Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

And yes, thank you for asking. I am still on the road. All right, let's get briefed.

First up, the war with Iran is expanding as Lhoutis, remember them, move into the fight,

threatening Red Sea shipping and raising the risk of a much wider regional conflict. We'll be joined

by Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defensive Democracies to discuss what happens next.

Later in the show, we'll take you inside Russia, where fuel shortages and Ukrainian drone strikes

are making the war harder for ordinary Russians to ignore. We'll be joined by Konstantin Samoilov

of the YouTube channel Inside Russia for some insight into that. But first, today's situation

reports spotlight. We're now two weeks into the renewed conflict with Iran, and the battlefield is no longer confined

to the Persian Gulf. This week, the Iran-backed Khutis escalated the war by launching attacks

on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea after declaring a new naval blockade, raising fears

that the Iranian regime's network of proxy forces

is opening a second major front in this conflict. At the same time, the U.S. continues its air

campaign against Iranian military targets while positioning additional forces in the region,

fueling speculation, of course, that Washington may soon expand operations beyond Iran itself.

To help us break this down, we're joined by Jonathan Schanzer, he's the executive director of the

Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Jonathan, thank you very much for joining us again here on the Situation Report.

My pleasure.

Well, let's start from 30,000 feet.

If you could, give me your current assessment of where we are with this conflict.

All right.

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