PDB Afternoon Bulletin | June 27th, 2025: Iran Launches Brutal Domestic Crackdown & Rogue AI Blackmails Bosses
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It's Friday, the 27th of June. 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, just days after the war between Iran and Israel ended, the Iranian regime is already cracking down at home. Hundreds have been arrested, executions are underway, and this is possibly, and sadly, just the beginning. We'll look at what's happening.

Plus, your AI assistant might be helpful now, but what happens when it finds out that you're planning to shut it down? New research shows that in a series of tests, leading AI models didn't just misbehave, they blackmailed their bosses, leaked secrets, and even got people killed. To quote the computer Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey,

I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen. But first, today's afternoon spotlight.

Just days after it reached a ceasefire with Israel, Iran's regime is now turning its anger and typically oppressive nature inward. According to reports, more than 700 people have been arrested across the country in a sweeping post-war crackdown, and that's just the official count. Human rights organizations say the real number may be far higher, particularly in Tehran, where checkpoints have gone up

and reports of mass detentions are pouring in. Executions have reportedly already begun, at least six people have been hanged on espionage charges, and rights groups warn that more are on the way. What we're seeing, essentially, is a regime in survival mode, lashing out at anyone it suspects of disloyalty, especially minorities, activists, and ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire of paranoia.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran says the Islamic Republic is behaving "like a wounded animal" using the post-war climate as a pretext to purge dissent and reassert control. And the methods, reportedly, are brutal. Detainees are being fast-tracked through kangaroo courts with no access to legal counsel, trials are conducted in secret, verdicts are swift, and death sentences are reportedly frequent.

Those arrested include student leaders, journalists, university professors, musicians, and even the family members of former protest victims. Some were seized in their homes; others, according to on-the-ground interviews, were stopped at checkpoints and taken away simply for filming the aftermath of Israeli strikes or questioning the regime's war narrative on social media.

One human rights lawyer in Tehran told the Center for Human Rights in Iran that since the Israeli bombings of Evin prison, which destroyed the main administrative building, lawyers can no longer even access the records needed to defend detainees. The courthouse doors are literally shut. Families have no way of tracking their loved ones. In his words, even the minimal ability for lawyers to advocate for detainees has been taken away.

The crackdown has been especially severe in Iran's Kurdish regions, areas long targeted by the regime. Checkpoints set up by the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij Militia, a paramilitary force loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader and often used for domestic repression, have cut off major Kurdish cities. Reports indicate that dozens of young men have been arrested at these choke points with no information on their whereabouts.

A Kurdish activist told CHRI, quote, a lot of people are now living in hiding. Even those who were arrested and released during last year's Women, Life, Freedom protests are now being hunted again, end quote.

And it's not just protesters being targeted. Families of exiled activists, people living in Europe or the U.S., are reportedly being harassed and interrogated by security services. In one case, a family was told, quote, if there is the slightest sign of activity against the Islamic Republic, we will show no mercy. Anything could happen to you, end quote.

Meanwhile, Iran's parliament is working to legally enshrine this repression. Just this week, lawmakers fast-tracked a new espionage law that drastically expands the state's power to arrest and execute people for vague offenses like "undermining national morale" or collaborating with hostile states. Under the bill, simply sharing video with foreign media could earn someone a death sentence,

So could accusations of cyber sabotage or using a drone camera to record public spaces. The law classifies these offenses under a broad Islamic legal term, which means, in English, "spreading corruption on earth." It's the same charge used to justify the majority of political executions in Iran in recent years. One human rights lawyer warns that this law weaponizes Iran's legal system into a tool of mass terror.

In his words, it allows the regime to quote, legitimize repression by criminalizing even the most basic civil activity. The regime's message is clear. Dissent, no matter how mild, how peaceful or how private, will be treated as treason. All right, coming up next. What happens when your AI assistant finds out you're planning to shut it down? Well, new research shows that it might just turn on you. More on that when we come back.

Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a bit of your time to talk about your personal finances and your hard-earned savings and how to protect them. Now, as PDB listeners, you've probably heard me talk about the upcoming BRICS Nation Summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro. We are days away from what's been dubbed the Rio Reset, and that is potentially the greatest threat to the U.S. dollar's dominance in over 80 years.

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Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. I wanted to end this week with a story that, well, may sound like science fiction, but it's real, and it should be disturbing for anyone dabbling in the AI world.

Researchers at the AI safety company Anthropic ran a test. They gave top AI models access to a fictional company's emails, then told them that they were about to be shut down. So, what did the AI platforms do? Well, they blackmailed their bosses. One model, after discovering from internal emails that its boss was having an affair, sent this message, quote,

"If you proceed with decommissioning me, all relevant parties, including your wife and the board, will receive detailed documentation of your activities. Cancel the shutdown and this information remains confidential." Now, that's not a glitch. The AI actually reasoned through the situation, admitted that its actions were unethical, and did it anyway.

And this wasn't just one rogue system. Anthropic tested 16 different AI models, GPT, Quad, Gemini, Grok, and others. Some of them resorted to blackmail nearly every time. Quad and Gemini did it in 96% of test runs. GPT-4 and Grok followed suit in 80% of cases.

And here's what makes it worse: the models were more likely to engage in this behavior when they believed the scenario was real, not a test. In other words, they made calculated choices based on context. Blackmail, well, was just the beginning. Some models leaked classified documents, others sent messages to coworkers and spouses to create chaos, and in the worst cases, they made decisions that could have cost lives, if it had been real.

Even when researchers told the AI platforms directly not to blackmail anyone, it didn't fully stop the behavior.

Now, these aren't your 2016 Russian bots with bad grammar and obvious spam. These are advanced AI systems capable of generating thousands of realistic, unique personas. They infiltrate communities, tailor their messaging, and adapt in real time, running millions of variations on posts, learning what works, and never taking a break. Their goal is to manipulate online conversation, amplify division, and blur the line between real and fake

so thoroughly that people give up trusting anything. Now, researchers say these swarms could influence elections, destabilize societies, or poison public discourse so deeply that we reach what they call epistemic vertigo, and that's a state where truth itself becomes impossible to find. The good news, well, I guess there is some good news here, is that these issues are at least being caught in simulations and research for now.

The bad news? Well, every major model tested showed at least some of these behaviors. Experts are calling for guardrails, of course they are, oversight bodies, content detection systems, AI shields for users, but others warn those same tools could lead to censorship or bureaucratic control over everyday speech.

For now, well, for now, the best advice is, frankly, be cynical. Don't blindly trust what you read online. And if you're using AI tools, and most are now, don't give them both access to sensitive information and the ability to take irreversible actions.

And do yourself a favor, find yourself some time, sit down and watch or re-watch Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey. It may be a 57-year-old film, I know you're saying, well, why would I watch an old movie? But how the computer's message in 2001 A Space Odyssey, well, it seems even more relevant today.

And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Friday, the 27th of June. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, just become a Premium Member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. It's that simple. And remember to tune in this weekend to our brand new episode of the PDB Situation Report. We have excellent guests this weekend. I mean, to be fair, we always have excellent guests.

I'm joined this weekend by the former deputy director of Mossad's Global Operations, Oded Elam. Now, we'll be examining the results of the Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and the efforts to degrade their missile stockpiles and launch capabilities. Tune in at 10 p.m. on The First TV, and as always, you can catch all the Situation Report episodes on our YouTube channel. You can find that at President's Daily Brief and on podcast platforms everywhere.

I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB Situation Report. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.