Ukrainian Drone Strikes, Senate Budget Bill, Colorado Attack

0:01A Ukrainian drone attack struck deep inside Russia and Ukraine says it destroyed more than 40 Russian planes and air bases across the country. With peace talks set to take place today, what message does the attacks send? I'm Steve Innskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Senate returns from recess with a task of getting President Trump's budget across the finish line. The president's domestic agenda hangs in the balance, but how much will Republicans change a bill that some lawmakers really don't like? And a man is in custody after an attack at an event to raise awareness for Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.

0:39The reason things like this are happening is because we have allowed this climate of hate to fester. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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2:14Ukraine hit Russia with a series of remote drone strikes on military air bases deep inside Russian territory on Sunday. This operation apparently took a long time to plan, and its timing now is meaningful. A new round of Russian-Ukrainian peace talks is expected in Istanbul, Turkey today. Joining us to talk about this is NPR's Charles Maines, who is on the line from Moscow. So, Charles, let's start with the drone attacks. What do we know about them? Sure. You know, Ukraine smuggled remotely operated drones laden with explosives deep into Russia. And by deep, I mean deep up into the Arctic, also into Siberia, some 2 ,700 miles away.

2:52Now, they did this by hiding the drones in the tops of flatbed trucks, which then parked near military bases before lifting off to attack planes on the runway. And we know this because Russians filmed it. The local authorities shared this witness video saying it was the first Ukrainian drone attack in Siberia. And has Ukraine taken credit? In fact, they have. President Vladimir Zelensky said he personally oversaw the operation. Here he is speaking last night.

3:24So here Zelensky says that in total, 117 drones were deployed, damaging a full third of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers. In fact, Ukraine claims it destroyed 41 Russian bombers, types of which have been used to attack Ukraine. Wow. What's been the Russian reaction? And does Moscow agree with those figures? Well, we haven't heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin yet. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the drone strikes on several bases, but played down their impact, saying only several planes had caught fire. Now, we haven't been able to independently verify any of this, but arguably the perception that Ukraine can strike anywhere is as important as the physical damage.

4:03For example, one pro-Kremlin military blogger compared Sunday's attack to a Russian Pearl Harbor. Russian Pearl Harbor. That's some pretty strong language there. OK, so the understanding is that these Ukraine drone attacks were far from the only violence over the weekend. So tell us what else happened. Yeah, a lot happened. Ukraine said Russia launched more than 470 drones and missiles on targets across Ukraine, the deadliest of which hit a military training base, killing 12 soldiers. Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and dozens more injured after a bridge collapsed on a Russian passenger train traveling in western Russia Saturday night, and a separate rail bridge collapsed in a neighboring Russian region hours later, derailing a freight train.

4:45Now, Russian authorities have launched a terrorism probe, and some in Moscow are already blaming Ukraine. That said, we've heard nothing yet from Kiev about this. Now, all of this unfolded as both Ukraine and Russia prepare for another round of peace talks. I mean, what can we expect there? Well, the idea here is the two sides will discuss proposals outlining their visions for a peace accord. Russia has gone into these talks presenting itself as the one dictating the terms because it's in the stronger position militarily. President Trump, who deserves some credit, I think, for forcing these two sides to the negotiating table, has essentially agreed with that Russian position and argued Ukraine needs to make major concessions.

5:22Think back to that moment in the White House earlier this year when Trump told Zelensky Ukraine had no cards to play. Well, that narrative was somewhat upended by events on Sunday. Ukraine clearly does have some cards to play militarily. The question is, what does Trump make of it and how does Moscow respond? That's NPR's Charles Maines in Moscow. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

5:49The GOP Senate returns from recess today to move a multi-trillion dollar budget plan that carries the bulk of President Trump's domestic policy agenda. Senators have been sent a House-passed plan that Democrats criticize and that some Republicans doubt. It extends tax cuts and adds some new tax cuts. It makes big changes to defense, energy, and immigration policy. It cuts some spending, although overall it calls for even more borrowing than would otherwise be the case. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales is here to tell us all about it. Just one vote, Claudia, just passed by one vote in the Republican-led House.

6:25What do we expect in the Senate? That's right, A. And we just expect a lot more of the same, but just multiply the intensity as Republicans in the Senate have a very different balancing act than the House. And Senate Republicans can only lose three votes to get this across the finish line. We're hearing some already raising concerns about provisions in this bill. And the upper chamber also faces tougher procedural hurdles that could shape the final version of this plan. So we expect some pretty tough negotiations to get this done by their July 4th deadline, which, by the way, is driven in part by the bill's provision to lift the federal debt limit.

