Ladies and gentlemen, we've made it to the middle of the week. It's Wednesday, September 13th. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed.

First up, the Biden administration greenlit the release of six billion dollars in frozen Iranian funds, paving the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran.

The US says that money can only be spent by the Iranian regime for humanitarian purposes. The Iranian regime says,

man, we'll spend it any way we want. Later on, we make a stop in Washington, D.C., where you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a new or ongoing investigation.

Whistleblower testimony suggests that the CIA might have attempted to bribe analysts to suppress evidence that COVID-19 started in a Wuhan lab.

Plus, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is now pushing for formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, a big claims that he benefited from his son's overseas business dealings.

And in today's back of the brief, a game-changing discovery of an immense lithium deposit on the Nevada Oregon border could reshape the electric vehicle industry and redefine global power dynamics and lithium production.

But first, today's PDB spotlight.

The Biden administration and Iran have struck a deal, potentially sending a fat stack arounds way and bringing American citizens home.

Both countries are set to swap five prisoners each, and the US plans to waive sanctions to unfreeze six billion dollars of frozen Iranian funds that have been held in South Korea.

Now, this deal isn't exactly brand new. The basic structure was announced some time ago. However, only now are the specifics coming to light.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken greenlit the sanctions waivers just last week.

Interestingly, Congress was only advised of this a few days ago, raising some eyebrows over the transparency and the timeline.

Some sources inside the negotiations are hinting that we might see the detainees from both sides being released as early as next week.

As you can imagine, not everyone's on board with this agreement.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a key player on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is far from thrilled.

Cruz's fellow Senator John Kornin and other Republicans are fired up over what they view as a lack of transparency in the administration's dealings with Iran.

There's also considerable concern over the wisdom of handing six billion dollars to what is the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism.

Cruz suggests that the Biden administration might even be considering a further ten billion dollar transfer among other concessions to Iran.

No further details on that yet. Since arriving at the White House, the Biden administration has been keen to find some way to reenter a nuke deal with Iran.

Sanctions relief and unfrozen assets are key to any deal that the regime might accept.

Now, again, according to Secretary of State Blinken, the money that six billion can only be used for humanitarian purposes.

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