Cabot Phillips (2:50)

Israel conducted a precision strike Tuesday against senior Hamas leaders operating out of Qatar. The dramatic move comes as President Trump has come up with a new proposal to pause the war in Gaza.

John Bickley (3:02)

Joining us now from Israel is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pearce. Tim, so you've been on the ground there as this new major development's taken place. Israel's operation in Qatar yesterday. Let's start there. What do we know so far about that strike?

Tim Pearce (3:16)

Yeah, the targets were top Hamas officials that have lived in Qatar as a sort of protected refuge outside of Gaza. This appears to be the first time that Israel has struck Hamas officials who have lived there and run Hamas from Qatar. Qatar immediately condemned the attack. It called it a blatant violation of all international laws and norms and said it would investigate, but it was vague on if it intends to actually retaliate. Israel took full responsibility for the attack, saying it was a solo venture. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said Wednesday that the U.S. was notified ahead of the attack and that it in turn notified Qatar. Here's Levitt.

Caroline Levitt (3:50)

President Trump immediately directed special envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack. President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza and the bodies of the dead released and this war to end now. President Trump also spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu after the attack. The prime minister told President Trump that he wants to make peace and quickly. President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace, according to Dr. I.A.L.

Tim Pearce (4:30)

Pinko. He's a senior researcher at the Begin Sadat center for Strategic Studies in Israel. The Jewish state can certainly expect some sort of response from Hamas over this strike. While this is a meaningful hit on top Hamas officials, there are still leaders left inside the terror group to direct any retaliation.

John Bickley (4:45)

All right, so we're expecting some sort of retaliation from Hamas at some point. Now. This came after President Trump put forward a new ceasefire proposal for the war in Gaza.

Tim Pearce (4:54)

What happened there? Right. Just a couple days ago, President Trump said that Hamas would face consequences if it refused a ceasefire agreement to release all 48 remaining hostages. Here's Trump talking about that offer.

Tim Rice (5:06)

It's a hell of a problem.

Alexandro Wiggins (5:08)

What?

John Bickley (5:09)

Again, it's a problem we want to solve. For the Middle east, for Israel, for everybody. But it's. It's a problem we're going to get done. So they have hostages. It could be a little bit less than 20, because some, you know, they tend to die, right? They tend to die. Even though they're young people, largely, they're dying. Young people don't die. Young people stay alive. But with this whole thing, they tend to die.

Tim Pearce (5:35)

Hamas rejected that proposal yesterday. The terror group called it a humiliating surrender document. And then Israel's strike on Hamas leadership took place not long after. Under the Trump proposal, Hamas had to agree to release the hostages, and in exchange, Israel would have released thousands of Palestinian prisoners. And then the United States would have monitored a ceasefire while Israel and Hamas negotiated an end to the war.

John Bickley (5:58)

Now, before we let you go, we also just saw this week an attack at a bus station in Jerusalem.

Tim Pearce (6:04)

What exactly took place there? Yeah, I received a briefing on the attack from IDF spokesman Captain Adam Ida on Monday. Here's what he said.

John Bickley (6:11)

We just saw what's happened today in Jerusalem early in the morning when we had six casualties, six people, innocent people who lost their lives. When two Palestinians came from Ramallah. People just out of a bus and out of nowhere, they're just getting shot and people losing their lives out of nowhere without doing anything bad to anybody. And this is our reality. This has been our reality in Israel.

Tim Pearce (6:35)

In addition to those six casualties, 12 were wounded and six of those seriously. I should also note that Hamas has claimed responsibility for that terror attack.

John Bickley (6:43)

A really alarming incident. And again, you know, stay safe while you're there on the ground in Israel. Tim, thanks so much for reporting.

Tim Pearce (6:49)

Thanks, John. Will do.

John Bickley (6:52)

A new report shows the US labor market was considerably worse than reported last year, angering President Trump and setting off alarm bells on Wall Street.

Cabot Phillips (7:00)

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break it all down. So, Cabot, walk us through this report. What did we find out?

John Bickley (7:06)

Yeah. So every year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics sorts through their last year's numbers and then issues revisions to those initial reports. Now, typically, these annual revisions might result a 3% increase in jobs here, a 5% decrease there. Nothing too crazy. But on Tuesday, the bureau revised last year's data, showing that the actual number of jobs added was down by more than 50%. So they were off by over 50%. That means that from March of 24 to March of 25, the Labor Department reported 910,000 new jobs that never actually existed. This marks the largest downward revision in American history, bigger even than what we saw following the 08 financial crisis, here's what White House press Secretary Caroline Levitt had to say following the news.

Caroline Levitt (7:49)

The benchmark year, March 2024-2025, shows that the job growth was vastly weaker during the Biden administration than ever previously reported.

John Bickley (7:58)

And it's worth noting if you dig through the data, the overwhelming number of jobs taken off the board came in the private sector. Government jobs only accounted for about 31,000 of the jobs revised down, while private sector jobs were overcounted by 880,000. White collar, blue collar. No one was spared. These revisions impacted virtually every industry.

Cabot Phillips (8:18)

So the question, of course, everyone's asking is how could they have been so off here?

John Bickley (8:23)

Well, the monthly reports are not actually based on data from the entire economy. Instead, every month the Labor Department surveys a few thousand employers, finds out how many jobs they added, and then extrapolates those numbers out more broadly. Those reports come out fast and are hugely influential for stock markets and importantly, the Federal Reserve. There's a good chance, though, that Fed Chair Jerome Powell would have lowered rates months ago if these numbers had been reported accurately the first time. There are plenty of people in Trump world who believe the timing of these revisions is no coincidence. Here's Levitt again.

