Jobs Report, White House Crypto Summit, Gaza Ceasefire Uncertainty

0:02We get a picture today of employment, a snapshot slightly out of date. Future job reports will reflect federal job cuts and employers who paused as U.S. trade policy keeps changing. Where's the economy heading? I'm A. Martinez, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is a first from NPR News. The president takes an opportunity today to promote cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has set multiple all-time record highs because everyone knows that I'm committed to making America the crypto capital. Trump himself has invested in crypto, so how does he plan for the government to promote it? Also, why did Israel change its terms for extending a ceasefire in Gaza?

0:40With U.S. help, Israelis are pressing Hamas to accept a different deal and withholding food and fuel. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

0:55This message comes from NPR sponsor FX. presenting The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. Introducing you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truth seeker who is always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing. He must be on to something big. FX's The Lowdown, all new Tuesdays on FX, stream on Hulu. This message comes from Schwab. At Schwab, how you invest is your choice, not theirs. That's why when it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices.

1:38You can invest and trade on your own. Plus, get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs. With award-winning service, low costs, and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way at Schwab. Visit schwab.com to learn more. Support for NPR and the following message come from GoodRx. Prescriptions keep getting pricier and more of a hassle to fill. It's like the Wild West getting prescription medication these days. Good thing GoodRx wrangles it for you. From telehealth to wellness tips to easy discounts of up to 80%, GoodRx is riding with you at every step.

2:16GoodRx is not insurance, but if you have insurance or Medicare, GoodRx may beat your copay. Save time and money on prescriptions at GoodRx.com slash upfirst. Employers added 151 ,000 jobs in February. That's according to today's jobs report from the Labor Department, and 151 ,000 is a fairly healthy number, although it does not reflect the economic turmoil of the past several weeks. This is a snapshot of the economy, useful, but ever so slightly out of date. NPR Scott Horsley is here. Good morning, Scott. Good morning, Steve. So what is in and what is out of this snapshot? Well, the monthly jobs report is always based on a survey that's taken around the middle of the month.

3:01And that timing is important here because a lot of the federal government job cuts began around the 14th of February, a Friday, which some people refer to as the St. Valentine's Day massacre. People who got their walking papers that Friday are still counted as employed in this February jobs report. The overall report actually shows somewhat more job growth in February than the month before when cold, snowy weather was blanketing much of the country and keeping a lot of construction workers idle, for example. But even though the report looks pretty good on the surface, there are some warning signs out there.

3:34Okay. When you look below the surface, what are the warning signs that you see? Yeah. The outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas keeps a running tally of layoff notices, and its count for February shows the biggest job cut since 2020, which is the early months of the pandemic. Andrew Challenger says there were 172 ,000 layoffs announced last month, and that includes more than 62 ,000 in the federal government. This is a really big number in terms of what we've ever recorded. The fact that we've reached that level so quickly this year is surprising to us and certainly something worth taking note of.

4:13Now, the official jobs report today shows just 10 ,000 federal jobs cut last month, which we know is a fraction of the real total. We also know that the Trump administration is considering much more widespread layoffs as it seeks to radically downsize the federal workforce. Yeah, and it's numbers that couldn't affect the employment numbers in a measurable way. So what would that radical downsizing look like? The administration reportedly wants to cut tens of thousands of jobs, for example, from both the VA and the IRS. The IRS already cut more than 6 ,000 workers last month. Eddie Walker represents some of those workers at an IRS office in Austin, Texas.

4:50Of course, there's a lot of crying. I'm looking at some of the emails and stuff I've got, like They are ripping apart my work family. I left a job of 13 years to come here. And what do I get? How am I going to survive? I'm a single mom. This is obviously painful for the affected workers. Some context important, though. There are about 2.4 million federal workers, not counting the military and the post office. That's about one and a half percent of the overall U.S. workforce. Oh, thanks for the reminder. The vast majority of people are working to state and local government or whatever, or in the private sector, of course.

