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.
Eight Israeli airstrikes have hit the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in northwestern Syria early on Tuesday, targeting the runway and storage facilities, Syria's state-run Ekhbariya said, citing a military source.
Two students were killed in a shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, one of them the gunman, officials said, in the second such incident in the country in less than two months.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered on Tuesday that former Prime Minister Imran Khan be moved to hospital from jail, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said, meeting a longstanding demand of his party and family, who had raised concerns about his health.
A Russian missile attack has killed 10 people and injured a further eight in a village in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump said on Monday Iran would not make the deal he thinks is needed to end a war with the US and should surrender as talks between the countries remained stalled.