Morning Brief: Ukraine’s Major Drone Op & Charges For Colorado’s Illegal Alien Terrorist

Backlash to liberal immigration policies fuels yet another shift to the Right in Europe. The fallout from the Colorado terror attack continues as more details emerge about the victims and the illegal immigrant suspect. And, the Trump administration pauses most operations at the Department of Labor’s highly controversial Job Corps. 

It’s Tuesday, June 3, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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Europe Updates

Topline: As Ukraine and Russia meet this week for peace talks, a growing list of European countries have elected right-wing leaders amid growing anti-immigration sentiment.

In the last 24 hours, we’ve learned more about Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia last weekend. The Ukrainians managed to smuggle scores of attack drones across the border, where they were launched from wooden sheds mounted on the backs of large moving trucks. Because those drones originated within Russian territory, they were able to bypass Putin’s extensive air defense systems, targeting five separate air bases and knocking out dozens of the country’s most important planes. According to some estimates, Ukraine successfully destroyed up to one-third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. 

The strikes came at a crucial time, as the two countries began meeting Monday in Istanbul for formal peace talks. Those talks concluded after just 90 minutes, and little progress had been made. Moscow finally presented its terms for peace: Ukraine must recognize all of Russia’s territorial gains, shrink the size of its military, change its official language to Russian, agree to long-term neutrality, and forfeit the right to join NATO.

Meanwhile, Poland elected right-winger Karol Narwocki to the presidency. Many have compared the 42-year-old Narwocki, who had no prior political experience, to Donald Trump, who openly supported Narwocki’s campaign. Narwocki even adopted a similar campaign slogan: “Poland First.” Among other things, he campaigned on a promise to withdraw from the European Union’s Migration Pact, which he said flooded the continent with illegal immigrants. He’s staunchly pro-life, against same-sex marriage, and has called for a return of Christian values to public life in his country. 

Narwocki has signed a pledge to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO — and like Trump, he’s accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of not showing enough gratitude for the support his country has given Ukraine for its war effort. 

In the last year, conservatives have made historic gains across the continent — largely by promising to crack down on illegal immigration from Africa and the Middle East. In Austria, the country’s right-wing Freedom Party won control of parliament — the first time a hardline Conservative Party had won since World War II. Then, conservatives made historic gains in Germany, with the right-wing AfD party surging. And last week, Portugal’s right-wing Chega party scored a number of victories to become the country’s leading opposition party. 

In Paris this week, we’ve seen mass rioting following a big soccer victory – sparking conversations about law and order and immigration policies in France.

Some left-wing politicians have even adopted a more conservative tone. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for example, has promised to “significantly” cut down on immigration over the next four years, restrict new visas for skilled labor, and penalize companies that hire foreign labor.

“The experiment is over,” Starmer said. “We will deliver what you’ve asked for time and again. And we will take back control of our borders.”

Boulder Terror Suspect Charged With Multiple Felonies

Topline: The man suspected of attacking a Colorado demonstration in support of Israeli hostages has been hit with multiple charges, including a federal hate crime.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman is being held in Boulder County Jail on a $10 million bond.  At the state level, he’s facing felony charges for first-degree assault and “extreme indifference” to criminal use of an incendiary device – as well as crimes against the elderly. Federal prosecutors have charged Soliman with a hate crime. The special agent in charge at the FBI’s Denver office, Mark Michalek, said the bureau is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

None of the people injured in the attack has died. Soliman himself was treated for burn injuries before he was booked. Police say Soliman received those injuries using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack demonstrators.

Soliman is an Egyptian national. He entered the United States in 2022 on a visa that then expired the next year. He was able to obtain a temporary work permit from the Biden administration, but that, too, expired in March this year. Trump said in a social media post on Monday that Soliman “came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly.” The president went on to say: “This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland.”

In an interview with the FBI, Soliman said that he wanted to kill “Zionists.” Law enforcement also says he screamed “free Palestine” during his assault. The demonstration targeted in the attack was a weekly march in support of the hostages held by terrorists in Gaza. The FBI said that Soliman had planned this attack for at least a year and targeted what he called a “Zionist group.” Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis called it a “targeted attack on the Jewish community.”

Department Of Labor “Pauses” Job Corps Program

Topline: The Department of Labor last week said it was “pausing” most operations at the Job Corps, a $1.7 billion program that trains high school dropouts on residential campuses across the country.

Job Corps was spending an average of $80,000 a year per student, training them to go on to earn an average of $16,000 a year. That’s more than Harvard charges for tuition to essentially get them minimum wage. At one campus run by ODLE Management Group LLC, the cost was $764,000 per graduate.

The Job Corps operates about 130 campuses across the country, where troubled young adults are paid $1,200, plus living expenses, to take classes towards their GED or training in the trades. Most campuses are run by companies whose staff are paid bonuses based on how many people they recruit, and how many get a job afterwards. Reports found that contractors were faking job statistics to make it look like the training worked, and were looking the other way at criminal behavior on campus, because if they expelled students, they’d get less revenue.

“The Trump administration has terminated all contracts with companies,” Daily Wire Investigative Reporter Luke Rosiak told Morning Wire. “About one-fifth of campuses are operated by the Department of Agriculture, and those will remain open. So this is really targeted towards preventing contractors from abusing the taxpayer and using at-risk youth as a cash cow.”

Other forms of exploitation were also common. Discipline data from the Job Corps campuses show that there were 500 sex assaults and 5,000 violent assaults in the last three years. That includes a 16-year old transgender runaway who was ordered to live with a 23-year-old man who was later arrested for raping her. “One-third of students are expelled, one-third abscond, and one-third graduate,” Rosiak said. “To enroll, you’re required to be on welfare, a refugee, a high school dropout, illiterate, or a victim of sex trafficking.”