5:24So how is the private sector holding up? Yeah, restaurants and bars cut about 27 ,000 jobs last month. Temporary services cut jobs as well. There's been a lot of whiplash around the president's trade policy. I mean, just this week, we saw tariffs imposed, then relaxed, then mostly suspended on Mexico and Canada. Andrew Challenger says a lot of private sector businesses are considering their own job cuts. There's just been this extra uncertainty that's entered into some industries around tariffs, around potential trade wars. We're seeing big announcements from very large Fortune 500 companies this month that are tuning down their growth forecasts for the next three or four years.

6:05So it's just not an environment that encourages a lot of hiring. NPR Scott Horsley, thanks. You're welcome.

6:19When he was campaigning for office, the president promised to make the United States the crypto capital of the planet. And he's taken major steps this week when it comes to digital assets. Yeah, last night, the president signed an executive order creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve. He's expected to speak about it at a summit the White House is hosting today on cryptocurrency. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivram has more on this. Good morning. Good morning. Would you just explain for me, I mean, I can understand why the U.S. needs a strategic petroleum reserve. If there's a shortage of petroleum, you'll let some out.

6:51Supply and demand keeps the price down. But why would Americans need a crypto reserve? Yeah, the argument the White House is making is that the U.S. is losing money by selling the Bitcoin they already have seized from court proceedings. So Trump's crypto czar David Sachs said on social media last night that the government has about 200 ,000 in Bitcoin, which is worth about$17 billion. And the idea is that the reserve will be a, quote, digital Fort Knox. All of that Bitcoin just stays there. And that was a campaign promise from President Trump. But the idea of having a crypto reserve is pretty controversial, even among those in the crypto space, coming down to details like which cryptocurrencies do you keep in the reserve and why is the president picking some over others?

7:35So there's a lot of lingering questions. Yeah, and of course, it's an industry in which he's invested. So this is just one move the president is making. There's this summit coming today. What's going on? Yeah, the White House hasn't shared a lot of details about who's attending today, who's going to be speaking, though we do expect the president to make remarks. But I will say the big overarching thing that people are expecting from this summit is a pretty wide open question, which is what are the rules when it comes to cryptocurrency? This is a space that involves trillions of dollars, There's so many players and a lot of opportunity, but also a lot of volatility and risk and bad actors.

8:10So there's a desire here to build a regulatory framework. And a lot of folks in the crypto space see this summit as an opportunity to get the ball rolling on those discussions, especially because there are a lot of conversations like this that they feel weren't happening under the Biden administration. Well, what was Biden doing then? The Biden administration focused on enforcement in trying to crack down on cryptocurrency rather than coming up with the new rules of the road to help the industry and help consumers. Trump's approach so far has been to undo that. In the last few weeks, his administration has backed away from a lot of the lawsuits and investigations that the SEC, which is the Securities and Exchange Commission, had been doing on crypto businesses.

8:51I talked to Campbell Harvey. He's a finance professor at Duke University about the change in approach to crypto. Over the past four years, at least, the regulatory complex has been very combative, almost in a warlike situation, against the innovators in the space. So it's time to step back and to look at the possible benefits of this new technology and weigh them against the costs. And he says the summit happening today is important because it's a first step in making a framework for cryptocurrency that balances that innovation with protection for consumers. I'm just thinking, though, when the government changes the rules, there are winners, there are losers.

9:35You may be picking winners and losers. And doesn't the president himself have a financial stake here? Correct. That's very important to point out. Trump was seen as a very crypto friendly presidential candidate. He received a lot of financial support from people in the crypto industry who also invested in down ballot races. And during the campaign, Trump also rolled out his own crypto venture called World Liberty Financial. That's run by Trump's kids, but he has a sizable financial stake in it. And right before inauguration, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump rolled out their own meme coins. That's a kind of cryptocurrency that the SEC recently said is not subject to oversight, which has raised questions about conflicts of interest.

10:13And Pierce Deepa Shivaram, who so far as we know has not yet released the Deepa coin, but we'll look forward to that. Stay tuned. All right. Thanks so much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

10:31President Trump says his own threats forced a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. But that was six weeks ago, and that phase of the ceasefire deal ended with no agreement between Israel and Hamas on what comes next. Now, this week, the president issued what he called the last warning to Hamas after meeting with former Israeli hostages. NPR international correspondent Abitraoui joins us now from Dubai to explain. Hi there. Hey, Steve. I'm just trying to think this through. There was a ceasefire that lasted six weeks. Hamas released some hostages in exchange for Israel freeing some Palestinians. But why haven't they agreed to the second phase yet?

