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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Evening Wire, I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Tuesday, August 12th. Russia seizes more territory in Ukraine ahead of the summit with Trump.
--:-- John Bickley: Inflation comes in cooler than expected. And Texas is seeking national arrest warrants for Democrats who fled the state.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ahead of the summit with the U.S., Russian forces are pushing ahead with one of their biggest gains of the war in Ukraine.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, Moscow's troops pushed about six miles past the front lines in the Donetsk region, closing in on nearby towns.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Fighting continues elsewhere in Donetsk, with drones striking and hitting residential areas and reports of major damage to civilian areas.
--:-- John Bickley: A Ukrainian monitoring group says the advance could help Russia tighten its grip on the region ahead of Friday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, President Trump says he plans to press Putin to end their three-year war during their Alaska meeting.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more. The president says he'll know within two minutes if a deal is possible and is prepared to walk away if not.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Speaking at the White House, Trump confirmed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky won't be part of this summit, but promised a follow-up meeting including both leaders if talks go well.
--:-- John Bickley: It's the worst thing that's happened, by far the worst that's happened since World War II.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I'm going to be telling him you got to end this war, you got to end it.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump hinted that any peace deal could involve territorial changes. A step that would require a nationwide vote in Ukraine to approve.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He expressed frustration with that process saying he'll try to get some of that territory back for Kiev.
--:-- John Bickley: The meeting will be Trump's first with Putin in his second term and the first face-to-face between a U.S. president and the Russian leader since the war began.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Inflation has once again come in cooler than experts projected despite Trump's tariffs taking effect.
--:-- John Bickley: The consumer price index rose just two tenths of a percent in July and is holding steady at 2.7 percent year over year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, climbed three-tenths of a percent on the month and 3.1 percent annually, with shelter costs driving most of that increase.
--:-- John Bickley: But energy prices fell more than one percent, while food prices remained flat.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Stocks rallied on the news with all three major indexes up in morning trading.
--:-- John Bickley: President Trump has nominated his replacement to head up the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the details.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Economist and frequent Morning Wire guest EJ Antony will replace Erica McIntyre, who Trump fired earlier this month after major downward revisions to recent jobs data.
--:-- John Bickley: In a true social post, Trump called Antony, quote, highly respected and said he would ensure economic numbers are, quote, honest and accurate.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And Tony has in the past criticized the agency's data collection methods and says restoring public trust will require both consistent and accurate reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: McIntyre's dismissal followed revisions, showing job gains in May and June were overestimated by more than 250,000 combined.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Biden administration nixed plans for the president to tour a ship two years ago over concerns about his ability to walk.
--:-- John Bickley: According to Fox News, an unearthed email chain reveals that an event in July 2023 was originally set to have President Biden board a vessel in a Pennsylvania shipyard, but the plans were rearranged due to, quote, how many steps were involved to get on the ship.
--:-- Georgia Howe: During this time, the Biden White House rebuffed questions regarding the president's fitness to serve, insisting he was perfectly capable of fulfilling the office.
--:-- John Bickley: A new whistleblower report claims that Democratic Senator Adam Schiff directed the release of classified information to target President Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The whistleblower, who served under Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, says that Schiff pushed for the leaks in a meeting after Trump's election in 2016.
--:-- John Bickley: FBI Director Kash Patel declassified the whistleblower report, which is a summary of several interviews with the FBI, and said in a post on X, we found it, we declassified it, now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives.
--:-- Georgia Howe: ICE officials in Houston have apprehended more than 350 gang members in the first six months of the Trump administration.
--:-- John Bickley: The suspects come from 40 different gangs, including Tren de Aragua and MS-13.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Notably, this is more arrests than in the entire year of 2021 under the Biden administration, when 115 gang members were arrested in the Houston area.
--:-- John Bickley: In an announcement this morning, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, quote President Trump and Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to dismantle transnational criminal terrorist gangs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The days of unchecked gang violence are over.
