red sea as the risk to u.s. troops grows by the day. the u.s. navy helicopters destroy three iranian-backed houthi boats after they attacked yet another shipping vessel sunday. this marks the latest of roughly two dozen houthi attacks on international shipping since november. the u.s. navy because the ongoing assaults reckless, but says there are no signs of them slowing down. happy new year, and welcome to a special edition of fox news live. i m rich edson in new york. and i m anita vogel in los angeles. happy new year to you. the white house says the u.s. was acting in self-defense when it fired upon those houthi-operated boats. they say it s an all out effort aimed at preventing a wider war, that critics warn it is not the time to be on defense. this idea that we are just going to play defense, waste all our missiles, which is the benefit of the chinese and iranians, let the houthis fire at will not stop without any consequence, that s got to and now. anita: retire