Month: January 2024

2/2
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is embraced by U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) as she signs the “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act of 2022,” following House passage of the legislation t
2/2

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat who retired from the House of Representatives after 30 years in office, died at 88, her family said on social media on Sunday.

Johnson, who represented a district in Texas that includes downtown Dallas, was the first person of color to serve as Chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and was the oldest member of the House when she left office in January 2023.

“She was a remarkable and loving mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and great grandmother, as well as a trailblazer and public servant,” her son, Kirk Johnson, wrote on Facebook (NASDAQ:META).

President Joe Biden said Johnson had “unwavering” dedication to the people of North Texas, adding that he was grateful for their “friendship and partnership” from working together throughout her 30 years in Congress.

House of Representatives Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a statement said that in 1992 Johnson became the first registered nurse elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first African American to serve in Congress from North Texas.

“Congresswoman Johnson was a trailblazing icon, transformational public servant and legendary member of the Congressional Black Caucus,” Jeffries said.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement that as representative, Eddie Bernice Johnson authored and co-authored more than 177 bills that became law as she fought for her communities and residents.

“She was the single most effective legislator Dallas has ever had,” the mayor wrote in the statement posted on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter.

2/2
© Reuters. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with commanders of the Korean People’s Army, at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Party, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released by the Korean Central News Agency on January 1, 2024. KCNA v
2/2

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told the country’s military commanders the most powerful means must be mobilized to destroy the United States and South Korea if they choose military confrontation, state media reported on Monday.

Kim said the danger of an armed confrontation on the Korean peninsula is fast becoming a reality because of hostile maneuvers by the enemies including the United States, requiring the country to “sharpen the sword” to protect itself.

“If they choose military confrontation and set the fire, we must mobilize all the most powerful means … to deal a crushing blow and completely destroy them,” KCNA state news agency quoted Kim as saying.

Kim hosted senior military leaders on Sunday at the ruling Workers’ Party headquarters to congratulate them on the accomplishments made in 2023, KCNA said.

In separate reports, KCNA said Kim hosted a reception for senior members of the ruling party and attended a late night concert celebrating the new year.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Holiday shoppers pack the seasonal Bryant Park Winter Village beneath a large Christmas tree in midtown Manhattan, in New York City, U.S., December 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

By Andrea Shalal

(Reuters) – Higher consumer spending over the holiday season, real wage gains over the last nine months and a jump in consumer confidence point to a good start for 2024, said Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers on Sunday.

Bernstein told “Fox News Sunday” that President Joe Biden would continue to focus on lowering costs for Americans if he won a second term in the November 2024 presidential election.

“If you actually look at the trend in the economy … I think you see some real momentum getting us in a good start for the new year,” Bernstein said.

U.S. consumer confidence increased to a five-month high in December, the Conference Board reported on Dec. 20, mirroring a nearly 14% increase in the University of Michigan’s benchmark Consumer Sentiment Index, its biggest jump in more than three decades. For most of Biden’s term, the Michigan index has reflected widespread pessimism among households about the economy, but the new data showed Americans’ growing confidence that inflation was finally trending lower.

Michigan survey director Joanne Hsu noted the upswing in December reversed “all declines from the previous four months. These trends are rooted in substantial improvements in how consumers view the trajectory of inflation.”

Indeed, inflation has eased substantially over the course of 2023. The Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index began the year with annual price increases averaging 6.4%. By November, that was down to 3.1%. Bernstein noted that gasoline was below $3 a gallon in more than half the states.

The U.S. national average retail gasoline price could drop by 13 cents next year to $3.38 a gallon, a second straight year of dropping fuel costs, according to price tracker GasBuddy.com’s annual outlook.

“This has been a very strong Christmas season,” Bernstein said, adding that spending at restaurants rose 8% from Nov. 1 to Christmas Eve, with spending on online sales up 6%, with overall retail spending rising 3%.

Despite the growing optimism, the Biden administration says it remains alert to geopolitical risks, including Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, which has the potential to disrupt grain markets and push up inflation again.

In the Middle East, Israel predicts its war with Hamas militants will last for months, increasing the risk of regional escalation. In the Red Sea, attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have disrupted world trade. Maersk, one of the world’s major cargo shippers, on Sunday said it would pause all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours after a Houthi attack on one of its container vessels.

Bernstein also cited big gains in the startup of new businesses, especially by people of color, which he said reflected more optimism and confidence about the U.S. economy.