7:03And that's got to happen this summer to avoid a catastrophic financial default. Sounds like a lot riding on this bill. So what else is in the package? Right. It extends tax cuts for individuals and businesses as part of a package that was passed under Trump's first term. And there's also a lot of his big campaign promises like eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. But this all comes with a pretty big price tag, more than$4 trillion. So one area they're targeting for savings is cuts to Medicaid. Deficit hawks want to see big reductions there that could lead to millions to lose coverage. That's a big red line for some senators like Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

7:47So a balancing act for Senate Majority Leader John Thune to navigate all these competing demands from his party and President Trump. Then given those competing demands, how might this bill evolve or maybe even change in the Senate? Well, I'm told that about 60 percent or more of this bill is going to stay intact. But when we talk about these bigger pieces of the plan, such as changes to Medicaid, that's likely the largest fight that Senate Republicans will face. And given those concerns, we expect to see resistance to deep cuts to Medicaid from more moderate Senate Republicans. At the same time, if Republicans try to cut back on these reductions, that could upset lawmakers who want bigger spending cuts.

8:29So another tough fight could come over repealing tax breaks for clean energy passed by Democrats. As it happens, some Republicans want to look at revising this. And another thing to watch out for is under Senate rules, any provision of this bill that doesn't have a budget impact could have to go. All right. Tell us about the tea leaves. How can Republicans get this done or if they can get this done? Right. It's going to be tough to pass this bill. Republicans are using a special budget rule to avoid a filibuster by Democrats. But that also means that any changes in the bill will need to go back to the House for approval.

9:02And getting it through the first time, we saw how brutal that was. So any changes there could mean Republicans could risk another big fight and blowing their deadline. That's NPR's congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

9:24A man is in custody following an attack on people at an event calling attention to Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. Authorities say the man yelled, free Palestine, before using a makeshift flamethrower sending several people to the hospital. He is, of course, expected to face charges. Mark McCulloch is the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver field office. As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence, and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism. Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country. This is an example of how perpetrators of violence continue to threaten communities across our nation.

10:06Colorado Public Radio has been covering the attack. With us now is editor Megan Verley. So, Megan, what was happening that led up to this attack? So the group that was attacked is the local chapter of what's known as Run for Their Lives. These are groups that walk weekly to keep the attention on the hostages. And in Boulder, they walk up a pedestrian mall and stop at the courthouse to sing and to recite names. And this week when they did that, they were met by a shirtless man holding homemade incendiary devices who yelled at the walkers and apparently set some of them on fire. What do we know about the victims?

10:42Well, eight people were injured by the latest count, two seriously enough to be airlifted to a hospital near Denver. And they were aged 52 to 88. Organizers have told other news outlets that one of them was a Holocaust survivor. And as you can imagine, this has really shaken and horrified the Jewish community in Boulder and the wider community as well. Sure. Now, the FBI released the name of the person who was arrested last night. What can you tell us about him? At this point, not much more than his name. He's 45-year-old Mohamed Sabri Solomon of Colorado Springs. Authorities think that he acted on his own, but we haven't been able to learn all that much more about him so far.

11:20All right. So what have the reactions been to this attack so far? Well, there was swift condemnation, of course. Colorado's attorney general called it a hate crime. Our governor, who's Jewish, noted that it occurred hours before the start of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. And for some of the people we talked to in the Jewish community, what we really heard was this feeling that they wanted to say they were surprised by what happened. But after the killing of Israeli embassy workers in D.C. last month and the attack on the governor's mansion in Pennsylvania, they just weren't surprised in that same way.

11:54That's certainly what we heard from Stephanie Clark. She's one of the leaders of Stop Anti-Semitism Colorado. The reason things like this are happening is because we have allowed this climate of hate to fester, and today it boiled over. I'll say the reaction goes way beyond Colorado. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement this morning saying he, his wife, and the people of Israel are praying for the recovery of the victims. And Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Dannen, said, In Boulder, Colorado, Jewish people marched with a moral and humane demand to return the hostages.

12:29In response, the Jewish protesters were brutally attacked. Make no mistake, this is not a political protest. This is terrorism. All right, that's Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verley. Megan, thanks. Thank you.

12:45And that's a verse for Monday, June 2nd. I'm Amy Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. For your next listen, consider, consider this from NPR News. Up First gives you three big stories of the day, while Consider This drills down on a single news story and what it means to you in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Ryland Barton, Kevin Drew, Lisa Thompson, and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

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