Monday morning news: January 1, 2024

Navy sinks Houthi boats » Over the waters of the Red Sea on Sunday, U.S. attack helicopters opened fire on Houthi Rebels in attack boats as the militants launched another assault on a commercial cargo ship.

U.S. forces sank three of the four Houthi speed boats, killing all assailants on board.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels operate out of Yemen. And GOP Congressman Mike Turner says sooner or later, the Biden administration will have to turn its attention there.

TURNER: In order to be able to address this, they’re going to have to look at operations into Yemen where the capabilities are, where Iran continues to reload them as they continue to attack commercial shipping areas and put at risk US military.

The USS Gravely and helicopters from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier responded to the cargo ship’s distress call and issued verbal warnings to the attackers, who responded by firing on the helicopters.

Amid a hail of return fire, one of the four attack boats fled and escaped.

NETANYUAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

Israel » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war to eradicate Iran-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza will last for—quote—“many months.”

NETANYUAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

In a press conference over the weekend, he vowed that Israel will “continue to fight until all the objectives of the war are achieved.”

He has firmly rejected calls by some to end the war amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza where Hamas terrorists hide among civilians.

Border talks » In south Texas, Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez says House Speaker Mike Johnson and other lawmakers will travel to his district along the border on Wednesday where they’ll hear from local officials about the border crisis.

GONZALES: Hosting Speaker Johnson next week is very critical to getting House Republicans on board. I’m expecting at least 60 of my Republican colleagues to join us on that visit.

That comes as lawmakers continue talks over legislation to tackle the problem.

Record month at border » And it looks like migrant traffic at the border will shatter yet another record.

CBS News reports that when the official December numbers are released, they’ll reveal more than 300,000 migrants processed at the southern border.

That would break the record high for a single month set just three months earlier in September with 270,000 migrant encounters.

Trump immunity » Special counsel Jack Smith is urging a federal appeals court to deny former President Donald Trump’s claim to presidential immunity in a case accusing him of interfering in the 2020 election.

Smith filed a document over the weekend arguing that Trump claiming immunity from prosecution “would be particularly dangerous” to US democracy.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said of the case:

GRAHAM: I think there are more legal issues around this than you can even imagine about what can a president do as president? What are the limitations of being president?

And he told CBS’ Face the Nation that for that reason he does not believe this case will go to trial before this year’s presidential election.

New Year’s resolutions » Well, it’s New Year’s Day, and that of course means New Year’s resolutions for many including this New York resident:

NY Resident: The usual, lose weight, drink less, you know, exercise more.

But numerous studies show that most Americans give up on their resolutions by the first day of spring.

Experts say around the new year, people tend to set lofty goals and eventually get disheartened. Psychologist Omid Fotuhi says you don’t want goals to feel intimidating.

FOTUHI: Goals are only there to serve a function — to get you started. And if they don’t do that, maybe that’s not the appropriate goal for you.

And Dr. BJ Fogg with Stanford University says rather than focusing on huge goals, create new daily “tiny” habits — small enough to easily maintain … and then build on them gradually.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: victims of the opioids epidemic take their case to the Supreme Court on Legal Docket. Plus, The Monday Moneybeat.

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