Morning Brief: US Military Strikes Drug Boat, Rise Of European Populism & COVID Vax Pullback

The U.S. military destroys a drug boat from Venezuela as a federal judge tries to block President Trump from using the National Guard for law enforcement in Los Angeles. A massive populist backlash against mass migration is fueling a historic political shift to the Right across Europe. The FDA restricts access to COVID vaccines for healthy Americans as President Trump demands Big Pharma release its data and questions his own Operation Warp Speed.

It’s Wednesday, September 3, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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U.S. Military Sinks Drug Boat, Judge Blocks Trump in L.A.

Topline: The U.S. military destroyed a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela on Tuesday, the most dramatic move yet in the Trump administration’s war on cartels, as a federal judge in California ruled against the president’s use of the National Guard for domestic law enforcement.

As part of an “enhanced counter narcotics operation,” the U.S. military has deployed at least eight warships to the Caribbean. “We just, over the last few minutes, shot out a drug-carrying boat,” President Trump announced Tuesday. “These came out of Venezuela.” The action follows the president’s designation of several large drug cartels as terror organizations, allowing for a more aggressive military approach.

Meanwhile, a district judge in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to protect federal property and aid immigration enforcement was illegal. The judge, Charles Breyer, barred guardsmen from engaging in law enforcement activities. The Trump administration will appeal the ruling, which has been put on hold for ten days. A federal appeals court previously reversed a similar ruling from Breyer in June.

In other administration news, the Pentagon will send up to 600 of its lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges, a move intended to clear a 3-million-person backlog and speed up deportations. President Trump also announced that the U.S. Space Command Headquarters will be relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a move the White House says will save nearly half a billion dollars.

Europe Sees Historic Shift to the Right Amid Migrant Backlash

Topline: For the first time in modern history, right-wing populist parties are leading the polls in Europe’s three largest economies — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — driven by a massive public backlash against mass migration.

“Immigration is the number one factor driving all of these movements,” Alvino-Mario Fantini, editor-in-chief of the European Conservative, told Morning Wire. Since 2015, an estimated 25 to 30 million immigrants, primarily from Muslim countries, have entered Europe, leading to a culture clash and widespread anger over the high costs of housing and welfare for migrants.

As a result, nationalist parties like Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, France’s National Rally, and Germany’s Alternative for Germany are now topping the polls in their respective countries.

The establishment parties have responded with what many conservative analysts call “lawfare,” similar to tactics used against the MAGA movement in the U.S. In France, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of misusing E.U. funds and banned from running for office for five years. In Germany, the country’s intelligence agency has classified the Alternative for Germany party as an “extremist” group, which could be used to ban its members from public office.

FDA Restricts COVID Vax as Trump Questions Warp Speed

Topline: The FDA has removed the emergency use authorization for COVID vaccines, restricting their availability for healthy Americans, as President Trump is now publicly questioning his own Operation Warp Speed and demanding that pharmaceutical companies release their data on the shots.

The FDA has removed the “emergency use authorization” that allowed widespread access to COVID vaccines during the pandemic. While high-risk individuals can still get the vaccine, healthy people will now need a recommendation from a physician. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency doesn’t “have data [on] healthy Americans, so we’re not recommending it for healthy Americans,” adding that the change makes future vaccine mandates “legally impossible.”

The move comes as President Trump has taken a more critical tone on the vaccines. In a post on Truth Social, he demanded that companies like Pfizer “justify” the success of the drugs and release their data to the public. In a notable shift, he also questioned his own signature program, writing, “I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???”

The policy changes follow a major shakeup at the CDC, where HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently fired the director, prompting several other top officials to resign and nine former directors to write an op-ed condemning Kennedy. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya responded by noting that the former directors criticizing Kennedy were the same ones who “embraced politicized school closures and covid vaccine mandates.”