Up First from NPR - Boulder Attack Latest, Ukraine and Russia Talks, South Korea Election

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

The man arrested in Colorado for an attack on people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas is facing a federal hate crime charge and multiple felonies. A second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine did not result in a ceasefire but the two countries did agree to a new prisoner swap. And, following months of political turmoil South Koreans are voting for a new president. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Whitney, Ryland Barton, Kevin Drew, Lisa Thomson and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zo van Ginhoven and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at Colorado demonstrators says he planned the attack. For a year, he says he waited until after his Dodgers graduation to strike. What else have police learned about the suspect? I mean, Martinez, that is Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. Ukrainians have a demand in peace talks. They want Russia to send back children abducted during the war. The biggest challenge is that Russia is not willing to return those kids back.

Also, South Koreans vote for a new president today. The last person they elected tried to impose martial law. Lawmakers promptly impeached him. So how are voters thinking about the aftermath? NPR is where the news is, and our colleague Anthony Kuhn is in Seoul. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. 24-hour job. Luckily, it is our job. Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest most important stories happening and we package them into five-minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing. Listen to the NPR News Now podcast now.

The man arrested for throwing fire bombs at people in Boulder, Colorado says he quote wanted to kill Zionist people and that he'd do it again. Authorities say Mohammed Sabri Suleiman threw Molotov cocktails at people marching in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. He's now facing a federal hate crime charge and multiple felonies. Colorado Public Radio's Allison Sherry is covering this story, good morning. Hello, Steve. Who is the person who made that statement? We know he's 45 years old.

He's an Egyptian national who lived in Kuwait for almost 20 years before coming to the US three years ago on a tourist visa. According to the Department of Homeland Security, that visa has since expired, but he says he had requested asylum and that was pending. He didn't have legal status, though. Well, do authorities know if he acted alone?

That's what police believe so far, at least. He told them he'd been planning the attack for a year and that he told no one about it. He actually waited for his high school daughter's graduation and then did it. He had five children and a wife. He lived in Colorado Springs. He left them a journal and a phone with messages for them and the feds on Monday say they've talked to 44 people, searched the house and digital devices, but we don't have much information about what they've found yet. Mr. Suleiman also tried to buy a gun late last year but we don't have much information about what they've found yet.

Mr. Suleiman also tried to buy a gun late last year, but he wasn't able to because of his immigration status. So he learned on YouTube how to make Molotov cocktails and use those in the attack. I guess authorities also have this statement that he has made. What does that tell you about him? In the state affidavit that was unsealed Monday afternoon, he said he was planning to kill himself, that he had doused himself in gasoline, but he obviously didn't do that. He also only threw two of his 18 incendiary devices that he made and he stopped because he says he hadn't ever hurt anyone. But we also know that police arrived very quickly and he was arrested within a few minutes. And there were people there also trying to intervene almost immediately. Right. Um, did authorities know about this person

or about his intent beforehand? No, he wasn't on the radar of the feds or the Joint Terrorism Task Force here. And on the other side of this, Boulder police told me they weren't providing any security for the local members of the Run for Their Lives group who were marching Sunday because they hadn't asked for it. This group had been meeting since October in Boulder, just a few mostly older people who marched every week in support of the Israeli hostages. And apparently no one thought there was much danger on the pedestrian mall in Boulder on any given weekend. There are often protests there for all kinds

of things. And I do want to note that for Boulder, this is a very small community towards the mountains outside of Denver. This town's had kind of an outsized number of bad events in recent years. The local DA Michael Doherty, who filed the state charges against Mr. Suleiman, said as much yesterday. Michael Doherty, DA, Suleiman, New York City This community has experienced too many tragedies, fires, floods, and mass attacks. But each time I've seen this great community respond with strength, resilience, and support for one another, I trust and hope that that will happen again now.

Pete Slauson What do authorities do with the suspect next? Lauren Henry Well, we expect more charges to be filed in the coming days reflecting the higher number of victims, both in federal and state court. He's in jail for now and has another court appearance on Thursday. Pete And I guess we should mention when you say the higher number of victims, authorities have added four to the number of people injured. The original number was eight. Thanks so much. Really appreciate your help. Thanks, Steve.

That's Alisyn Sherry of Colorado Public Radio. Ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul ended quickly with no ceasefire. That's no surprise, although Ukraine used the occasion to make a dramatic demand. Ukraine gave Russia a list of Ukrainian children abducted during the war, asking for them to be returned home immediately. And of course, Joanna Kakissis, our correspondent in Kyiv, is following this. Hey there, Joanna. Hey, Steve.

Who are these kids and what is the evidence they were taken? Well, Ukrainian researchers have documented that nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children were abducted during the Russian invasion and occupation of some parts of Ukraine and then taken to Russia. I spoke to Kristina Shkudor, who advocates for these abducted children and their families. The biggest challenge is that Russia is not willing to return those kids back. They even don't wanna tell how many of them are right now in Russian Federation.

So in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation brought up these missing kids and pushed Russia to give them back. And the researchers have names, they've got backgrounds, they've got information. Wow. Yes, they have names, backgrounds. Some of them are from orphanages, some of them are from families. So yeah, there's documentation for many of these children.

