Geoff Bennett:
In the day’s other headlines: The monthly jobs report today indicates that hiring is continuing at a strong pace.
U.S. employers added 353,000 jobs last month, double what many expected. The unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent. And the latest report found that 3.1 million new jobs were created last year, making it among the best years for job growth since 1999.
A federal judge in Washington has postponed former President Donald Trump’s March trial on charges he sought to overturn the 2020 election. No new date has been set. That comes as a federal appeals court has yet to rule on a pending appeal for Mr. Trump over his claims of presidential immunity.
Meantime, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis admitted in a court filing to having a personal relationship with a special prosecutor she hired for Mr. Trump’s Georgia election fraud case. Willis insists there’s no basis to dismiss the case or disqualify her from the prosecution.
California is bracing for a second atmospheric river storm to dump more rain and snow across that state. It’s expected to arrive late Saturday fueled by a band of moisture formed over the Pacific Ocean. It comes on the heels of the week’s first powerful storm that flooded streets and highways in Long Beach, with first responders rescuing people stranded in the floodwater.
A Ukrainian intelligence official says Russia is refusing to return the bodies of scores of Ukrainian prisoners of war who allegedly died in a plane crash. Moscow claims it was transporting them on a military aircraft last month when Ukraine shot it down, which Kyiv denies. Meantime, at The Hague, the U.N.’s top court said it has jurisdiction to rule on only part of Ukraine’s genocide case against Russia.
In Kenya, a truck carrying liquid petroleum gas exploded overnight in Nairobi, killing at least three people and injuring 280; 24 of those are said to be in critical condition. Cell phone video caught a fireball erupting from a gas depot late last night. Gas cylinders were thrown into the air, sparking more fires in that neighborhood. Firefighters battled the inferno for hours.
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