Monday morning news: June 2, 2025

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FBI investigating ‘targeted terror attack’ » The FBI is investigating what it referred to as a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado.

A man reportedly wielding Molotov cocktails attacked a group of people who had gathered Sunday to draw attention to Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

One witness described the alleged attacker:

AUDIO:  Shirtless and was yelling with, with some kind of accent and was threatening to burn people.

Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn:

REDFEARN:  The initial callers indicated that there was a man with a weapon and that people were being set on fire. The, uh, initial response by our officers, we were on scene very quickly. Uh, when we arrived, we encountered, uh, multiple victims that were injured, uh, with, uh, injuries consistent with burns and other injuries.

Video footage of the incident shows an officer with his gun drawn advancing on a bare-chested suspect with containers in each hand.

Redfearn says officers took the suspect into custody without incident.

Gaza ceasefire latest » And in the Middle East, Israel and Hamas are seemingly no closer to a ceasefire to bring more hostages home.

Republican Sen. Dave McCormick spoke Sunday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said the U.S. should continue to pile pressure on Hamas.

MCCORMICK: There cannot be a military body from Hamas standing when this war is done.

Hamas responded to the latest US proposal with a list of new demands, which President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitcoff, called “totally unacceptable.”

He said the U.S. proposal is the only way to close a 60 day ceasefire deal in the coming days.

The proposal calls for a truce leading to the release of 10 living Israeli hostages, and the bodies of more than a dozen captives killed in Gaza.

Ukraine peace latest » Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia are set to meet for peace talks today in Istanbul.

But two U.S. senators are warning that Vladimir Putin is preparing to ramp up Russia’s offensive while pretending to have interest in peace.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal:

BLUMENTHAL:  He is in effect stalling and stonewalling, prolonging the conversation so that he can mount this offensive and take control of more territory on the ground.

Blumenthal and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke after traveling to Ukraine and then meeting with French President Emmanual Macron in Paris. Sen. Graham said Sunday:

GRAHAM:  We saw credible evidence of a summer early fall invasion, a new offensive by Putin. He's playing the game at the peace table. He is preparing for more war, and I think the Senate is fed up with Putin.

The senators are urging swift support for a sweeping sanctions bill to sever the economic lifeline fueling Russia’s war. They say U.S. Congress and Europe may have just two weeks to act.

President Trump last week said he was holding off on new sanctions against Moscow a little longer to allow more breathing room for peace talks.

Steel tariffs » Meantime, Treasury Secretary Bessent said China is violating the terms of what was effectively a ceasefire in the US-China trade war.

BESSENT:  They are withholding, uh, some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement. Uh, maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it's intentional.

The two sides last month agreed to ratchet down tariffs as trade talks continued.

Trans athlete wins medals in California » In Oregon, two female high school athletes over the weekend staged a quiet protest over being forced to compete against a male so-called ‘trans’ athlete.

As their names were called during a girl’s high jump award ceremony, they stepped off the podium and turned away.

AUDIO (award ceremony): Fourth place honors from Sherwood, Reese Eckard. In third place from Tigard, Alexa Anderson

In a statement, Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson said they acted not out of hate but out of necessity. They said someone has to say this isn’t right.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched a Title IX investigation in Oregon for forcing girls to compete against male athletes.

A Title IX investigation is also underway in California after officials there allowed a biological male to compete in a girls track and field event.

Canada wildfire, smoke in U.S. » In Canada, authorities have evacuated more than 25,000 residents in three provinces as dozens of wildfires continued to burn.

Most of the evacuations were in Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week.

The fires have caused major air quality concerns, not just in Canada, but across much of the United States as well.

Bryan Jackson with the National Weather Service.

JACKSON:  Over the Dakotas into Minnesota. Uh, so the Eastern North Dakota, South Dakota into Western Minnesota. Uh, there's a, um, good concentration of smoke there.

The air quality concerns stretch as far south as Georgia and the Carolinas.

The USDA’s Forest Service deployed an air tanker to Alberta and said it would send 150 firefighters and equipment to Canada.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: mistaken identity, constitutional rights, and legal remedy. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat with economist David Bahnsen.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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