The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | June 5th, 2024: Suspected ISIS Fighter Attacks US Embassy & UN Criticizes Biden Over Border Crackdown

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    Tensions are rapidly increasing to Israel’s north along the border with Lebanon, as a U.S. embassy in Beirut comes under fire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises to take the fight to Hezbollah. President Joe Biden is already facing backlash over his executive action limiting asylum cases at the U.S. southern border, with the U.N. condemning the move and demanding Biden reverse course. 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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at Patriot Gold. They've been the top-rated gold IRA dealer for seven years in a row. Go to Patriot Gold Group.com or call 1-888-621-3856 for a free investor guide. It's Wednesday, 5 June. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world's stage. Let's get briefed. First, tensions are rapidly increasing to Israel's north along the border with Lebanon as the U.S. embassy in Beirut comes under fire and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu promises to take the fight to Hezbollah. Also, President Biden is already coming under fire for his executive action, limiting asylum cases at the U.S. southern border, with the U.N., condemning the move and demanding Biden reverse course. That's nice. The UN, giving instructions to the White House on what to do with the U.S. border.

But first, our afternoon spotlight. We begin in Lebanon, where the U.S. embassy in the capital city of Beirut came under attack by a gunman who may have ties to ISIS. The scene unfolded when a Syrian national began shooting its security forces stationed outside the entrance of the embassy on Wednesday morning, wounding a Lebanese guard. After exchanging fire, the gunman was worried. wounded and subsequently detained, as soldiers conducted the search of the area for other possible shooters. That's according to a report from Reuters. Official reports out of Lebanon have simply said that the suspect is a Syrian national. However, a senior Lebanese security official anonymously told

Reuters that early indications were that the attacker was linked to the Islamic State terrorist group. The official said that the shooter had ISIS written in English and Islamic State written in Arabic on his clothes. Well, that would seem to be a somewhat oddly obvious clue. Security forces in Lebanon have detained the suspect's family and two others as they carry out an investigation. The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, was reportedly out of the country when the attack took place, and officials said that all staff were safe. The violent scene comes as tensions between Israel and Iranian-backed Hasbullah militants in Lebanon have reached a fever pitch, following rocket attacks by Hasbullah on Sunday and Monday that sparked massive wildfires in northern Israel.

Eleven people have been hospitalized for smoke inhalation due to the blaze, which has so far destroyed some 3,500 acres of land. The fires have stoked a public outcry for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to take the fight to Hezbollah, who began lobbying rockets into Israel's northern territory following the 7 October attacks and have been exchanging near daily cross-border fire with Israel. ever since. National Security Minister, Idmar Ben-Gvrer, and other members of Netanyahu's far-right coalition, added to the pressure earlier this week,

calling on Netanyahu to take urgent action to address the threat posed by Hezbollah. Ben-Govir called for war in a telegram post, saying Israel needed to burn and destroy Hezbollah's strongholds inside Lebanon. As a reminder, Ben-Govir also threatened on Monday to collapse Netanyahu's governing coalition. if he accepts a proposed ceasefire deal for Gaza, announced last Friday by President Biden. Responding to the pressure regarding Hezbollah, Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel was, quote,

prepared for a very intense operation along the border with Lebanon, adding, quote, one way or another, we will restore security to the north. The fighting has escalated in recent weeks, causing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate the region, fearing a wider war in the north. As Hezbollah continues to fire rockets, Israel has been ramping up targeted strikes on Hezbollah fighters and allied Lebanese militants deeper inside Lebanese territory. Israel's most recent comprehensive action against Hezbollah was carried out in late April, when Israeli fighter jets and artillery struck approximately 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon,

including storage facilities and weapons depots. But Hezbollah appears to be undaunted, by Israel's operations. In a statement put out on Tuesday, Hezbollah's deputy chief claimed that, while they're not seeking a wider conflict, the group is, quote, ready for the battle and will not allow Israel to secure any victories. He added, quote,

any Israeli expansion of the war on Lebanon will be met with devastation, destruction, and displacement in Israel. If Israel wants to fight an all-out war, we are ready for it, end quote. A statement came as Hezbollah launched a squadron of one-way attack drones at Israeli military barracks for the second straight day. It's worth noting, Hasbalah, of course, is another Iranian-supported proxy.

There's that Iranian regime again, but they represent a much more significant military foe than Hamas, with a much larger disciplined fighting force and more resources than the Gaza-based Hamas. Coming up after the break, the Biden administration is already facing backlash over an announcement executive action on the southern border, with the UN condemning the action and telling President Biden to reverse course. Well, I don't know about you, but for all my policy decisions on the U.S. border, I know that I'd turn to the U.N. I'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just

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So why give your family less when they can have the best? Add Egglands best superior nutrition to your next grocery list. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Welcome back. The United Nations is weighing in on President Biden's new executive order limiting asylum claims at the southern border, with the UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, calling on the president to reverse course. As we've previously reported, the president's order acts like a switch.

instructing border officials to close the border as soon as the daily influx of illegal entries hits 2,500 per day on average over a week. Well, surprise, that order went into immediate effect since the daily average was already well above the cap. Shortly after the president's announcement, the UNHCR issued a press release, stating that they're, quote, profoundly concerned about the new asylum measures announced today by the United States, which impose harsh, restrictions on the right to seek asylum in the country. The UNHCR went on to say that while they recognized the challenges the U.S. faces from the migrant influx, oh, that's nice, the United States needed to, quote, uphold its international obligations and to urge the government to reconsider

restrictions that undermine the fundamental right to seek asylum, end quote. Hmm, let's, let's examine that. Just how has the U.S. been responding to its so-called international obligations? Well, according to the own data pretty generously. For starters, the U.S. admits more migrants than any other country in the world. More migrants, in fact, than the next four countries, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the UK combined. One fifth of the world's global migrant population resides in the U.S. So let's drill down a little further on those numbers. When it comes specifically to asylum seekers, again, nobody even comes close to the numbers that the U.S. admits. to the Migration Policy Institute, the U.S. submitted approximately 31,800 asylum seekers

in the first eight months of FY 2023, and that's nearly a threefold increase over 2021. And of course, the actual numbers are much higher, given in particular that the Biden administration essentially paroled 350,000 individuals into the U.S. since 2022 by closing their asylum cases. And don't forget, the hundreds of thousands allowed in from the countries of health. Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba, since the Biden administration enacted a special parole program for citizens of those countries back in 2022. The U.S. system has become so swamped that there are now 3 million pending cases in immigration courts around the United States, and that backlog has tripled since 2019, growing by more than 1 million cases in the last year alone. What the U.N. doesn't seem to

understand or chooses to ignore in their desire to criticize and sermonize is that America's asylum system is now subject to widespread abuse. And hey, look at me, once again winning the BDB statement of the obvious award. Under the current border regime, migrants have learned that the quickest and most effective way to gain entry into the U.S. is to declare asylum seeker status whether they qualify for it or not. And that, my friends, is the PDB after the PDB after afternoon bulletin for Wednesday 5 June. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And if you want to listen to the show ad-free, be sure to check out our premium membership at pdbpremium.com and don't forget to tell

your friends and family to tune in to the extended weekend version of the PDB, the Situation Report. New episodes drop every Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern on the first TV, and also available on our YouTube channel, President's Daily Brief, and podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. 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.