PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 1st, 2025: Iranian Spy Caught Plotting Attacks on Jews in Europe & Russia Claims A Major Victory In Eastern Ukraine
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It's Tuesday, the 1st of July. 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, a Danish national of Afghan origin has been arrested on suspicion of spying on behalf of the Iranian regime, collecting information on Jewish sites and prominent individuals in Germany in preparation for potential terror attacks.

Later in the show, despite Russia's largely stalled summer offensive, a Kremlin-backed official is claiming that Russian forces have now seized complete control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region. Now, if true, it would mark Russia's first complete regional occupation since Putin's full-scale invasion began more than three years ago. But first, today's afternoon spotlight.

We begin with news out of Germany, where authorities have disrupted a suspected plot by an agent of Iran to help carry out possible terror attacks in Berlin. Prosecutors in Germany revealed Tuesday that a Danish national was arrested last week in Denmark at their request on suspicion of spying on behalf of the Iranian regime. The suspect,

identified only as Ali S., allegedly began scouting Jewish sites in Berlin and gathering information on prominent members of the city's Jewish community earlier this year on the orders of an Iranian intelligence service. German prosecutors say the suspect, who is of Afghan origin, is believed to have been working directly with members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, which oversees foreign operations for the mullahs and the IRGC.

Sometime in June, prosecutors say Ali S. drove from Denmark to Berlin to take photographs of at least three buildings, including the headquarters of the German-Israeli Society and the home of Joseph Schuster. He's the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. The initial surveillance was done in preparation for further intelligence activities meant to facilitate potential terror attacks targeting the Jewish community. That's according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

While officials say the investigation remains in its early stages and it's unclear if an attack was imminent, it does come at a time of heightened security concerns following Israel's 12-day war against the Iranian regime and the US bombing operation targeting Iran's nuclear sites.

Following the news of the arrest, a defiant Schuster, whose organization represents Germany's 125,000-strong Jewish community, warned, quote, "...the arms of the mullahs' terror reaches all the way to Germany and Europe." He called on the German government to remain vigilant, but to also, quote, "...actively take political action against the Iranian regime, given the ongoing threat they pose to European security."

As we've discussed here on the PDB, the Iranian government has long targeted dissidents, Jewish people, and Israeli citizens around the world, often working through sympathetic foreign nationals to give the mullahs and the IRGC some degree of deniability. Following the attacks on their military leadership and regional proxy network by Israel, security officials in Europe fear that the regime may increasingly pivot to overseas terrorism as a way to strike back at the West.

Now, Europe's Jewish community is all too familiar with this type of threat. The case is similar to a foiled plot back in 2023 when a German-Iranian man was arrested for planning to firebomb a synagogue in the city of Dusseldorf at the behest of Iranian contacts. And back in 2017, authorities arrested a Pakistani national who was surveilling a former chairman of the German-Israeli society in preparation for a suspected attack or kidnapping.

It's also worth mentioning that European authorities have accused Iran of being behind two murders in the Netherlands in 2015 and again in 2017, and an attempted murder in Denmark in 2018. With the Islamic regime on its back foot after the 12-day war and past successes against their proxy network, or what they refer to as the Axis of Resistance, officials say the threat of an overseas attack by Iranian agents has never been higher.

The director at the American Jewish Committee in Berlin told Newsweek, quote, No one is surprised because Iran has over the last 20 years or longer said that in the case of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, they will respond and also they will respond asymmetrically. It's something we've been warned about for a very long time, end quote. Germany's foreign ministry said Tuesday that they had summoned the Iranian ambassador to answer for this latest incident, despite the Iranian embassy in Berlin calling the accusations, quote,

unfounded and dangerous, end quote. Now notably, the news comes just days after Iran's top Shiite cleric,

issued a religious decree or fatwa against President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and anyone else who threatens the leadership of the Islamic regime. I suppose you could also describe the fatwa and religious calls to violence as "unfounded and dangerous." Now, the fatwa was a not-so-thinly-veiled incitement to terrorism, of course, calling on Muslims around the world to rise up and make enemies of Iran "regret their words and mistakes."

promising divine rewards from Allah for those who take action. Now, honestly, I don't think that God or Allah or whomever you pray to hands out rewards for terrorism or violence. All right, up next, despite Russia's faltering summer offensive, a Kremlin-backed official is claiming that Russian forces have now seized complete control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region. I'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. On this morning's PDB, we reported that Russia's summer offensive had failed to produce the breakthrough that Moscow was counting on. But that doesn't mean that Russian forces aren't still grinding slowly forward, as a Kremlin-installed official in Ukraine's Luhansk region now claims that Putin's troops have seized the entire territory.

If true, it would mark Russia's first complete regional occupation since the full-scale invasion began more than three years ago. The annexation would be a symbolic and strategic win for Putin, whose long-standing goal has been to wrest control of the four eastern regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kyrgyzstan.

In a state-televised interview, the Kremlin-appointed head of Luhansk declared, quote, "...the territory of Luhansk People's Republic is fully liberated 100 percent," citing what he described as a battlefield report.

Now, it's important to point out that no evidence was provided, and the claim has yet to be verified by Russia's defense ministry or confirmed by independent sources. Kiev has also yet to respond. Still, the claim fits the broader narrative that Moscow has been pushing for quite some time, that the war is going according to plan, assuming, of course, your plan was for a three-year bloody conflict costing you more than a million casualties, international pariah status, and

no clear victory in sight. That doesn't frankly sound like much of a plan to me, but maybe that's what Putin had in mind. For background, Luhansk, roughly the size of Massachusetts in the US at 10,300 square miles, has been one of the more contested regions of the war. It was among the first flashpoints after the 2014 Maidan revolution when pro-Russian separatists declared breakaway republics in the East and annexed Crimea, and again during the 2022 invasion.

The official behind the Kremlin's claim of Luhansk, a former Soviet-Ukrainian turned Moscow proxy puppet, has emerged as one of the more prominent faces of Russia's occupation infrastructure, regularly appearing on state television and echoing the Kremlin's justification for its ongoing war effort. He also underscores what remains non-negotiable for the Kremlin. He's reminiscent, frankly, of Baghdad Bob. Remember him?

As we've tracked here on the PDB, Putin has insisted that the four eastern Ukrainian regions, all of which were unilaterally annexed in 2022, are now inseparable parts of Russia. That rhetoric, of course, has been repeatedly rejected by the West. For Ukraine, those claims from Putin remain illegal and non-starters in any peace negotiations. Ukrainian President Zelensky and his government continue to reject any outcome that seeds territory and they vow to keep fighting

until full sovereignty is restored. As of now, Russia holds nearly 19% of Ukrainian territory, including the entirety of Luhansk, according to these reports, much of Donetsk, over 70% of Zaporizhia and Khorasan regions, and smaller slices of Kharkiv and Sumy. The Kremlin insists that these regions now fall under its nuclear umbrella.

Still, the war grinds on. Ukraine's military is still conducting counter-offensive operations and urging its allies, particularly Washington, to stay the course. However, President Trump has yet to commit a new round of military assistance and peace negotiations, of course, remain stalled. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Tuesday, the 1st of July, the very first day of a brand new month. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at

at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And of course, to listen to the show ad-free, you can do that. And you know you can do it very simply. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.