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.
US President Donald Trump has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the US would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there, though the extent of any assistance was not immediately clear.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needed to rapidly expand its nuclear armament and called US-South Korea military exercises an "obvious expression of their will to provoke war," state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
Hamas has accepted the latest proposal for a 60-day ceasefire with Israel that includes the return of half the hostages the group holds in Gaza and Israel's release of some Palestinian prisoners, an Egyptian official source said on Monday.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders will meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday to map out a peace deal amid fears the US president could try to pressure Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow.
Fearing an Israeli onslaught could come soon, some Palestinian families began leaving eastern areas of Gaza City, now under constant Israeli bombardment, for points to the west and some explored evacuating further south.