September 15th, 2026: Iran’s Government Is Splintering Over the War & China Fears the AI Revolution
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What new evidence reveals Iran’s hard‑liners sabotaged the Washington peace deal?
It's Tuesday, the fifteenth of September. Oh, look at that. We are officially halfway through the month. Is it uh is it time to start humming holiday tunes yet? Well, soon. 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 reporting says Iranian hardliners deliberately sabotaged a peace deal with Washington by a Attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, exposing an ongoing power struggle inside the regime over, well, who's actually in charge? Later in the show, China's top spy chief is warning that artificial intelligence could become a direct threat to Communist Party rule, as Beijing confronts the political risks of increasingly powerful AI.
Plus, NATO is responding after Russian drone attacks. Attacks near Poland, including a strike that hit a rail station shortly after a group of senior foreign officials had passed through. And in today's back of the brief, a former CIA officer, caught with hundreds of gold bars stashed at his home and millions in cash, is now negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors. But first, today's PDB spotlight. Iran's war with the U.S. may be influenced in part by a war within the regime over who's actually calling the shots. New reporting from the New York Times says hardline figures, if there are any other kind, within Iran's security establishment, deliberately undermined a memorandum of understanding or a temporary ceasefire, or whatever we decided to call it back then, reached with Washington in July by orchestrating attacks on commercial ships in the
Of Hormuz. And according to Iranian officials who spoke to the Times, President Masood Pazeshkin didn't know the attack was coming. Neither, apparently, did some of Iran's most senior military officials. The episode unfolded in early July. Pazeshkin was in neighboring Iraq, attending funeral ceremonies for Iran's former Supreme Leader Ali Khamani. At the time, according to the reporting, Pazeshkian had reason to be unrighteous. Optimistic. Iran and the U.S. had just negotiated an agreement aimed at ending the fighting. Then, Iranian forces suddenly opened fire on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. A Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker was set ablaze, other vessels were damaged, and whatever momentum existed toward ending the war disappeared almost immediately.
According to the Times, Pazeshkian was furious. He called General Ahmad Vahidi, the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, demanding to know what had happened. Vahidi, reportedly anyway, told him that he had not authorized the attack, and more surprisingly, again, according to Vahidi, he hadn't known about it beforehand. Iran's Supreme National Security Council, which supposedly plays a central role in both the war and negotiations with Washington.
How did the Strait of Hormuz ship attacks expose a power struggle inside Iran’s regime?
Washington was also reportedly unaware. Pezeshkin returned to Tehran, and by the following morning, the U.S. had responded with airstrikes, and the two countries were back at war. What followed inside Iran, according to officials interviewed by the Times anyway, was one of the most serious confrontations among the country's leadership in years. There were shouting matches, two senior generals reportedly threatened to resign, and officials accused one another. Of betrayal and treason. An internal investigation eventually pointed toward one of the most powerful figures in Iran's security establishment, Hossein Taeb. Taeb is a cleric and longtime intelligence operative who spent more than two decades leading intelligence operations for the Revolutionary Guard, again, the IRGC.
He was removed from that position in 2022 following a series of embarrassing security figures. Failures, including Israeli penetration of Iranian networks. But after Ali Khamani was killed, Taheb returned to prominence. Iranian officials say he played an important role in helping Khamani's son Mushtaba, wherever he may be, become the new Supreme Leader. Taeb also strongly opposed the ceasefire agreement or memorandum of understanding with Washington.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What new evidence reveals Iran’s hard‑liners sabotaged the Washington peace deal?
0:12–3:06
2
How did the Strait of Hormuz ship attacks expose a power struggle inside Iran’s regime?
3:06–6:44
3
Who is the powerful IRGC cleric blamed for the unauthorized attacks and what is his role?
6:44–9:21
4
What are the possible future paths for Iran’s war strategy and internal politics?
9:21–12:53
5
Why is China’s top spy chief warning that AI could threaten Communist Party rule?
12:53–16:56
6
How might AI‑generated deepfakes and cyber tools undermine China’s political stability?
16:56–19:16
7
What NATO response follows the Russian drone strikes near the Polish border and the train attack?
19:16–21:27
8
What details emerged in the ‘Back of the Brief’ about the former CIA officer’s gold bars, cash and watches?
21:27–24:45
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The President's Daily Brief
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