Bernstein said the Biden administration was keeping an eye on rising credit card debt but saw it as a return to normal levels of delinquencies or debt levels. Record increases in wealth among Americans of all income levels and among people of color would also help offset the increases, he said.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Denmark’s Queen Margrethe attends a parade of the Royal Life Guards in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 15, 2023. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, Europe’s longest-serving monarch, will abdicate on Jan. 14 after 52 years on the throne and will be succeeded by her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik, she announced on Sunday.

The 83-year-old queen, who ascended the throne in 1972, made the surprise announcement on live TV during her traditional New Year’s Eve speech, which is viewed by many in the country of 5.9 million people.

Referring to a successful back operation she underwent in February, she said, “The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future – whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation”.

“I have decided that now is the right time. On 14 January 2024 – 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father – I will step down as queen of Denmark,” she said.

“I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” she said.

The queen became the longest-serving monarch in Europe following the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. In July, she became the longest-sitting monarch in Denmark’s history.

In Denmark, formal power resides with the elected parliament and its government. The monarch is expected to stay above partisan politics, representing the nation with traditional duties ranging from state visits to national day celebrations.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen thanked the queen for her life-long dedication to duty.

“It is still difficult to understand that the time has now come for a change of throne,” Frederiksen said in a statement, adding that many Danes had never known another monarch.

“Queen Margrethe is the epitome of Denmark and throughout the years has put words and feelings into who we are as a people and as a nation,” she said.

Born in 1940 to Denmark’s former monarch King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid, Margrethe has throughout her life enjoyed broad support from Danes, who are fond of her tactful and yet creative personality.

She is also known for her love of archaeology and has taken part in several excavations.

She became heir to her father in 1953 at the age of 31, after a constitutional amendment allowed women to inherit the throne.

In 1967, she married French diplomat Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, who served as her royal consort until his death in 2018.

The couple’s two sons are Crown Prince Frederik, who will become King Frederik X, and Prince Joachim. Frederik married Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, an Australian, in 2004.

3/3
© Reuters. Israeli military operates near Gaza, amid a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in South Israel, November 30, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
2/3

By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Arafat Barbakh and Dan Williams

CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli jets intensified attacks on central Gaza on Sunday, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take “many more months” to end.

Netanyahu’s comments signal no let-up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave’s border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution.

The Israeli military will release some reservists who were called up to fight Hamas in Gaza, a move it said on Sunday would help the economy as the country prepares for a prolonged war.

Air strikes pounded al-Maghazi and al-Bureij in the centre of Gaza, killing 10 people in one house and driving more to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from front lines where Israeli tanks are battling Hamas fighters.

Rockets fired from Gaza raced toward central Israel overnight, triggering sirens throughout the central and southern parts of the country. Israeli media carried footage of numerous interceptions. There were no reports of any direct hits.

Hamas’ armed wing said the barrage was in response to “massacres against civilians” in Gaza.

A Red Crescent video published on Sunday showed rescuers working in the dark to carry an injured child from smoking rubble in central Gaza. Six people died in a strike on the village of al-Mughraqa outside Gaza City, health officials said. A separate strike on a house in Khan Younis killed one person and wounded others, they added.

As 2023 drew to a close, Palestinians in Gaza prayed for a ceasefire but had little hope the new year would be better.

“Tonight the sky in world countries will be lit by firecrackers, and joyful laughs will fill the air. In Gaza our skies are now filled with Israeli missiles and tank shells that land on innocent, homeless civilians,” said Zainab Khalil, 57, a resident from northern Gaza now in Rafah.

The stated goal of Israel’s military is to eliminate Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched a surprise cross-border assault on Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and grabbing 240 hostages.

Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, with many more feared dead in the rubble, and pushed nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes.

Palestinian health ministry casualty figures do not differentiate between fighters and civilians but the ministry has said that 70% of Gaza’s dead are women and people under 18. Israel disputes Palestinian casualty figures and says it has killed 8,000 fighters.

Israel blockaded most food, fuel and medicine after the Oct. 7 attack. It said on Sunday that it was ready to let ships from some Western countries deliver aid directly to Gaza’s shores after security checks in Cyprus.

Gemma Connell, an official with the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, said that many of the tens of thousands of people fleeing to Rafah had no possessions and nowhere to sleep.

“I just am so fearful that the amount of deaths that we’ve been seeing is going to increase exponentially both because of this renewed offensive but also because of these conditions which are literally unbelievable,” she said.

