The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | June 10th, 2024: Israel's Daring Hostage Rescue & Populists Clean Up In Historic EU Elections

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    An update on Israel’s daring hostage rescue as new details emerge, including that three of the hostages were being held inside the home of a local journalist alongside the man’s family. We’ll take a look at this past weekend’s elections in the European Union, where ruling parties across Europe suffered a massive defeat to right-wing populists, threatening the controversial agenda of EU leaders in Brussels. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's Monday, 10 June. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, an update on Israel's hostage rescue as new details emerge, including that three of the hostages were being held inside the home of a local journalist alongside the journalist's family. Seriously, and they say there's no more objectivity left in journalism.

Also, we'll take a look at this past weekend's elections in the European Union, where ruling parties across Europe suffered a very significant defeat to right-wing populists, threatening the controversial agenda of EU leaders in Brussels. But first, our afternoon spotlight. I want to return to our coverage of the raid carried out by Israeli forces on Saturday that rescued four hostages from Hamas in Gaza after eight months in captivity. As we discussed on this morning show, the surgical operation had reportedly been extensively planned for

weeks and was based on intelligence gathered in part by the U.S. military and CIA. The operation ultimately freed three male hostages and one female hostage from two apartment buildings at the Al-Nusirut refugee camp in central Gaza. As more details emerge, we're learning that three of the hostages were being held in the home of a Palestinian journalist and former spokesperson for Hamas alongside the man's family. Officials said this underscore the brutal tactics used by Hamas, which often involve hiding behind the civilian population of Gaza. The man, Abdallah al-Jumol, and a number of members of his family were reportedly killed during the rescue operation. A spokesman for the Israeli military said, quote, this is further proof that the Hamas terrorist

organization uses the civilian population as a human shield. Abdallah had reportedly served as the spokesman for the Hamas-run labor ministry in Gaza and regularly contributed to several local news outlets. He also wrote a column for Al Jazeera in 2019, prompting rumors that he was employed by the Qatari-based news outlet. Now, representatives for Al Jazeera quickly denied the claims on Sunday, threatening to sue anyone claiming that he was an employee. As we noted earlier, when Israeli forces stormed Abdullah's apartment building, they came under heavy fire, including rocket-propelled grenades. During the firefight, Arnanzimura, a member of Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, was killed by Hamas militants. The rescue mission has since been dubbed Operation Arnan in his memory.

We should mention that the operation had reportedly been going smoothly until the Israeli forces moved on Abdallah's apartment building. As the IDF team came under heavy fire, the Israeli military responded with a series of targeted aerial assaults on the location, that's according to a report from the Washington Post. According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health ministry. 274 Palestinians were killed during the rescue operation, although that number remains unconfirmed and obviously Hamas never distinguishes between Habas militants and civilians. For their part, the Israeli military acknowledged that there were civilian deaths, though they estimated that number was under 100. They noted that while the IDF did their best to avoid collateral

damage, Hamas' use of densely packed civilian environments made it difficult to avoid. Now, it's not conjecture that Hamas embeds within civilian populations and infrastructure, knowing that any deaths will provoke international condemnation of leaders in Jerusalem. As we mentioned earlier, these conditions obviously make it incredibly difficult for Israel to mount rescue operations, even when they know where hostages are being held. Since the 7 October attacks by Hamas, Israeli forces have only managed to rescue seven of the more than 250 host. initially taken. Hamas has reportedly regularly moved the hostages around Gaza to evade surveillance.

