← The President's Daily Brief
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 11th, 2025: Ukraine Agrees To A Ceasefire & Elon Musk's X Hit By Major Cyber Attack
00:11:44
Loading summary
Transcript5 lines
- [00:01]
McAfee Advertiser
Your data is like gold to hackers. They'll sell it to the highest bidder. Are you protected? McAfee helps shield you blocking suspicious texts, malicious emails and fraudulent websites. McAfee Secure VPN lets you browse safely and its AI powered tech scam detector spots threats instantly. You'll also get up to $2 million of award winning antivirus and identity theft protection all for just $39.99 for your first year. Visit McAfee.com cancel anytime terms apply.
- [00:42]
Mike Baker
It's Tuesday, the 11th of March. 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, an update from Saudi Arabia where a US Delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with senior Ukrainian officials. US aid, both military aid as well as intelligence sharing has now been restored after Kiev agreed to a 30 day ceasefire. Now, of course, there's the matter of Moscow's intentions. Later in the show, Elon Musk's ex came under a massive cyber attack on Monday that disrupted service on the social media site for several hours. We'll discuss the fallout and why Musk initially appeared to blame the cyber intrusion on Ukraine. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Delegations from the US And Ukraine met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia today. And in a somewhat surprising turn, although maybe not that surprising given the ups and downs of the past couple of weeks, the meeting wrapped up with a breakthrough. The US Is lifting its pause on military aid and intelligence sharing effective immediately after Kiev agreed to an American proposal for a 30 day ceasefire. According to a joint statement released Tuesday, Ukraine accepted Washington's plan for a quote, immediate interim 30 day ceasefire. However, well, the ball is now in Moscow's court to determine whether they'll agree to the same terms. As you might suspect, a conflict doesn't end if only one side stops shooting. The statement added that both countries, meaning the U.S. and Ukraine, have agreed to name their negotiating teams and quote, immediately begin negotiations toward an enduring peace that provides for Ukraine's long term security. The US Also committed to taking these specific proposals to Russian representatives, while Ukraine reiterated its position that European allies should be involved in the process. The joint statement went on to say, quote, representatives of both nations praise the bravery of the Ukrainian people in defense of their nation and agreed that now is the time to begin a process toward lasting peace, end quote. During the nearly seven hour meeting, Ukrainian officials also took time to express gratitude to President Trump, the US Congress and the American people for helping create what they called, quote, meaningful progress toward peace. This shift in tone is a major turnaround from just days ago, when President Trump suspended all military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following the February 28th Oval Office confrontation. At the time, Trump's advisers justified the move by citing concerns over Zelensky's commitment to peace, saying aid would pause until Kyiv showed it was serious about negotiations with Russia. While the initial response from Ukraine included a carefully worded public statement of regret, US Special envoy Steve Witkoff later revealed that Zelensky privately apologized to Trump in a letter. Now, Trump read portions of that letter aloud during his congressional address last week, but made no mention of an apology. With this new agreement on the table, the focus, of course, shifts to Moscow. Will Putin agree to the same 30 day ceasefire terms? And if so, what kind of lasting deal can actually come from these talks? Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the US Delegation in Jeddah, seemed hopeful, telling reporters, quote, we're in a different place now and I think we'll continue moving forward, end quote. Well, even for the State Department, that statement is a masterclass in vagueness. Still, Ukraine remains under heavy bombardment from Russian forces. As we've recently discussed on the pdb, Moscow has been on the counteroffensive against the Ukrainian military in the Kursk region of Russia and has been making slow but steady gains in the eastern portion of Ukraine. It's frankly anyone's guess at this stage whether Putin will be interested in talking about a ceasefire when his troops appear to have the upper hand. Coming up next, Elon Musk's X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, of course, came under a massive cyber attack on Monday that disrupted service on the social media site for several hours, sparking wild speculation over who may be behind the intrusion. Really? Wild speculations on on social media? That hardly seems likely. I'll be right back.