‘WHERE WILL PEOPLE GO?’

The United States, Israel’s main ally, has urged it to scale down the war and European states have signalled alarm at the extent of Palestinian civilian suffering.

However Netanyahu’s comments on Saturday, when he said he would not resign despite opinion polls showing his government is broadly unpopular and defended his security record despite the Oct. 7 attack, indicate that there will be no easing anytime soon.

Netanyahu said the “the war is at its height” and Israel would have to retake control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, an area now crammed with civilians who have fled the carnage across the rest of the enclave.

Retaking the border could also constitute a de facto reversal of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, raising new questions over the future of the enclave and prospects for a Palestinian state.

Washington said Israel should allow a Palestinian government to control Gaza when the conflict is over.

“We just take a fundamentally different view here in terms of what post-conflict Gaza needs to look like,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby (NYSE:KEX) said on ABC television.

Israel’s hard-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich fuelled concerns about the offensive’s aims on Sunday by calling for Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom.”

That clashed with the official Israeli government position that Gazans will be able to return to their homes. Smotrich and other hardline coalition ministers have been excluded from the core war cabinet but have pushed to take part in decisions about the conflict.

In his last comments as Israeli foreign minister before switching to the energy portfolio on Sunday, Eli Cohen said the border was the likely source of weaponry Hamas had obtained over recent years.

Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said via social media that Israel taking over the border was evidence of a decision “to completely return the occupation.”

“We moved here from Khan Younis on the basis that Rafah was a safe place. There is no space in Rafah as it is overcrowded with displaced,” said Umm Mohammed, 45, a displaced Palestinian woman sheltering by the border.

“If they control the border, where will people go?” she asked, saying that would be “a disaster.”

MAERSK CARGO SHIP ATTACKED

The war risks morphing into a wider regional conflict involving Hamas ally Iran and groups Tehran supports across the Middle East.

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire, with the Israeli military saying it struck targets in Lebanon on Sunday. Israel has hit Iran-linked targets in Syria. And Iran-backed groups have attacked U.S. targets in Iraq.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group, which has been attacking shipping in the Red Sea for weeks in what it calls a response to Israel’s war in Gaza, attacked a Maersk cargo ship, the U.S. military said.

U.S. naval helicopters sank three of the four small boats the Houthis had used in Sunday’s attack and drove the fourth back to shore, the military said.

Israel says 174 of its military personnel have been killed in the Gaza fighting but that its operations are making progress, including by destroying some Hamas tunnels under the enclave.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad – both sworn to Israel’s destruction – have said that they continue to target Israeli forces operating in the enclave.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: CMA CGM Louis Bleriot and a Maersk Line container ship pass through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. Picture taken July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Ahmed Elimam

COPENHAGEN/DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) -U.S. helicopters repelled an attack by Iran-backed Houthi militants on a Maersk container vessel in the Red Sea, sinking three ships and killing 10 militants, according to accounts by American, Maersk, and Houthi officials on Sunday.

The naval battle occurred around 0330 GMT on Sunday as the attackers sought to board the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou, Maersk and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said. Helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely joined the ship’s security team in repelling the attackers after receiving a distress call, CENTCOM said.

Maersk said it was pausing all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours after the attack.

A spokesman for the Houthis said the group carried out the attack because the ship’s crew refused to heed warning calls. He said 10 Houthi naval personnel were “dead and missing” after their boats were attacked by U.S. forces in the Red Sea.

The naval battle underlines the risk of a regional escalation in fighting as Israel continues with its relentless bombing campaign following a Hamas surprise cross-border attack on Israeli towns on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 dead, and took 240 hostages. Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people, according to Gazan health authorities.

Yemen’s Houthis have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea since November to show their support for Hamas, prompting major shipping companies to take the longer and costlier route around the Africa’s Cape of Good Hope rather than through the Suez Canal.

The Red Sea is the entry point for ships using the Suez Canal, which handles about 12% of global trade and vital for the movement of goods between Asia and Europe.

The United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian on Dec. 19, saying more than 20 countries had agreed to participate in the efforts to safeguard ships in Red Sea waters near Yemen.

Maersk, one of the world’s top cargo shippers, said on Dec. 24 it would resume sailing through the Red Sea. However, attacks have continued and U.S. allies have proven reluctant to commit to the coalition, with nearly half not declaring their presence publicly.

