The War Room: Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky says Russian forces north of Kyiv are gradually pulling out. The Pentagon cautions that the Russians might just be regrouping and turning their full focus to taking the east of Ukraine.

  Ukrainian forces are reported to be attacking the Russians even as they retreat. The government is declining to confirm whether it was Ukrainian helicopters that attacked an oil storage depot over the border in Belgorod, Russia.

  Zelensky mysteriously has stripped two generals in the security service of their ranks and called them traitors. He also said there would be consequences for Ukrainians who help the invading Russians. “There will be problems for cooperation with them or with the occupiers directly,” he said.

  As emergency workers sift through the rubble, the death toll from a Russian missile strike on a government building in the southern city of Mykolaiv this week has risen to 33.

  And today Ukraine says three Russian missiles have struck near the port city of Odessa, signaling that it’s another major target for the invasion.

  A Red Cross mission to evacuate the southern port city of Mariupol stalled yesterday when the agency decided it was too dangerous to proceed. An estimated 100,000 people are trapped in the destroyed city without food, water, power, and heat.  The International Committee of the Red Cross said it would try to reach Mariupol again over the weekend. 

Space War: An American astronaut returned to Earth this week along with two Russians on a Russian spacecraft. But Russia now says it’s ending cooperation with the International Space Station program. The head of their space agency in a post on the Telegram social media app blamed sanctions imposed on Russia and said his agency, Roscosmos, would no longer cooperate with NASA or the European Space Agency.

Econ 101: The US economy added 431,000 jobs last month, a healthy figure, and the unemployment rate dropped from 3.8 to 3.6 percent.

  The government also says the economy added 95,000 more jobs in January and February than previously thought.

  Among the industries with large gains in jobs were leisure and hospitality (112,000), retailing (49,000) and manufacturing (38,000).

  President Biden took the opportunity of the announcement to make a political speech touting his economic accomplishments, saying, “Over the course of my presidency, our recovery has now created 7.9 million jobs, more jobs created over the first 14 months of any presidency in any term ever.”

   Despite that, Biden is fighting inflation and high gasoline prices that hurt his approval ratings. Trying to overcome that, the President spoke of the success of his American Rescue Plan and “record job creation, record unemployment decline, record wage gains.”

Labor Delivers: Workers at a facility on Staten island have become the first Amazon employees to unionize. The Amazon Labor Union won a vote among nearly 5,000 votes cast by a margin of about 10 percent.

  They still have to ratify a contract.

  An Amazon statement said, “We’re disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees.”

  The ALU is the creation of an Amazon employee, Chris Smalls, who was fired during the pandemic when he expressed concern about a fellow worker who was ill. The work at the warehouse is reported to be grueling and there’s high turnover among employees. Smalls said, “We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going to space, because when he was up there, we were signing people up.”

Bowing Out: Actor Will Smith, who won Best Actor at the Oscars last Sunday after smacking presenter Chris Rock on stage, says he has resigned from the Motion Picture Academy and will accept other consequences for his actions.

  Smith said in a statement,  “My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable.” He went on,  “I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken.” 

The Spin Rack: The Navy says it will name a fuel ship after the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. — Former President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner provided “helpful” information to the House panel investigating the January 6th insurrection during a remote interview Thursday, a member of the panel said. — A 72-year-old Alabama man who brought a “small armory” of guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails to the Capitol riot was sentenced to almost four years in prison, one of the stiffest sentences handed down so far in the incident.

The Next Pundit: Axios reports that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki plans to leave the job this spring and is negotiating for a spot with MSNBC. National Public Radio says they’ve confirmed it.

  Psaki is a little serious, but she’s done an excellent job dealing with the contentious White House press corps, particularly the jerks from Fox News. Maybe we’ll get to see what her smile looks like on MSNBC.

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