- [05:16]
Fast Growing Trees Advertiser
Did you know that Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the U. S With thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers? Well, now, you know, here's the thing. They have all the plants that your yard needs, like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and a whole lot more. Whatever plants you're interested in, Fast Growing Trees has you covered to get your dream yard delivered directly to your door. I love this company. Look, no more wandering around a nursery trying to figure out how you're going to schlep home a bunch of plants. And this spring, well, they have the best deals, up to half off on select plants. And listeners to our show get 15% off their first purchase when using code PDB at checkout that's an additional 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code PDB at checkout fast growingtrees.com code PDB now is the perfect time to plant and use code PDB to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Hey Mike Baker here with a rather philosophical thought. Luxury starts where you rest. And by that I mean your bedroom should be more than just a place to sleep, right? It should be of retreat. Cozy Earth's best selling bamboo sheets can help. They're incredibly soft, temperature regulating and crafted for five star comfort every night. Cozy Earth products are designed to transform your 5 to 9, that's the time that matters most into your coziest sanctuary. Transform your space risk free with a 100 night sleep trial and a 10 year warranty on all Cozy Earth bedding and bath products. Love them or send them back, but trust me, you won't want to. Luxury shouldn't be out of Reach. Visit cozyearth.com PDB and use my exclusive code PDB for up to 40% off Cozy Earth's best selling sheets, towels, pajamas and more. That's cozyearth.com PDB and if you get a post purchase survey, well tell them you heard about Cozy Earth right here on the pdb. Sanctuary awaits at Cozy Earth welcome back.
- [07:21]
Mike Baker
To the afternoon bulletin. After several hours of recurring outages Monday, Elon Musk claims that X was the target of a, quote, massive cyber attack. Speaking to Fox Business, the billionaire and DOGE chief said X was hit by a large scale cyber operation, but admitted he wasn't entirely sure where it originated from. Musk stated, quote, there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area, end quote. The outage was widespread with more than 40,000 users reporting problems by 10am Eastern Time. According to down detector.com many users were met with an error message stating, quote, something went wrong. Another statement in vagueness. Hours later, another wave of 25,000 reports flooded in. By late afternoon, Musk announced that X was back online, but suggested the attack had state sponsorship or was done by a large coordinated group. In a post on X, Musk said, quote, we get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources, end quote. Musk's comments quickly ignited speculation, but cybersecurity experts pointed out that IP addresses can be manipulated, meaning Russia or another actor anywhere on the globe could have intentionally masked the origin of to make Ukraine appear responsible. A Senior fellow at the American think tank Atlantic Council dismissed the idea that Ukrainian government actors would launch such an attack, particularly on the eve of the critical U.S. ukraine peace negotiations meeting. The fellow stated, quote, it makes absolutely no sense for Ukrainian hackers to attack Elon Musk the day before a meeting in which they're attempting to get the US to start sharing intelligence again and provide aid and assistance, end quote. He added that Russia stood to gain the most from this timing. Not to mention, of course, that Russia and China are the largest perpetrators of state sponsored cyber attacks and shenanigans. Another potential culprit is the hacking collective Anonymous, which has been openly critical of Musk. But cybersecurity analysts argue that Russia remains the most likely suspect, pointing to Moscow's long history of using cyber warfare to sow chaos and weaken adversaries. Meanwhile, Musk's relationship with Ukraine, well, remains complicated. His Starlink terminals have been indispensable to Ukrainian forces, providing battlefield connectivity when other communication networks collapsed. Musk has emphasized their alliance, stating, quote, their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off, end quote. Yet Musk remains critical of Ukrainian President Zelensky, echoing President Trump's demands for an immediate ceasefire again. Well, a ceasefire only works if both sides agree to it. On Sunday, Musk urged for, quote, peace now in a post on X, underscoring years of slaughter and a stalemate that, quote, Ukraine will inevitably lose as investigations into the X outage continue. Cybersecurity experts caution against jumping to conclusions. While Musk's remarks have fueled rampant speculation, cyber analysts warn that without concrete evidence, premature accusations risk playing into the hands of those looking to exploit uncertainty. Well, the only problem is social media is tailor made for speculation and jumping to conclusions. It's, it's kind of social media's signature move. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday 11th March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb@the first tv.com and finally to listen to the show ad free. Well, you can do that, it's simple. Become a premium member of the President's Daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Foreign.
- [11:32]
Mike Slater
Hey, I'm Mike Slater. I have a podcast called Politics by Faith. We have a very simple mission. We take the news the day and we filter it through a biblical worldview. So here's the big story of the day. What does the Bible say about it and how can we apply it. It's amazing. There's nothing new under the sun. The Bible has something to say about everything that's going on today. So basically, we thump the Bible over on Politics by Faith. I think we ought to keep MAGA going. And I think the way to take it beyond just a political victory into a true rebuilding and awakening and revival in America is to make sure that this is all grounded in biblical principles. And that's what we do on the podcast Politics by Faith. And you can subscribe to Politics by Faith wherever you're listening to the show right now.