The botched Houthi boarding operation was the second attack on the Maersk Hangzhou in as many days. The ship, which is carrying 14,000 containers en route from Singapore, was on Saturday hit by a missile about 55 nautical miles southwest of Al Hodeidah, Yemen.

The shipping company added that the crew of the Maersk Hangzhou crew was safe and there was no indication of fire onboard the vessel, which continued its journey north toward the Suez Canal.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby (NYSE:KEX) declined to say what options the U.S. is considering when asked on ABC’s “Good Morning America” if Washington would consider a preemptive strike on the Houthis.

“We have made it clear publicly to the Houthis, we’ve made it clear privately to our allies and partners in the region, that we take these threats seriously.”

Writing in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We are willing to take direct action, and we won’t hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”

“The Houthis should be under no misunderstanding: we are committed to holding malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he had told Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a call that Iran should help stop the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The BIMCO shipping association condemned the attacks and thanked those states involved in repelling them.

“We are thankful to U.S., French, and UK efforts so far and hope even more states will support the coalition with naval assets or other impactful means including diplomatic pressure on the Houthis and their sponsors,” Jakob Larsen, BIMCO’s head of maritime safety and security, told Reuters.

6/6
© Reuters. Fireworks explode over Victoria Harbour to celebrate the New Year in Hong Kong, China January 1, 2024. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
2/6

(Reuters) -The world welcomed 2024 with a mix of celebration and somber reflection.

Sydney sparkled under a shower of silver and gold fireworks commemorating the 50th anniversary of its iconic Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) House, while the mood in Gaza remained bleak, with residents more concerned with survival. In Europe, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II announced her abdication after over half a century on the throne.

Here’s how places and people around the world bid farewell to 2023 and welcomed the New Year.

AUSTRALIA – Sydney hailed 2024 with a dazzling fireworks display featuring silver and gold pyrotechnics to mark the 50th anniversary of its famous Opera House.

GAZA – People in Gaza had little hope that 2024 will bring much relief after 12 weeks of Israel’s war to eliminate Hamas. In Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt, which has become the biggest focal point for Palestinians fleeing other parts of the enclave, people were more preoccupied on Sunday with trying to find shelter, food and water than with thinking about the New Year.

“In 2024 I wish to go back to the wreckage of my home, pitch a tent and live there,” said Abu Abdullah al-Agha, a middle- aged Palestinian man whose house in Khan Younis was destroyed and who lost a young niece and nephew in an Israeli air strike.

DENMARK – Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II used her annual New Year’s speech on Sunday to announce that she will abdicate on Jan. 14 after 52 years on the throne and will be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik.

RUSSIA – Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing an election in March, made only passing reference in his New Year address on Sunday to his war in Ukraine, hailing his soldiers as heroes but mostly emphasising unity and shared determination.

CHINA – China President Xi Jinping, speaking on Sunday in a televised speech to mark the New Year, said the country will consolidate and enhance the positive trend of its economic recovery in 2024, and sustain long-term economic development with deeper reforms.

TAIWAN – President Tsai Ing-wen said that maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is the responsibility of both sides.

NORTH KOREA – North Korea vowed to launch three new spy satellites, build military drones and boost its nuclear arsenal in 2024 as leader Kim Jong Un said U.S. policy is making war inevitable, state media reported on Sunday.

Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to further develop relationship of cooperation between the two countries in New Year messages exchanged on Monday, South Korea’s Yonhap news reported, citing North Korea’s state radio.

THE VATICAN – At his Sunday prayers, Pope Francis said: “I wish everyone a peaceful end of the year, and please do not forget to pray for me”.

FRANCE – French President Emmanuel Macron in a televised address ahead of New Year celebrations said 2024 would be “the year of our French pride” marked by the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games and the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral after a devastating fire.

GERMANY – Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in his traditional year-end address that 2023 held “so much suffering and bloodshed,” but promised “we in Germany will get through this.”

Police on Sunday detained three more suspects in an alleged Islamist plot to attack Germany’s famed Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve.

The alleged attackers had planned to use a car to attack the 800-year-old Gothic cathedral, Cologne police said.

BRITAIN – London ushered in the New Year with the bongs of Westminster tower’s Big Ben bell, fireworks and a display of news highlights that featured King Charles’ coronation.

UNITED STATES – In New York, tens of thousands of revelers are gathered in Manhattan’s Times Square to wait for the lighted ball to drop at midnight, after scheduled performances by musicians including Megan Thee Stallion and LL Cool J.