11:07Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he never actually sent negotiators to hammer out the details of a second phase. and he wants a different deal now that does not permanently end the war, but frees more hostages taken in the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. So instead of proceeding with the original deal, Trump's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff came up with a different plan in recent days that gives Netanyahu what he wants. And to pressure Hamas into this new deal, Israel's blocked all food, fuel, and aid into Gaza for six days now. Now, countries around the world, aid organizations, and several Israeli rights groups say this violates international humanitarian law.

11:41So how, again, is this plan, this proposal from the Israelis and from the United States, different from what was expected? So the main difference is the original deal agreed to would have ended the war now. Basically, an agreement to lasting truce. And then all remaining Israeli hostages still alive would be freed over the next six weeks. And Israeli troops would withdraw from Gaza and more Palestinian prisoners would be freed. In contrast, the Wyckoff plan would have Hamas release half the remaining hostages still held in Gaza now, with only the promise to negotiate a lasting end to the war after six weeks.

12:12Hamas has not agreed to that, and Netanyahu may decide not to end the war because of pressure from his far-right coalition. He's in a bind because he has vowed to return all the hostages and eliminate Hamas, but a return to war doesn't guarantee either. Okay, so we're maybe at this moment not getting closer to a permanent end to the war, but people still talk about what that's supposed to look like. what are some of the visions on the table? Okay, so you may have heard Trump's idea that everyone in Gaza is going to be displaced to other countries like Egypt and Jordan, and then the U.S. takes over the Gaza Strip somehow, turning it into a world-class real estate development without Palestinians who live there now.

12:48Now, Israel's government has embraced this plan and is drafting up ways to implement it, but Egypt has been clear it will not be a part of Trump's plan to permanently expel Palestinians off the land. And Egypt says the plan is destabilizing to the region and would unravel its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. So instead, Egypt drew up a detailed reconstruction plan for Gaza of its own, and it got the backing of all Arab states at a summit in Cairo this week. They also all rejected any displacement of Palestinians. So Israel and the U.S. immediately criticized this lengthy Egyptian plan. But then Steve Witkoff said this yesterday.

13:20I just finished reading it. There's a lot of compelling features to it. We need more discussion about it. But it's a good faith first step from the Egyptians. So, Steve, the plan doesn't address every single concern that Israel or, you know, Gulf Arab states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have about, you know, what would come next. And they'll be needed to help fund the reconstruction. But it would exclude Hamas from any governance. And Hamas says they agree to that. Oh, interesting. Aya, thanks so much. Thank you, Steve. That's NPR correspondent Aya Batraoui in Dubai.

13:54And that's it first for this Friday, March 7th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm E. Martinez. Now, one of the impending legal battles for the Trump administration is over birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S. whose parents are here without legal status. Now, at the center is a question that's centuries old. Who is truly American and who gets to decide? This weekend on the Sunday story from Up First, we hear the origins of this question through an 1898 court case that would transform the life of one Chinese immigrant and generations to follow. That's this Sunday right here in the Up First podcast feed.

14:27Today's Up First was edited by Rafael Nam, Roberta Rampton, Russell Lewis, Alice Wolfley, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And let me give you one more name. Jay Shaler is the new executive producer of this program. Welcome, Jay. Join us Monday. This message comes from Michelin. More than a tire company, Michelin is an innovation company. Now taking on space, developing an airless wheel for space exploration. Motion for life. More at michelinman.com slash y hyphen Michelin slash innovation.

15:07This message comes from Mint Mobile. From the gas pump to the grocery store, inflation is everywhere. So Mint Mobile is offering premium wireless starting at just$15 a month. To get your new phone plan for just$15, go to mintmobile.com slash switch. This message comes from Warby Parker. Prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable. Glasses designed in-house from premium materials starting at just$95, including prescription lenses. Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.