--:-- John Bickley: A man was shot and killed in Washington D.C. yesterday just hours after President Trump declared a crime emergency in the district and federalized local law enforcement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo has the details.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Law enforcement responded to a shooting in northwest Washington around 7 p.m. last night.
--:-- John Bickley: They found the victim unconscious, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: He was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.
--:-- John Bickley: The incident took place within walking distance of two shootings President Trump referenced yesterday as he announced the government's takeover of D.C. police.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Preliminary police data suggests yesterday's shooting would be the 100th homicide of this calendar year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: CNN's Dana Bash is taking heat for calling January 6th the most violent moment in recent history in Washington, D.C.
--:-- John Bickley: I should note that the most violent moment in recent history in D.C. was January 6th, and it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of people who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump, and it included the people who were hurt, included members of law enforcement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Critics, however, were quick to remind Bash about D.C.'s record homicide numbers in 2023 and the destruction from Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.
--:-- John Bickley: Bash made the comment while covering President Trump's announcement to federalize police and deploy the National Guard to combat surging crime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo is proposing what he's calling Zoran's law to protect rent-stabilized housing from the wealthy.
--:-- John Bickley: Democrat candidate Zoran Mamdani lives in rent-stabilized housing in Astoria.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cuomo says Mamdani was abusing the system by living in an apartment meant for people who need affordable housing.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm going to propose not rent that apartment by law, except to a person who actually needs affordable housing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Mamdani has made affordable housing a key policy of his campaign.
--:-- John Bickley: He's promised to freeze rent if elected.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Mamdani responded to Cuomo during his Five Boroughs Against Trump tour.
--:-- John Bickley: He said he lives rent-free in Cuomo's head.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Texas Republicans are seeking nationwide civil arrest warrants for Democrats who fled the state.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire senior editor Joel Needler has more.
--:-- Joel Needler: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to quote domesticate arrest warrants in California and Illinois to force the lawmakers to return to Texas.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Arrest warrants were issued last week.
--:-- John Bickley: The Democrats will not be detained in return to Texas unless a state court recognizes the warrants in California and Illinois.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Democrat leaders in both states have voiced support for the Texas Democrats.
--:-- John Bickley: The lawmakers left the state to block passage of a redistricting map that favors Republicans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The attorney general said the state would pursue, quote, every legal remedy to force the lawmakers to return.
--:-- John Bickley: A pilot and all three passengers survived a fiery plane crash Monday in Montana.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A small plane was landing when it slid and crashed into another plane.
--:-- John Bickley: Everyone survived with minor injuries and were treated at the scene.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thankfully, the other plane was empty.
--:-- John Bickley: Video from the scene shows both planes on fire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Emergency crews put out the fire and cleared the site within a few hours.
--:-- John Bickley: And Swifties, brace yourselves. I know Cabot is.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Taylor Swift has announced her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl.
--:-- John Bickley: She made the announcement in a teaser for her boyfriend, Travis Kelsey's podcast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Fans celebrated the new album on social media and the Empire State Building lit up orange.
--:-- John Bickley: The appearance for the podcast is Swift's first interview since 2023.
--:-- Georgia Howe: when she and Kelsey had just started dating.
--:-- John Bickley: She released her most recent album last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The video teaser of the podcast features Swift revealing a blurred album cover to Kelsey and his brother.
--:-- John Bickley: So I wanted to show you something.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Okay, what do we got?
--:-- John Bickley: We got a briefcase.
--:-- John Bickley: McGreen with TS on it.
--:-- John Bickley: What's in it?
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl.
--:-- John Bickley: TS 12! Yeah.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this evening.
--:-- John Bickley: To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including Trump taking unprecedented action to take over crime-plagued D.C., Trump's controversial New Deal with chip makers, and the border wall project getting a big infusion of cash and materials.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Goodnight, and we'll see you in the morning.
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