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what's up Superstar happy Friday Eve
it's Thursday January 11th rise up let's
make this a random thought Thursday if
you are trying to fail and you succeed
does that mean you're successful and not
a failure let's start today with a quick
update on the current state of the US
economy as we begin 2024 the economy is
at a Crossroads and some analysts
believe this year will be a pivotal year
with a strong influence on how the
remainder of this decade will go at the
end of 2023 we saw continued job growth
in the labor market thanks in large part
to consumer spending many thought the
Federal Reserve decision to continuously
increase interest rates in 2023 in order
to help slow inflation would lead to job
losses and spin the economy into a
recession well that didn't happen we're
not out of the woods just yet though the
US still faces possible challenges ahead
we're seeing the least affordable
housing market in the generation both
the Israel Hamas war and Russia Ukraine
war rage on and the 2024 presidential
election could certainly have an impact
on the economy so as we consider all
these potential breakthroughs and
pitfalls we might wonder just how
difficult is it to Define an economy as
good or bad it's not a simple task our
John sarin breaks it down so there's
been a big debate right now raging about
the economy whether it's good whether
it's bad but what even is a good economy
when pundits and economists talk about a
good economy they're looking at a few
key metrics the unemployment rate GDP
growth wages the stock market so you can
compare those numbers to years past you
can compare them to other similar
economies around the world on both those
fronts right now the US is doing well
the US economy is doing great relative
to other economies which makes this
whole thing kind of weirder the United
States economy is doing very very well
but people within the United States are
feeling much worse than those who are in
economies that are not doing as strong
so looking back to 2022 right there was
a huge debate going on about Drome poell
and the Federal Reserves plan to raise
interest rates to counteract inflation
the concern was that raising interest
rates like they did could lead to
widespread job losses and a possible
recession but if the FED in trying to
head off inflation continues to raise
interest rates as fast as it has then
the economy is going to go into
recession the FED said they were aiming
for the so-called soft Landing where you
raise interest rates just enough to slow
inflation but avoid those massive job
losses so what happened so far the
landing seems like it was pretty soft
the inflation rate has been coming down
and we haven't seen widespread job
losses but that is not to say that
everything is good so wages are growing
sure that's great but that doesn't
offset 40 Years of stagnant wages we
have an affordability crisis it's almost
impossible to get a house in the United
States people are coming out of the
other side of the pandemic and they're
like oh wow like you know student loan
payments can be paused I'm able to I was
able to kind of afford rent I was able
to have unemployment insurance and then
all of a sudden all that's taken away I
think of course people are going to be
genuinely upset about that and genuinely
frustrated all right let's turn now to
social Med media specifically Tech Giant
meta which owns Instagram and Facebook
the company has announced new settings
for teen users our medical correspondent
Meg Terrell was on CNN recently to
discuss the impact of these changes well
it sounds like it is a pretty
significant change meta has already had
a lot of protections they say in place
for Te users but a lot of pressure has
been mounting on them recently and so
what they're doing is they're adding
even more protection so around Search
terms like self harm and suicide and
eating disorders they're going to hide
even more kinds of content even among
people that teens follow on these
platforms they're not going to show them
if somebody posts about those things
they're also automatically setting teens
in the most restrictive content settings
so right now it's when you sign up they
put you in that setting now they're
going to do it for all teens
automatically and they're also going to
be sending notifications to prompt teens
to update their privacy settings with a
single tap so all of this of course
comes amid this backdrop that really
started a couple years ago with the
Francis hgan Facebook papers coming out
uh which blew the whistle including on
things like U young girls self-image so
that was one thing that was really
focused on there of course in the middle
of last year the surge General put out
an advisory about kids mental health and
social media states have now sued meta
alleging harms to children and then a
second whistleblower coming out at the
end of last year saying that meta
Executives alleging that they knew about
these kinds of harms and weren't acting
on them and so there's also Federal
legislation pending so these companies
are under a lot of pressure Let It Go
Let It Go Princess Elsa Anna and Olaf
they're pretty big deals in The Wire
household thanks to my two young
daughters and right now we're going to
head to China to a place where more than
30,000 people per day from around the
world flock to check out a frozen
Wonderland here's CNN's Lea harac with
more it's a winter wonderland you won't
see anywhere else the Chinese city of
Harbin saw a record number of visitors
over the New Year holiday weekend during
its annual ice and snow Festival
well this ice City features intricate
sculptures and structures all glowing
from within all of course made entirely
of ice it's quite nice and quite
shocking when I saw it for the first
time I thought they built it very well
and the ice was very transparent well
this year officials say an average of
about 30,000 people enter the park every
day that's nearly double pre-pandemic
numbers while the festivities have sold
out every Hotel
booking was pretty difficult for booking
hotels we spent 2 to three days before
we found a suitable Hotel tickets for
ice and snow world were sold out online
so I bought them on the secondhand
website
xanu the state media says this year's
Festival covers 810,000 square m nearly
9 million square ft and features
250,000 cubic M of ice a rather fitting
spectacle as temperatures over the new
year holiday dropped to nearly -25° C or
-3° F but the cold hardly stopped those
itching for fun after the last 3 years
of holiday cheer we're stifled by
varying degrees of pandemic
restrictions because this is the first
winter holiday since the pandemic was
lifted and everyone can't hold back
we've been sealed for several years so
we want to go out and relax to release
some of the stressful feelings from the
pandemic harbin's Ice Festival will
shine bright until early March in the
meantime the aptly nicknamed ice City
shares its ice art and animals with
visitors looking for something cool to
do 10-second trivia what is the largest
cat that lives in North America Bobcat
Puma ocelot or
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Jaguar
if you said Jaguar ding ding ding you
are correct they once roam throughout
the southwestern us but they've been on
the endangered species list since
1997 today's story getting a 10 out of
10 gives us great pause after 5 years of
setting up trail cameras in the Arizona
wilderness in hopes of spotting The
elusive Jaguar wildlife photographer
Jason Miller finally put the cat in
catch CNN affiliate kgun 9's Ryan fish
has more
a Jaguar seemingly posing for the camera
this one has never been photographed in
the US before that's mindblowing I
couldn't believe it I still can't
believe it a need on Hay Stack it's a
holy grail for me it's a moment Jason's
been chasing for years why a Jaguar why
was that your goal well when I got into
trail cameras it was a few years after
that uh I think it was L Hefe was in the
sanoras who wouldn't want to try to get
you know a jaguar on on camera Jason
named this one coach
Arizona Game and Fish says it's only the
eighth unique Jaguar spotted in the US
since the 9s the first since 2016 the
Exotic big cats are known to move
between Arizona and Sonora Mexico you
can't do anything to an endangered
species you can't hunt it obviously kill
it or harass it in any way you really
can't track it and that's why the trail
camera technology is so valuable they're
being seen in their natural environment
moving about normally congratulations to
Jason Miller he worked really hard to
get that those images and he's provided
us with the information we need to
protect it though Jason's been sharing
his footage online long before this
Milestone you know my wife and my
daughter can't wait you know to see what
I get when I come home there's people
out there I get the smile on their face
like I do when I check my cameras
especially you know people that can't go
out there and do it well done Jason
you're a great Roar model being
dedicated to your goal and persisting in
your Pursuits you must have been feline
so proud hey why did the Jaguar refuse
to play poker anymore cuz all the other
players were cheetahs all right shout
out time now this shout out is going to
the felines at meadowbridge High School
in meadowbridge West Virginia we see you
wild cats and this shout out goes to the
Warriors at Cap Middle School in Oahu
Hawaii Aloha I'm KY wire and we are CNN
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