President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he did not believe the US economy will fall into recession either this year or next year, his most confident prediction on the fate of an economy that is still rattled by fears of a downturn.
Asked in an interview whether he thought there would be a recession this year, Biden responded: "No, or next year. From the moment I got elected, how many of the experts are saying within the next six months there's gonna be recession?"
Economists for months have been warning of a possible recession as the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates in order to tame decades-high inflation.
Biden himself has said a recession was possible, and earlier this week he told reporters that the risk was very low.
On the whole, economic data in recent months has moved in the president's favor, particularly after inflation spiked to a 40-year high last summer and government reports showed the US economy could be heading into a recession.
Strong job numbers last week, which occurred despite layoffs in the technology sector as well as in interest-rate-sensitive sectors like housing and finance, poured cold water on market expectations that the US central bank was close to pausing its monetary policy tightening cycle.
Iran denied on Monday that it had engaged in negotiations with the United States, after President Donald Trump postponed a threat to bomb Iran's power grid because of what he described as productive talks with unidentified Iranian officials.
Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has stated that Israel should extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani River deep inside the country's south, as Israeli troops bombed bridges and destroyed homes in an escalating military assault.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would permanently strengthen its nuclear forces and treat South Korea as its most hostile state, as he set out policy priorities in a speech to parliament, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
Japan plans to start releasing oil from joint stockpiles held by producing nations in the country by the end of March, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a post on social media website X on Tuesday.
A Colombian military plane crashed in a takeoff disaster on Monday, killing 66 people as rescuers shuttled dozens of survivors to nearby hospitals and searched for four who were still missing, according to a top official.
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy has announced late on Monday that seven overhead power lines in several areas of the country were taken out of service due to damage sustained from falling debris following air defence interceptions.
Airstrikes targeting a site belonging to Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces in the western province of Anbar killed at least 10 fighters, including the PMF's Anbar operations commander, and wounded 30 others, security and health sources told Reuters early on Tuesday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukrainian intelligence believed Russian forces were preparing a new, imminent mass attack on the country.
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