In the wake of Saturday's successful rescue operation, Israeli and U.S. officials, said Hamas is likely to shift tactics and move more of the remaining hostages into their vast underground tunnel network. That's according to a New York Times report. Officials added that Hamas has been given standing orders to kill the hostages if they think Israeli forces are approaching. Some 116 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, though Israeli and U.S. intelligence estimates that dozens of those are likely already dead. Officials noted that despite the jubilations over the weekend rescue, well, they still have a long road ahead. Avicala, a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli reserves, told the New York Times,

quote, Hamas still has dozens of hostages, the vast majority of whom, if not all, will not be released and operations, but can be rescued only as part of a ceasefire deal. Coming up after the break, we'll take a look at this past weekend's elections in the European Union, where ruling parties across Europe suffered a massive defeat to right-wing populists, threatening the leftist agenda of EU leaders in Brussels. I'll be right back. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings. There's a money side to Every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Welcome back. Let's turn our focus to the

European Union, where around 370 million voters cast their ballots this weekend to elect 720 parliamentary members. Far-right parties across the continent gained significant ground in the elections, including in France, where French President Emmanuel Macron has now called for new elections at home, and in Germany, where the Social Democrats Party and the Greens Party lost significant ground. I want to take some time to take a look at the big winners and losers that will shape the EU for the next five-year term. We'll start in France, where President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance Party faced a humbling defeat by Marine Le Pen's right-wing national rally party.

Le Pen's party captured over 30% of the votes. That's more than double the 15% picked up by Macron's party. The defeat was so thorough that in a surprise move, President Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for new national elections in the coming weeks. Macron expressed his confidence in the French people in a post on X, stating, I am confident in the capacity of the French people to make the right choice for themselves and for future generations, end quote. Le Pen accepted the challenge, replying, we're ready to turn the country around,

ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration, end quote. Now, it's a risky move from Macron that has the potential to backfire, further diminishing his party's prominence and turning him into a lame duck in the final years of his presidency. Now, over in Germany, it was another major defeat for the ruling party. The far-right alternative for Germany or AFD party finished second to the conservatives, pushing Chancellor Olaf Olaf Schultz's social Democrats to a humiliating third place. The environmental greens, part of Schultz's coalition saw a significant fall off, dropping from 20.5% five years ago to just around 12% on Sunday. Now, on to Italy, where Prime Minister Georgia Maloney's right-wing Brothers of Italy

Party won the European elections with a strong 28% of the votes, up from the 26% that she won in the 2022 general elections. Now, that's a major victory for Maloney. It boosts her leadership at home and sets her up as a significant figure in European politics. Maloney will host this week's G7 summit as the most stable European Union leader. Her party's dominance could make her a key player, if not a kingmaker, in Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban's right-wing Fidesge party won in Hungary's elections, taking a strong plurality of the vote, securing 11 delegates of Hungary's 21 total seats. However, it was a bit of a mixed bag for Orban, as overall support.

for his party was down sharply from the previous EU election, dropping from the 52% support in 2019 to just 44% this time around. Regardless, Orban summed up his win with, quote, migration full stop, gender full stop, war full stop, Sorosch full stop, Brussels full stop. End quote, that's a lot of full stops. In Spain, the leading opposition conservatives pulled ahead of the governing socialists making significant gains. The right-wing popular party there in Spain received 34% of the votes, four percentage points more than Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's socialists, translating to 22 seats for the conservatives and 20 for the socialists. Now, since the last EU election in 2019, populist or far-right parties have taken the lead in Hungary,

Slovakia, and Italy, and have joined ruling coalitions in countries like Sweden and Finland. Despite the strong showing from the right, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's party did manage to maintain its control over the governing body. Her European People's Party remains the largest group in the 720-seat European Parliament, keeping their position as key brokers of the legislature's expanding powers. Still, the increasing influence of far-right groups in Central Europe is expected to impact policies in Brussels significantly. As von der Leyen pursues a second term as the European Commission President,

she'll face a more divided parliament that's less supportive of environmental initiatives and more hesitant to open borders and mass migration. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Monday, 10 June. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And check out PDB Premium.com if you're hankering to listen to the show at free. And if you need a definition for the word hankering, then just Google it. Plus, don't forget our expanded weekend version of the PDB, the PDB Situation Report. New episodes at the airwaves every Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern on the first TV and are available every weekend on our YouTube channel,

at President's Daily Brief, and of course on all the podcast platforms. I'm Mike Baker. Now I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available.

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