serious escalation yet between the two countries. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take a moment of your time to talk about security, specifically your online security and to tell you about Delete Me. Deleteme is a great company out there where working to make people safer online. Now, Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Look, it's easier than ever to find personal information about people online. You know that. But having your address, your phone number, your family members, information, just hanging out on the Internet can have actual consequences in the real world and can make you vulnerable to all sorts of scams. If you're like me, privacy and protecting your online presence is very important. We all want to stay protected from identity theft or harassment or doxing. And you can do that with the help of Delete Me, take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for PDB listeners. You get 20 off your Delete Me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com PDB and use the promo code PDB at checkout again to get 20% off. Just go to JoinDeleteMe.com PDB and enter code PDB at checkout. One more time, join DeleteMe.com PDB code PDB. Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment to talk about personal finances. So here's a question. What are your financial goals for this new year? Right. 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Look, if you like deep, insightful conversations with world class thinkers and who doesn't come on, check out the Jordan Harbinger Show. It's available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. Jordan sits down with people who've been in the room at the highest levels, from national security leaders to thinkers reshaping how we understand the world. You'll hear ideas and stories that go way beyond the usual sound bites. Two episodes. I'd recommend an interview with our friend Ryan Macbeth on Venezuela's collapse. That's a clear look at how a once wealthy oil state unraveled and what that means of course, for regional stability. And also his conversation with Douglas Murray where they explore the pressures facing Western democracies and what those trends mean for long term stability. Download the Jordan Harbinger Show. That's H A R B I N G E R Just like it sounds on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows. Or just go to jordanharbinger.com start to dive right in. It's one of those podcasts that makes you smarter, so give it a go. Welcome back to the afternoon Bulletin. I want to return to our coverage of the Pakistan Afghanistan conflict where what began as another tense week of cross border accusations has now escalated into what Pakistan's Defense Minister is calling quote open war. Oh good, just what 2026 needed, another crisis or conflict. Pakistan carried out fresh air and ground strikes overnight inside Afghanistan, targeting Taliban leadership in multiple major cities including the capital of Kabul as well as Kandahar. Security sources in Islamabad said the strikes involved air to ground missile attacks on Taliban military offices and posts. Now it marks the first time that Pakistan has directly targeted the military infrastructure of its former Taliban allies over allegations that they're harboring militants responsible for terror attacks inside Pakistan, including two recent suicide attacks. Analysts called the overnight strikes the most serious escalation between the two countries since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021. The current conflict threatens to unravel the remaining remnants of a fragile ceasefire that was brokered between Islamabad and Kabul after deadly border clashes back in October that killed dozens. Pakistan's defense minister framed the strikes as a retaliation and bluntly said, quote, unquote, our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you, end quote. So what was the final straw for Islamabad? According to Reuters, Afghan forces launched what the Taliban described as retaliatory attacks on Pakistani military installations Thursday night. It was their response to Pakistani airstrikes earlier in the week that Islamabad said targeted camps linked to the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan. As we covered on Monday's episode, Taliban leaders in Kabul accused the Pakistani military of targeting civilians in the strikes, saying 13 were killed. While rejecting any allegations that they've allowed militants to operate from Afghan soil, Taliban leaders warned earlier this week that there would be a strong response. Pakistan placed their forces on heightened alert. The Taliban said their forces hit multiple Pakistani military targets along their 1600 mile disputed border on Thursday with drones, though Pakistan says it intercepted all the drones and suffered no damage. But it was enough to provoke the overnight air assaults by Islamabad. Reuters Witnesses in Kabul reported the sound of jets, loud blasts and ambulance sirens as missiles hit the capital. Taliban officials say Pakistani airstrikes hit parts of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia Thursday night and then expanded Friday to additional provinces including Paktia, Paktika, Kost and Lagman. Multiple ground clashes were also reported along the border. Afghan leaders claim there were no casualties from the Thursday night strikes, but say Friday strikes caused civilian casualties. Pakistan's army spokesperson said their air and ground operations killed at least 274 Taliban officials and affiliated militants while wounding more than 400. They also acknowledged that Afghan forces killed 12 Pakistani soldiers and wounded 27 others. The Taliban, meanwhile, accused the Pakistani military of putting out false information. If you're confused, well, you're in good company. They claim to have only lost 13 of their fighters while killing 55 Pakistani soldiers. Notably, Taliban officials did not provide specifics regarding the alleged civilian deaths. Now on top of all that, Qatar is reportedly working with a number of other countries in the region to try and resolve the crisis. And Taliban officials have said that they want to pursue negotiations, claiming, somewhat absurdly, that, quote, afghanistan has never been a supporter of violence. And as always, I'm sorry, I wanted to read that with a straight face. Let me start that quote over again, shall I? Afghanistan has never been a supporter of violence and has always preferred to resolve issues and based on mutual understanding and respect, end quote. Taliban officials claiming they've never supported violence. It's. It's hard to quantify just how stupid and nonsensical that statement is. Pakistani officials, meanwhile, warned that any new provocations by the Taliban or attempts by terrorist groups to target Pakistani civilians will be met with a, quote, decisive response. Now, as a reminder, militant violence has surged in Pakistan over the past two years, with much of it blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the ttp, along with other outlawed separatist groups. It's important to note that the TTP is separate but closely aligned with Afghanistan's Taliban, an alignment that, of course, deepens mistrust between Islamabad and Kabul. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon bulletin for Friday 27th February. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB and@thefirst tv.com now. As you've likely seen on billboards all around town, tonight at 10pm on the first TV, we launched the latest episode of our weekend show, the PDB Situation Report. Excellent guests this weekend include the former director of MI6, the UK's intelligence service. Sir Richard Dearlove, who spent almost 40 years with MI6, including as Washington station chief, head of operations, and eventually director, joins us to talk about Iran, Ukraine and his encounters with Vladimir Putin. We've also got weapons analyst extraordinaire Ryan Macbeth. Ryan walks us through the military buildup in the Gulf as tensions peak with Iran, and he boldly predicts when the US will launch military operations against the regime. You can also catch it and past episodes of the Situation report on our YouTube channel. I hope you'll check that out. It's at President's Daily Brief and of course, podcast platforms all over podcast land. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB Situation Report. Until then, you can stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.
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