Caroline Levitt (8:53)

To that point, this makes it very clear that President Trump inherited a much worse economy by the Biden administration than ever reported. And it also proves that the Federal Reserve is holding our monetary policy far too restrictive and interest rates are too high. The Fed needs to cut the rates because of the mess that we inherited from the Biden administration.

John Bickley (9:12)

And following the news, the White House was very quick to remind folks that this means the labor market slowdown began well before President Trump took office and in their view is not the result of President Trump's tariffs or any other policy for that matter.

Cabot Phillips (9:24)

Now, President Trump has complained about the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Does this play into his attempt to overhaul that department?

John Bickley (9:30)

Yeah, it absolutely does. He's been calling out the bureau since retaking the White House, saying the American people and businesses simply have to be able to trust the numbers that they're getting. Remember, he fired the former head of the BLS last month after smaller monthly revisions were announced that showed the labor market has actually been much slower this summer than expected. And these new revisions only further reinforce his point and really provide new urgency for the overhaul that he's calling for when it comes to accurately tracking job growth. To that point, the White House released a statement Tuesday saying that the continued discrepancies, quote, underscore the urgent need for Congress to confirm E.J. antony. The major reforms needed to restore Americans trust in the data after years of inaccuracy that has misled policymakers and eroded confidence. We spoke to one of the lawmakers who will be in charge of confirming Antony. That's the new pick, Senator Roger Marshall. Here's what he had to say. And much like the cdc, everything is wrong with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And I think today's report bears that out. So we need someone like Dr. Antony, who I've interviewed, to come in there and turn that place upside down as well, to start over and figure out how to get better data coming in and then make better assessments of that data. Now, one silver lining here for the White House. By all accounts, this report does make it more likely that Fed Chair Jerome Powell will cut interest rates later on this month. So President Trump's been begging for cuts. Now, we'll wait and see how large they might be if they do in fact, happen.

Cabot Phillips (10:55)

Well, I know a lot of people are hoping that's going to happen. Cabot, thanks for reporting.

John Bickley (10:58)

Absolutely.

Cabot Phillips (11:01)

A group of whistleblowers alleged before Congress yesterday that the United States military is covering up evidence of UFOs.

John Bickley (11:08)

Here with a breakdown of the hearings is Daily Wire Washington editor Tim Rice. Hey, Tim. So is there life out there, Tim?

Tim Rice (11:15)

It sure is starting to seem that way. Yesterday was actually the third congressional hearing about what experts call unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs. The first was back in July 2023, when former Air Force official David Grush claimed that the government had recovered extraterrestrial crafts and even non human biological material from alien pil. Since then, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has been installed at the helm of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. That's the task force that held yesterday's hearing. Speaking to Chris Cuomo earlier this week, Luna promised that the hearing would be historic.

Anna Paulina Luna (11:54)

There are many people from all across the DOD, across the entire US government. Over 30 people, to include our own Secretary of State, have come forward and said, you know, there's something here.

Tim Rice (12:05)

The Congresswoman opened Tuesday's hearing on a similarly dramatic note.

Anna Paulina Luna (12:09)

Today I want to state clearly that this is not science fiction or creating speculation. This is about national security, government accountability, and the American people's right to the truth. We have heard from a number of whistleblowers, specifically military pilots, that the reason for not coming forward publicly is out of fear that speaking out would cost them their flight status and potentially their careers. This is unacceptable. We cannot protect our airspaces. If our best trained observers are silenced. We cannot advance science if we refuse to ask questions, and we cannot maintain trust in government if we keep the American people in the dark.

John Bickley (12:43)

All right, so a lot of buildup for this. Who exactly did we hear from which whistleblowers spoke at this hearing?

Tim Rice (12:49)

Yeah, there were three veterans, two of whom claimed to have witnessed UAPS themselves, and George Knapp, an investigative journalist who has prominently covered this issue for years. Here's one of the veterans, Alexandro Wiggins, describing his UAP sighting.

Alexandro Wiggins (13:04)

What I observed and what our crew recorded was not consistent with conventional aircraft or drones as they appear on our system. A self luminous Tic Tac shaped object emerged from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects. The four then disappeared simultaneously with a high synchronized near instantaneous acceleration.

Tim Rice (13:31)

And here's Air Force veteran Dylan Borland, who said he faced retaliation from the government after reporting a 2012 UAP sighting on a military base.

John Bickley (13:40)

I saw an approximately 100 foot equilateral triangle take off from near the NASA hangar on the base. The craft interfered with my telephone, did not have any sound, and the material was made of appeared fluid or dynamic. I was under this triangular craft for a few minutes and then it rapidly ascended to commercial jet level in seconds, displaying zero kinetic disturbance, sound or wind displacement.

Tim Rice (14:04)

The hearing's most shocking moment came when Missouri Congressman Eric Burleson shared a never before seen video of a Hellfire missile striking a UAP and seemingly having no effect. But perhaps even more shocking is the fact that lawmakers from both parties largely seem to agree that the government has been lying about UAPs and that they aren't going to be satisfied until they have answers. Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz summed up the mood of the hearing pretty nicely.

Alexandro Wiggins (14:29)

The narrative has changed, right? It's politically convenient for the government. If you all weren't military folks in suits, it would be much better if you pulled up in Winnebagos and were wearing hats. This is now the second or third committee where we have former military folks with impeccable records with information and knowledge. I don't really know what is true, I don't know on this subject, but I do know when we're being lied to. And we are definitely being lied to. There's just no doubt about that.

John Bickley (15:03)

It definitely sounds like we can expect to hear more about this issue in the future. Meanwhile, I can't wait for the next episode of Alien Earth.

Tim Rice (15:09)

Truth is out there.

Cabot Phillips (15:10)

John, thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.