PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 9th, 2026: U.S. Takes Out Eight Iranian Tankers & China Accused of AI Copying

Mike Baker (0:11)

It's Wednesday, the 9th of September. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. OK, maybe the late Afternoon Bulletin today. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, the US and Iran are escalating their attacks at sea with eight Iranian tankers now destroyed or disabled since Saturday and civilian shipping increasingly getting caught in the middle. Oil rose over $100 per barrel in response. Later in the show, US intelligence agencies accused some of China's biggest AI companies of systematically copying American models, raising new concerns about Beijing's race to close the technology gap. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. The tanker war between the US and Iran exploded overnight. That's wordplay right there. The latest round began after Central Command said Iran twice attempted to strike a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles over the past two days. The attacks failed, according to the military, and no American personnel were injured. Washington responded by striking five Iranian oil tankers, including one operating near Karg Island, the center of Iran's oil export infrastructure. The crews were ordered off the vessels before the strikes, and Central Command says all five were rendered inoperable. That brings the total number of Iranian tankers destroyed or disabled by the US since Saturday to eight. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that every time Iran attempts to strike an American naval vessel, the regime should expect to lose more tankers. That formula has played out twice in less than a week. Iran targets American warships, and the US responds by destroying Iranian oil shipping assets. But Tehran's retaliation overnight suggests that it has no intention of giving in. The Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, says it attacked 10 vessels around the Strait of Hormuz, including two American ships and eight tankers. The US military disputes Iran's claim that American warships were actually hit, but commercial vessels were caught in the attacks. One of them was the New Andros, the Panama-flagged tanker carrying roughly two million barrels of Iraqi fuel oil. The ship was struck by a drone in Iraqi territorial waters and caught fire, though all 22 crew members survived, and Iraqi officials say there was no major cargo leak.

Another tanker, the Hercules Star, was hit while anchored off Dubai.

Its charterer says one crew member was killed, and another remains missing. British maritime authorities also reported several merchant vessels coming under disabling fire in the Northern Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. That marks an important escalation in this tanker fight. For months, Washington and Tehran have largely concentrated their attacks on vessels they directly associated with the other side. Now civilian crews and cargo belonging to third countries are increasingly getting caught in the crossfire. And Iran's retaliation was not limited to the waterway. The Revolutionary Guard Corps also launched 20 ballistic missiles toward Al-Azraq Air Base in Eastern Jordan, which is used by American forces. Jordan says its air defenses intercepted 18 of them, while the remaining two fell in unpopulated areas, and no casualties were reported. Iran claims that attack caused significant damage. US officials say it did not. But Tehran is already warning that the next round could be larger, with Iranian officials saying that if the US attacks two or three Iranian targets, Iran could respond by striking 20 US targets. So Washington is openly trying to impose a steep and predictable cost for attacks on American forces. Iran, meanwhile, is threatening to increase the scale of its retaliation. And while that cycle continues, commercial traffic, the Strait of Hormuz remains badly constrained. Shipping data shows just six commodity vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, five were headed into the Gulf, only one was leaving. Before the war, roughly 125 commercial vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz every day.

Now, those are the publicly observed crossings, and there may be additional ships moving without appearing in available tracking data. But even accounting for clandestine traffic, no one disputes that commerce through the strait remains dramatically lower than normal.

And the market is reacting. Brent crude oil climbed above $100 a barrel today for the first time since July, moving even higher during trading as investors weighed the growing danger to Gulf energy supplies.

Now, there isn't just one threat driving that concern anymore. American and Iranian forces are deliberately attacking tankers. Commercial ships are now being struck, and traffic through Hormuz remains severely disrupted. On the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, Iran-backed Houthis have attacked Saudi energy infrastructure while threatening shipping near the Red Sea. Those risks are increasingly being felt far beyond the region. Average gasoline prices in the US have climbed above $4 a gallon, while diesel is approaching $6 a gallon. Higher diesel prices also raise costs for trucking, agriculture, shipping and manufacturing, giving the conflict another pathway to impact the broader economy.