thing every year so sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don t. coming up, we ll have the latest weather forecast with what you you can expect today during your celebrations. we re going to start with two u.s. cities responding to a series of mass shootings last night that left a combined eight people dead in fort worth, texas then in philadelphia. in fort worth, three are dead and more than a dozen injured after two separate shootings. while in philadelphia, a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with an ar type rifle killed five people and injured two. a toddler and a 13-year-old boy. at least one man is now in custody and officials there are set to give a press conference at the top of the next hour. we ll cover that for you live. in a statement, president biden responded to the violence writing quote, today, jill and i grieve for those who have lost their lives and as our nation celebrates independence day, we pray for the day when our communities will be fre
the german shipping line hapag lloyd has said in the last couple of hours that it will continue to avoid the area for at least another week. it made the decision after another ship belonging to its rival maersk was attacked over the weekend. in that attack, houthi rebels based in yemen hit the ship with a missile and tried to climb aboard before the us navy intervened and sank the rebels four boats killing the crew in the process. the us military says there have been at least 23 attacks since mid november on a route that acconts for about 12% of global trade and which is now being avoided by several of the world s biggest shipping companies. let s unpack the latest on this with peter sand, chief analyst at the shipping analytics platform xeneta. thanks forjoining us. does this latest development suggests tha things are getting worse rather than better? you are hitting the nail on the head. we can see that from the direct developments on the platform where an essential
Readings on sunday that revealed factory activity contracted in decemberfor a third straight month. it comes as chinese top leaders pledged to adjust policy at the end of last year to support an economic recovery in 2024, while markets and investors are waiting for more stimulus measures to be rolled out. let s check in on the markets. here in europe it s theirfirst trading day of 2024. mostly in the red although the dax is fat as a plain cake. flat. investors looking nervously at what s happening in the red sea. there s also new data from the manufacturing sectors of the uk, eurozone and china showing a slowdown in factory activity in december. stay in touch with the @bbcbusiness team and me on social media.
Joining me now is nbc news correspondent, ali vitali and christina greer, political analyst at the grio. ali, going to start with you on this. how are democrats using this issue right now? so early as you know. very, very well in the race for 2024. mostly for fund raising? for fund raising and frankly they re preparing so this it s fertile soil going forward. we know abortion was such a boone to democrats when in theory, the landscape should have been unfavorable to them. especially in red states, they were able to hold on to key seats that showed them what the power of leveraging this issue could look like. now in talking to the head of the democratic senate campaign arm, gary peters is aware of the