How did the Russians respond to the demand? Well according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russians did not react well. Here's Zelensky speaking in Lithuania on Tuesday. He's saying that Russia claimed the Ukrainians were using this issue to pander to the West, to childless European grandmothers in particular. Zelensky did add that at least the Russians now admit to taking Ukrainian children. In Istanbul, Ukraine gave the Russians a list of 400 children to be returned immediately as part of these talks.

Now Russia said it would consider returning 10 of them and added that they did not abduct the children But rather save them from a war zone. Okay, so no big breakthrough on ceasefire talks How is this situation different from last month when each side did swap a thousand prisoners of war? well So this prisoner exchange agreed to yesterday is set to include as many POWs like a thousand but with priority given to those who are wounded and sick as well as young soldiers those between the ages of 18 and 25. Zelensky who did not participate in the talks but was briefed on them said 200 Ukrainian

civilians imprisoned in Russia might also be released. Okay, so some adults at least are going back and forth to their home sides. Do the two sides agree on anything else yesterday? So no, exactly not. As you mentioned earlier, not a ceasefire, but the two countries did agree to exchange the bodies of soldiers killed in action.

I wanna follow up on another thing that we've been reporting on this week, Joanna. Ukraine, of course, conducted this covert operation. Drones hit military bases deep inside Russia. Technologically impressive, operationally impressive. Why is it also really meaningful for Ukrainians? Ukraine says it took out a third of Russia's bombers using drones smuggled in on trucks to Russian airfields as far away as Siberia. And though Western weapons have certainly helped Ukraine, its

innovative operations like this that have helped the country punch above its weight against Russia, which is much larger and better resourced. And Zelensky says he believes the latest operation will actually force Russia to the negotiating table. So it's an important symbolic victory for Ukrainians, and it's also something that could bring Russia to the negotiating table. Okay, and the Russians at least showed up, although didn't agree on too much yet. Joanna, thanks. You're welcome.

That's NPR's Joanna Kakissis. Polls will soon close in South Korea, where the country is voting in a snap election for a new president. That's what South Koreans do in a snap election for a new president. That's what South Koreans do when a president tries to overturn the Constitution. The former president was impeached for declaring martial law and is now out of office. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has been talking with voters and is in Seoul. Hey there, Anthony. Good morning, Steve.

Okay, so how important is that very recent history in this election? Well, the martial law crisis turned many people against the ruling party and it opened a rift within the ruling party between politicians who supported martial law and those who opposed it. We spoke to Choi Soo-ji, who is 43 and with her young son, and she says she remembers seeing tanks in her neighborhood when martial law was declared. She told us, when we saw the news the next morning, my children got very scared, and we were also very nervous wondering what's going on.

I just felt so sorry that our children had to experience and see all that, things that we'd only seen in movies and books. So the martial law crisis shook South Koreans' confidence in their democracy. It spurred many of them to take to the streets to defend democracy, and it appears to have also sent them to the polls today to hold their politicians accountable. Okay, so who's the front runner? Well, this is really E.J. Myong's race and his double-digit lead in the polls to lose. E.J. Myong is a former human rights lawyer. He's been leading the left-of-center opposition Democratic Party, but he's moderated his liberal stances some to appeal to centrist voters. He's promised more checks and balances to limit presidential power and avoid a future

power grab like the martial law incident, and he's promised a stronger safety net such as subsidies to young families to boost the country's plunging birth rate. Oh, this is all really interesting and relates to debates we have in the United States, checks and balances, talking about birth rates, everything else. You say he has a big lead, but the conservative party, and that's the old ruling party, right? They're getting a little bit closer. Frontrunner Lee Jae Myung still has a comfortable lead, but ex-president Yoon Sung Yeol did succeed in rallying his conservative base even while he was being impeached. Also, frontrunner Lee Jae-myong has been dogged by allegations of corruption, and we spoke

to one voter, Jang Chol-ho, who was concerned about those charges and therefore voted for the conservative candidate Kim Moon-soo. He said, if that kind of criminal, in other words, Lee Jae-myung, becomes president, I think there will be no future for South Korea's democracy. China is encroaching on our economy and politics, and I can't let my children and grandchildren live in a Chinese colony. So South Korean conservatives are distrustful of China. They see Lee Jae-myung as too cozy with Beijing, and that's why this voter voted for the conservative

Kim Moon-soo candidate. Of course, South Koreans have relied on the United States for generations to help them fend off China. How is the winner, whoever it turns out to be, likely to handle relations with the U.S.? Lee Jae-myung says he supports an ironclad alliance with the U.S. and he's offered to help facilitate any effort by President Trump to reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Now Kim may not be willing to speak, but if he is, whoever is South Korea's next president needs to be careful that if Trump and Kim reach a deal, they don't sell out South Korea's interests by, for example, unilaterally agreeing to leave North Korea's nuclear weapons in place or pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea. Anthony, thanks for the insights. It's always a pleasure to hear from you. Thank you, Steve. NPR's Anthony Kuhn is in Seoul. And that's At First for this Tuesday, June 3rd. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Amy Martinez. You really should listen to Consider This from NPR. We here at At First give you three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and then tell you what it means to you in about 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's Up First was edited by Eric Whitney, Rylan Barton, Kevin Drew, Lisa Thompson,

and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Neha Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Van Genhovenhoven and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.