Mike Baker

It's Wednesday, the 20th 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, just before Vladimir Putin's arrival in Beijing, a Russian drone strike damages a Chinese-owned vessel, casting an awkward shadow over his meeting with Xi Jinping.

Yeah, it's a bit uncomfortable.

Later in the show, Russia launches one of its largest nuclear drills in years, mobilizing tens of thousands of troops, missile launchers, submarines and strategic bombers.

Plus, NATO is reportedly weighing a possible mission to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz if the critical waterway remains blocked into July.

Well, to be fair, you wouldn't want to rush into anything.

It's best to hold a few more meetings and discussions to think about maybe doing something.

Possibly.

And in today's Back of the Brief, Iran stages mass weddings for couples, reportedly volunteering for self-sacrifice in a future war with the U.S.

and Israel.

That does sound romantic.

Makes you wonder if they had a DJ or a cover band.

But first, today's PDB Spotlight.

Just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Russian drone struck a Chinese-owned cargo ship in the Black Sea near Ukraine.

While no one was killed, the timing could hardly have been worse for the Kremlin.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian drones struck two civilian vessels approaching ports in Ukraine's Odessa region, including the KSL Dyang, a Chinese-owned cargo ship operating under the Marshall Islands flag with a Chinese crew aboard.

Ukraine's Navy later released photos showing visible damage to the vessel, while President Zelensky quickly seized on the incident publicly, saying, quote, the Russians could not have been unaware of what vessel was at sea.