dana: yeah. hi, bret. bret: welcome, i m bret baier. will he or won t he. we ask west virginia senator joe manchin the question on everyonens mind in a different way. large numbers of social media posters say usama bin laden was actually right. we ll tell you what they are talking about and the fallout from this viral moment over the last 24 hours. and a scathing ethics report spells big trouble for an embattled republican congressman. bret: but, first, breaking tonight, we re being told israel and hamas are working on a deal for the release of dozens of hostages. also this evening, israel says it has recovered a laptop used by hamas terrorists inside that gaza hospital, used as a staging area by the terrorists. it reportedly contains information about the prisoners. and the body of one hostage has been found had inside gaza. correspondent alex who he begann israel. the idf says it found the body of that hostage outside of gaza s largest hospital. she was a woman in
press. if you want peace, destroy hamas. if you want security, destroy hamas. we want to minimize civilian casualties and we want to minimize casualties on our side while maximizing the casualties on the, of the hamas terrorists. and netanyahu also offering some hope for the release of 239 hostages including americans. is there a potential deal? there could be but i think the less i say about it, the more i ll increase the chances it materials. if a deal is available, well, we ll talk about it when it s there. we ll announce it if it s achieved. plus, speaker johnson s two step plan to fund the government. a second shutdown show down in the new year. and a live report from manhattan where former president trump s attorneys are beginning their defense today in the trump organization civil fraud trial with don jr. back on the stand. good day. the world health organization says gaza s main hospital is no longer functional while others have closed completely. as newb
inquiries, it just adds to the worry that about national security. steve: sure. robert, you know the other thing is just the fact that our u.s. military personnel don t get paid a lot of money. and so when somebody comes up to them and waves some money under their noses because we re talking about bribes here. unfortunately, some people take the bait. yeah. it s j just sad. honestly the training there for counter espionage, for something like this to go on for two years means people s attention is somewhere else. and it needs to be on readiness. it needs to be on china. i mean, this is where we are this is where the threat is coming from. so to look away from it, is to basically set the stage for future events like this. and china is targeting our military personnel. they are targeting all of us. i think we just have to be accept tant of that. carley: christopher wray says the fbi enters a new counterintelligence case against china about twice a day. we saw the spy balloon fl
of a u.s. destroyer in international waters in the taiwan strait. and just before that, a chinese jet, streaking past a u.s. military plane. a maneuver the pentagon called dangerous and unnecessary. this trip the fulfilment of a promise set by president biden and president xi in bali last year. blinken was originally scheduled to travel in february but that trip was delayed after the discovery and takedown of that chinese spy balloon flying across the u.s. the balloon is completely destroyed. reporter: president biden, saying he hopes this visit can calm tensions between the countries, perhaps even setting up a face-to-face meeting for the two presidents later this year. i m hoping that over the next several months i ll be meeting with xi again, and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how those areas we can get along. trying to find some common ground there. matt rivers joins us now from beijing.
can improve on or maybe avoid making big mistakes. that s always a worthwhile. hold your friends close and your enemies closer i would say. arthel: i may come back to them. what is your take on china s uptick in on the u.s.? i did see her probably referring to the story this week about china having spy activities base in cuba nearby. i guess my initial reaction to that is i am not surprised. i think everyone spies on everyone. the u.s. 20 miles off the coast of china runs planes we use our satellites. i think they try to spy on us and everyone spies on everyone. i do not get too upset about it unless people reviling the rules on them. i normally expect requests even across the united states? what about a spy balloon flying